Kitabı Mukaddes’in Hakikatinden Kitabı Mukaddes Hakkındaki Hakikate: Spinoza ve Kitabı Mukaddes Felsefesinin Sonu

Year 2025, Issue: 24, 187 - 203, 01.12.2025

Alber Erol Nahum

https://doi.org/10.55256/temasa.1777186

Abstract

Bu makalede Spinoza’nın Kitabı Mukaddes’e dayalı felsefe anlayışını temsil eden dinî geleneklerle hesaplaşması ve felsefe ile Kitabı Mukaddes’i birbirinden ayırma çabası ele alınmaktadır. Bu çerçevede Anlama Yetisinin Düzeltilmesi Üzerine İnceleme ile Teolojik-Politik İnceleme birlikte okunmaktadır. Buradan hareketle, Spinoza’yı felsefeye götüren yolun, gündelik hayatta genellikle kabul gören “iyi”lerin beyhudeliğinin fark edilmesinden doğan bir “gerçek iyi” arayışının yanı sıra, bazı Tevradî ve Farisî-Rabbanî izleklere yönelik özgün ve eleştirel bir sorgulamayı da içerdiği ileri sürülmektedir. Çalışmada, Spinoza’nın Tevrat’taki seçilmişlik öğretisinin Farisî-Rabbanî yorumuna yönelttiği eleştiri ve bu anlayışın kısmen benimsediği felsefî-alegorik tefsiri çürütme girişimi öne çıkarılmaktadır. Ayrıca, Spinoza’nın Kitabı Mukaddes’i Yeni Platoncu ve Aristotelesçi spekülasyonlara tâbi kılan teologlara karşı yürüttüğü polemik ayrıntılı biçimde incelenmektedir. Bu bağlamda makalenin ana savı, Spinoza’nın, felsefeyi Kitabı Mukaddes’in çarpıtılmasına dayalı teolojik baskılardan, Kitabı Mukaddes’i ise felsefe ve teolojinin vesayetinden kurtarmayı amaçlayan çifte bir özgürleşme projesi geliştirdiği düşüncesi etrafında şekillenmektedir. Böylece teolojik boyunduruktan kurtulan felsefe, geometrik bir kesinlikle, doğanın zorunlu düzenini açıklamayı ve insanları gerçek mutluluğa ulaştırmayı amaçlarken; spekülatif çarpıtmalardan arınan Kitabı Mukaddes, içerdiği adalet ve iyilikseverlik gibi evrensel ahlâk ilkeleri aracılığıyla tanrısallığına ve yararlılığına yeniden kavuşarak, otoritesini ve saygınlığını güçlendirmektedir. Sonuç olarak makalede, Spinoza’nın vahiy ile felsefeyi uzlaştırma girişimlerindeki içsel çelişkileri açığa çıkararak Kitabı Mukaddes’e dayalı felsefeye son verdiği; bunun yerine ontoloji temelli bir etik ile tarihsel-eleştirel metin çözümlemesine dayalı bir hermeneutik bilim kurduğu savunulmaktadır. Bu çifte özgürleşme, Spinoza’nın modern düşünce bağlamında en kalıcı katkılarından biri olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır.

Keywords

Spinoza , Felsefe , Kitabı Mukaddes , Teoloji , Tefsir

Supporting Institution

Galatasaray Üniversitesi Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Birimi (BAP)

Project Number

SBA-2024-1262

From Biblical Truth to the Truth About the Bible: Spinoza and the End of Scriptural Philosophy

Abstract

This article examines Spinoza’s confrontation with the religious traditions of scriptural philosophy and his effort to disentangle philosophy from biblical exegesis, and vice versa. By reading the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect alongside the Theological-Political Treatise, it argues that Spinoza’s path to philosophy arises primarily from a reflection on the “true good” through the recognition of the futility of certain aspects and conventional “goods” of ordinary life. At the same time, it is shaped by his original and critical engagement with biblical and Pharisaic-rabbinic themes. The study highlights his critique of Pharisaic-rabbinic exclusivism and its interpretation of the biblical doctrine of chosenness, his rejection of philosophical-allegorical exegesis, and his polemic against theologians who subordinate Scripture to Neoplatonic and Aristotelian speculation. Against these traditions, Spinoza advances what may be called a dual liberation. On one side, philosophy (freed from theological tutelage) claims geometric certainty in uncovering the necessary order of nature and in guiding human beings toward genuine happiness and blessedness. On the other, Scripture (released from speculative distortions) regains its divine character and usefulness, preserving its dignity and authority through the universal moral precepts of justice and charity. Ultimately, the article argues that Spinoza brings scriptural philosophy to an end by exposing the contradictions inherent in all attempts to reconcile revelation with philosophy, and by inaugurating a new philosophical project (an ethics grounded in ontology) together with a hermeneutic science founded on historical-critical exegesis. This dual liberation stands out as one of Spinoza’s most enduring contributions within the framework of modern thought.

Keywords

Spinoza , Philosophy , Scripture , Theology , Exegesis

Supporting Institution

Galatasaray University Scientific Research Projects Division (BAP)

Project Number

SBA-2024-1262

References

• Bensussan, Gérard. Qu’est-ce que la philosophie juive ? Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2003.
• Chalier, Catherine. “Le pouvoir révélant de la Bible juive” in Judaïsme et christianisme, l’écoute en partage, Edited by Catherine Chalier and Marc Faessler, 97-113. Paris: Cerf, 2001.
• ———. L’inspiration du philosophe.“L’amour de la sagesse” et sa source prophétique. Paris: Albin Michel, 1996.
• ———. Spinoza, lecteur de Maïmonide. La question théologico-politique. Paris: Cerf, 2006.
• Curley, Edwin. “Spinoza’s Biblical Scholarship” in Baruch de Spinoza, Theologisch-politischer Traktat, Edited by Otfried Höffe, 109-26. Berlin: De Gruyter Akademie Verlag, 2014.
• Deleuze, Gilles. Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza. Translated by Martin Joughin, New York: Zone Books, 1990.
• Guttmann, Julius. Philosophies of Judaism: The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz Rosenzweig. Translated by David W. Silverman, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1966.
• Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Translated by Michael Chase, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
• Harvey, Warren Zev. “Spinoza’s Counterfactual Zionism,” Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly 62, (2013): 235-44.
• Lévinas, Emmanuel. In the Time of the Nations. Translated by Michael B. Smith, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
• Lucas, Jean-Maximilien. The Oldest Biography of Spinoza (La Vie de Feu Monsieur Spinoza). London: Allen & Unwin, 1927.
• Maimonides, Moses. The Guide of the Perplexed. 2 vols. Translated by Shlomo Pines, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963.
• Matheron, Alexandre. Le Christ et le salut des ignorants Chez Spinoza. Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1971.
• Moreau, Pierre-François. Spinoza. État et religion. Lyon: ENS, 2005.
• Nadler, Steven. A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
• ———. Spinoza: A Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• ———. Spinoza’s Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004.
• Nahum, Alber Erol. “Les langues de Spinoza, les langues des Juifs et la 'langue Juive'” in Philosophical Remarks on City and Right to the City, Edited by M. Ertan Kardeş and Özgüç Güven, 95-113. Istanbul University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.26650/BS/AA23.2021.001-2.07
• Philo of Alexandria. On the Creation of the Cosmos According to Moses: Introduction, Translation and Commentary. Translated by David T. Runia, Leiden: Brill, 2001.
• Spinoza, Benedict de. Ethics Proved in Geometrical Order. Translated by Michael Silverthorne and Matthew J. Kisner, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• ———. Theological-Political Treatise. Translated by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Spinoza, Benedictus de. The Collected Works of Spinoza. Vol. I. Translated by Edwin Curley, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
• ———. The Collected Works of Spinoza. Vol. II. Translated by Edwin Curley, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.
• Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. Translated by Chaya Galai, New York: Basic Books, 1995.
• Strauss, Leo. “How to Study Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise” in Persecution and the Art of Writing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988.
• The Babylonian Talmud: The William Davidson Edition. Edited and translated by A. Steinsaltz, Sefaria.org, (01.09.2025), 2017. https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud
• Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. The Jewish Publication Society, (01.09.2025), 1985. Sefaria.org.https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Tanakh
• Wolfson, Harry Austryn. Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Vol. I, Structure and Growth of Philosophical Systems from Plato to Spinoza. 3rd rev. printing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.
• ———. “Philo Judaeus” in Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion, 60–70. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973.