Metodología experimental

on Their Neighbours for This Simple Reason

The commonality of religion is the greatest bond and most tenacious tie that keeps humanity united.¹⁸⁹Even that heathen said “life is upheld by religion.”¹⁹⁰ And the most learned and most eloquent Jew Philo wrote: “The chain which binds indissolubly the goodwill which makes us one is to honour the one God.”¹⁹¹This does not mean that for this reason the Jews consider all those outside of the observance of their rites or [outside of] assent to their particular beliefs thence completely free and unbound in terms of any obligation to humanity or reciprocal amity. For they believe that there are different degrees of connections among men. To the same extent, [they also be-lieve] that within one nation the obligations of compassion must be [52r] subordinat-ed among them: the love of self obtains first place, followsubordinat-ed by blood ties, and lastly by the amity between citizens. They therefore believe that foreigners and aliens be-longing to a different religion share the common ground of humanity that hence binds them to observing the precepts of natural morality and to having some cogni-tion of a superior cause. To prove this, I have collected some arguments that will probably demonstrate it first-hand.

First, I do not find in the Scripture that God ever commanded the Jews to en-deavour or strive to force their own beliefs onto the souls of their neighbouring peoples in order to introduce their specific rites. Yet He ordered and commanded them to instruct these people in some general beliefs such as His omnipotence, wisdom, grandeur, clemency, and justice. Hence, in chapter 10, Jeremiah advises the people captive in Babylon to inform those Gentiles in the Chaldean language:

“Thus shall ye say unto them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under this heaven.’ He that hath made the earth by His power establishes the world by His wisdom, and stretches out the heavens by His understanding,”¹⁹²etc. Therefore, He did not want them to describe the prodi-gies and miracles that occurred in Egypt, nor the liberation of the people, nor the crossing of the sea with the subsequent drowning, nor the great magnificence and commotion of nature, [52v] nor the promulgation of the Law. Instead, they [i.e.,

189 See Bacon, Essayes, III, “Of Unity in Religion,” 11: “Religion being the chiefe Band of Humane Society.”

190 According to Lattes (Ma’amar, 163 n. 87), Luzzatto is probably quoting Pliny, Natural History XIV:23,119.

191 Philo, On the Special Laws I:52.

192 Hebrew:,אימש תוחת-ןמו אעראמ ודבאי ;ודבע אל אקראו אימש-יד ,איהלא ,םוהל ןורמאת ,הנדכ

debbano convincere la essistenza d’Iddio, e sua providenza dagli effetti ordinarii della sua omnipresenza dal moto de cieli, dalla produtione degli enti, e dell’unani-me corrispondenza di tutte le cose insiedell’unani-me.

Et in altro loco dice il Salmista confitemini Domino, et invocate nomen eius, an-nuntiate inter gentes opera eius,³⁶cioè che si deve narrare, e propalare l’operationi d’Iddio, e gli effetti della sua giustitia, anzi in altro loco in quanto a riti spetiali, nel Salmo 147 Qui annuntiat verbum suum Iacob: iustitias et iuditia sua Israel. Non fecit taliter omni nationi: et iudicia sua non manifestavit eis.³⁷E così concesse che la carne morticina prohibita agli Hebrei la dassero, et esponessero al pelegrino gentile, come nel Deuteronomio capitolo 14. E Malachia nel capitolo 1, ab ortu enim solis, usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificatur, et offertur nomini meo oblatio munda quia magnum est nomen meum in gentibus dicit Dominus exercituum.³⁸volendo alludere, ch’in certo modo Iddio in quel tempo resta-va sodisfatto, et appagato di quella simplicità, et adombrata cognitione che teniresta-va la gentilità d’una principal causa che assistesse al regimento del mondo. E quando Naomi fece regresso alla patria, facendo rissolutione Ruth sua nuora seguitandola di convertirsi alla religione hebrea, non solo non fu dalla suocera corroborata, e confermata in tal pensiero, ma piuttosto persuasa a ritornare nel primo [53r] stato e conditione, cum dixit Neomi, et reversa est cognata tua ad populum suum, et ad Deos suos vade cum ea.³⁹

Né mai si trova che nel tempo passato fosse somerssa alcuna città de gentili per l’inosservanza de riti hebraici, e particolare incredulità, ma solo per non eseguire li impulsi naturali della ragione, e dell’humanità. Gli Pentapoli furono sovertitti, et arsi per la loro obs[c]enità, inhospitalità, et ingiustitia. In occasione del diluvio fa mentione la Scrittura solamente della corrutione carnale et iniqua rapacità, et estor-sione. E gli Nineviti gentili, quando fecero penitenza non si convertirno alla religio-ne hebrea, ma cessorno dall’estorsioni ladroreligio-neci, e fraudi, restando gentili come prima. E seppure fu ripreso

36 Psalmi 104:1: “Alleluja. Confitemini Domino, et invocate nomen ejus; annuntiate inter gentes opera ejus.”

37 Psalmi 147:8–9: “Qui annuntiat verbum suum Iacob, justitias et judicia sua Israël. Non fecit taliter omni nationi et iudicia sua non manifestavit eis. Alleluja.”

38 Malachias 1:11: “Ab ortu enim solis usque ad occasum, magnum est nomen meum in gentibus, et in omni loco sacrificatur: et offertur nomini meo oblatio munda, quia magnum nomen meum in gentibus, dicit Dominus exercituum.”

39 Ruth 1:15: “Cui dixit Noëmi: En reversa est cognata tua ad populum suum, et ad deos suos, vade cum ea.”

the Jews] should convince them [i.e., the heathens] of the existence of God and His providence through the ordinary manifestations of his omnipotence, the movements of the heavens, the creation of beings, and the concordant correspondence of all things together.

In another passage, the Psalmist says: “O have faith in the Lord, call upon His name; make known His doings among the peoples,”¹⁹³ meaning that they should narrate and explain the activities of God and the effects of His justice. In another section, concerning specific rites in Psalm 147 [it is said]: “He declareth His word unto Jacob, His justice and His ordinances unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and He did not reveal them His ordinances.”¹⁹⁴In the same way, the Scripture concedes that dead meat, prohibited to the Jews, should be given and offered to a Gentile stranger, as [it is said] in Deuteronomy 14.¹⁹⁵And Malachi writes in chapter 1:

“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name is great among the nations; and in every place sacrifices are made and pure oblations are presented unto My name; for My name is great among the nations, saith the Lord of hosts.”¹⁹⁶By this, he wants to suggest that in a certain way, God remained satisfied or content at that time with the Gentiles’ acquaintance with the prime cause of the government of the world. And when Naomi returned to her country, Ruth, her daughter-in-law who was following her, resolved to convert to the Jewish religion.

Not only was Ruth not supported and encouraged by her mother-in-law, but rather she persuaded her to return to her first [53r] state and condition: “And Naomi said:

‘Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law to her gods.’”¹⁹⁷

Nowhere [in the Scripture] is it written that in the past any city of the Gentiles was flooded for not observing the Jewish rites or for any specific disbelief, but only for not following the natural impulses of reason and humanity.¹⁹⁸The Pentapolis was overturned and burnt down because of the people’s obscenity, inhospitality, and injustice. At the time of the flood, the Scripture only mentions carnal corruption and wicked rapacity and extortion.¹⁹⁹The Gentiles of Nineveh, when they did pen-ance, did not convert to the Jewish religion. Instead, they ceased from their larce-ny,²⁰⁰extortion, and fraud, remaining Gentiles as before.²⁰¹And if any nation was

193 Psalms 105:1. Hebrew:ויתולילע,םימעבועידוה;ומשבוארק,הוהילודוה.

198 On the “actuality” of the biblical argument for destroying people in the name of religious rites and customs, see Veltri, Renaissance Philosophy, 174 ff.

199 Genesis 6:11–13.

200 Here Luzzatto uses the word “ladronecio,” taken from the Venetian dialect, meaning theft.

201 Jonah 3:6–10.

e castigato alcuna natione per il culto fu per l’iniquo uso agiontovi, come di sacrifi-care gli huomini, et immolare gli proprii figliuoli. Et Amos pronosticando la ruina, et eccidio di molti popoli, riducendo gli loro peccati al numero ternario, invehisce, e declama contra gli etnici damaschini, aziti, tirii, idumei, amoniti, e moabiti, de delitti, e transgressioni solamente commesse contra l’humana equità, e buona mo-ralità ma dopo esagerando contra Giudei specifica peccati di lesa religione et om-missioni de precetti della Legge. Et Iosuè dopo l’acquisto di Terra Santa pose di nuovo il popolo in libertà, e proprio arbitrio di confermarsi [53v] nell’ave|nire, e mantenersi nella Legge mosaica, overo per non incorrere nelle pene in essa conte-nute rifiutarla, e liberarsene affatto, senza di ciò portarne alcun castigo, e come in altro loco ne son per trattare.

Onde se al popolo hebreo benché aveva di già accettata la Legge, tutta volta Iosuè lo dispensava dalle pene, tanto più stimano gli Hebrei, essere assoluti gli altri popoli, che giamai s’obligarono all’ubbidienza di lei, mentre però ch’osservano quell’a loro appartiene come ho detto. Et Ezechiel al capitolo 20 neque cogitatio mentis vestrae fiet dicentium erimus sicut gentes, et sicut cognationes terrae, ut cole-mus ligna, et lapides: ego dicit Dominus Deus, quoniam in manu forti regnabo super vos,⁴⁰in tal maniera ragionò al popolo, perché molte volte si sono sottoposti volon-tariamente alla Legge, e stipulata promessa per se stessi e loro posterità, non essen-do perciò in loro arbitrio liberarsene. Et in simil senso parlò anco il profeta Amos al capitolo 3 Audite verbum quod locutus est Dominus super vos filii Israel, super omnem cognationem quam eduxi de terra Ægypti, dicens tantummodo cognovi ex omnibus cognationibus terrae. Idcirco visitabo super vos omnes iniquitates vestras,⁴¹che con-forme gli espositori Rabbi Salomon, e David Chimchì principalissimi appresso la natione, significa ch’havendo il popolo volontariamente recevuto sopra di sé, e suoi posteri l’osservanza della Legge a

40 Ezechiel 20:31–33: “Neque cogitatio mentis vestrae fiet dicentium erimus sicut gentes et sicut cognationes terrae ut colamus ligna et lapides | vivo ego dicit Dominus Deus quoniam in manu forti et brachio extento et in furore effuso regnabo super vos.”

41 Amos 3:1–2: “Audite verbum quod locutus est Dominus super vos filii Israhel super omni cogna-tione quam eduxi de terra Aegypti dicens | tantummodo vos cognovi ex omnibus cognationibus terrae idcirco visitabo super vos omnes iniquitates vestra.”

ever rebuked and castigated for its cult, it was for iniquities added to it [i.e., this cult] such as sacrificing humans and burning their own sons. Amos, predicting the ruin and destruction of many peoples, reduced their sins to three. Accordingly, he inveighed and declaimed against the heathens of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Idumea, Amon, and Moab and accused them of crimes and transgressions committed against human equity and morality.²⁰² Afterwards, however, with some exaggeration against the Jews,²⁰³ he became very specific and referred explicitly to injuries to religion and neglect of the precepts of the Mosaic Law.²⁰⁴Joshua, after the acquisi-tion of the Holy Land, returned to the people the free choice to confirm their alle-giance to Mosaic Law [53v] in the future and to stay within its bonds or to reject it in order to avoid the penalties it inflicts. As I will explain elsewhere, he allowed them to be entirely set free from it, without incurring any punishment.²⁰⁵

Therefore, if Joshua absolved the Jewish people from the penalty, although they had already accepted the Law, the Jews would have all the more reason to consider other people who had never committed themselves to obeying the Law to be ab-solved. Meanwhile, they had to observe that which pertains to them, as I have said.

Ezekiel says in chapter 20: “And that which cometh into your mind shall not be of those who say: We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. I, saith the Lord God, since will be king over you with a mighty hand.”²⁰⁶He spoke to the people in such a manner because they had often voluntar-ily submitted themselves to the Law and to the promise they had made for them-selves and their descendants. Hence, it was not in their power to free themthem-selves from it. And in a similar sense, the prophet Amos spoke in chapter 3: “Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken upon you, O children of Israel, upon the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying: You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.”²⁰⁷According to the commentators Rabbi Solomon²⁰⁸ and David Kimḥi,²⁰⁹who are among the most outstanding commentators on the Law, this means that the people voluntarily accepted the observance of the Law for themselves and their descendants at the

202 Amos 1:3–5 (Damascus), 6–7 (Gaza), 9–10 (Tyre), 11 (Idumea), 13–15 (Ammon), 2:1–3 (Moab).

203 Luzzatto is conscious of the Christian traditions against the Jews, which often emphasise that the prophets condemned them because of their sins against the Law. Therefore, he is speaking of the exaggerations made by the prophet Amos.

204 Amos 2:6 ff.

tempo di Moisè, et [54r] Io|suè, perciò Iddio, n’era particolar esatore, et accurato riscuotitore delle pene che per le delinquenze sue era debitore, quello che non ese-guiva con gli altri popoli gentili, et etnici, essendo con essi connivente et indulgen-te, perch’è ragionevole conforme la regola de legisti, secundum naturam est commo-da cuiuscumque rei cum sequi, quem sequuntur incommocommo-da.

E cosí per il converso Hitro gentile essendo venuto a visitar suo genero Moisè nel deserto dopo la liberatione del popolo e miracoli seguiti in Egitto, disse confor-me il testo hebraico, Nunc cognovi maiorem esse Dominum omnibus Diis⁴², confessò la maggioranza, ma non negò assolutamente la essistenza degli altri minori sue machinate deità, conforme alli Romani che si fingevano certa loro gierarchia di maggiori, e minori dei. Ma il Salmista con più sensata e corretta maniera disse, magnus est Dominus super omnes Deos,⁴³altro è il dire l’imperatore è maggiore di qualunque re, overo che possiede sopra essi superiorità. E Naaman nel convertirsi che fece a Iddio per la rissanatione della sua infettione, procurò dal profeta certa dispensatione che li fusse lecito essendo in compagnia del re inginochiarsi agli ido-li, pattegiando una tal transatione in fatto de religione, che non sarebbe stato con-cesso all’Hebreo di già obligato di pontuale osservatione a tutti li riti della Legge.

Anzi per sigillare questo proposito voglio [54v] ad|dure un loco del Deuterono-mio capitolo 33 che espressamente dimostra ch’Iddio sebbene favorì il popolo he-breo, con tutto ciò nell’istesso tempo della promulgatione della Legge, non odiava gli altri popoli a quali non fu comunicata, ma tuttavia gli amava, ove nell’ultima beneditione di Moisè dopo aver descritto tal legislatione, soggionge conforme l’he-braico, approbato dal Burgensis, Etiam dilexit populos, omnes sancti eius in manibus tuis, et ipsi appropinquantur pedibus tuis, legem praecepit nobis Moises, etc.⁴⁴ inten-dendo per populos gli gentili, privi della Legge Mosaica che narrò nel verso antece-dente esser stata comunicata all’hebreo. Segue la Scrittura dicendo è ben vero nono-stante tal amore,

42 Exodus 18:11: “Nunc cognovi, quia magnus Dominus super omnes deos: eo quod superbe ege-rint contra illos.”

43 Psalmi 94:3: “Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos.”

44 Deuteronomium 33: 3–4: “Dilexit populos omnes sancti in manu illius sunt: et qui adpropin-quant pedibus ejus accipient, de doctrina illius. Legem præcepit nobis Moyses.”

time of Moses and [54r] Joshua.²¹⁰ Therefore, God is the special exacter of it and the careful collector of the penalties they owed Him due to their sins. He did not apply this to other Gentile and heathen peoples. Instead, He was acquiescent and indulgent with them, because it is reasonable according to the rule of the legisla-tors: “It is natural that he who bears the charge of a thing should receive the advan-tage.”²¹¹

Thus, in the converse manner, when Jethro, who was a Gentile, came to visit his son-in-law Moses in the desert after the liberation of the people and the miracles that occurred in Egypt, he said, according to the Hebrew text: “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.”²¹²He acknowledged the superiority of God, but did not absolutely deny the existence of lesser and imagined gods, similarly to the Ro-mans who imagined a hierarchy of greater and lesser gods as if they were real.

However, the Psalmist, in a more sensible and correct manner, said: “The Lord is a great God above all gods.”²¹³To say that the emperor is greater than any other king is different to [saying] that he possesses superiority over them. Naaman, after his conversion to God because his disease had been cured, procured from the Prophet certain dispensations, namely the permission to kneel to the idols while he was in the company of the king.²¹⁴In fact, [he succeeded] in bargaining for this compro-mise in matters of religion that would not be granted to any Jew already bound to the exact observance of all the rites of the Law.

Moreover, to close this investigation I wish [54v] to cite a passage from Deuter-onomy chapter 33. It clearly demonstrates that although God favoured the Jewish people, nevertheless at the time of the promulgation of the Law, He did not shun the other peoples to whom it was not communicated.²¹⁵On the contrary, He loved them. In the last blessing of Moses, after the description of the Law, he added, according to the Hebrew, approved by Burgensis:²¹⁶“Yes, He loveth the peoples, all His holy ones – they are in Thy hand; and they sit down at Thy feet. Moses command-ed us a Law etc.”²¹⁷By peoples, he is referring to the Gentiles outside of the Mosaic Law, which he had mentioned in the previous verse as it was communicated to the Jews. The Scripture then continues, stating that in truth, notwithstanding the love

210 For the sources of Rashi and Kimḥi, see Lattes, Ma’amar, 163 n. 97.

211 Julius Paulus, Digesta L:17,10: “Secundum naturam est commoda cuiusque rei unum sequi, quem sequentur incommoda.”

212 Hebrew:םיהולאה-לכמהוהילודג-יכ,יתעדיהתע.

213 Psalms 95:3. Hebrew:םיהולא-לכ-לע,לודגךלמו;הוהילודגלאיכ. 214 2 Kings 5:17–18.

215 Luzzatto is not completely right, because Midrashic traditions relate that the Torah was com-municated to the seventy-two people of the world and they refused it. See Giuseppe Veltri, Libraries, Translations, and “Canonic” Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 96 for the sources.

216 Accordingly, see Lattes, Ma’amar, 100–101 n. 102. See glossary.

217 Hebrew:השמ,ונל-הוויצהרות.ךיתורבדמאשיי,ךלגרלוכותםהו;ךדיבוישודק-לכ,םימעבבוחףא.

che portò a popoli gentili, tuttavia li santi del popolo hebraico gli erano più prossimi e favoriti, usando la metafora delle mani, come il Salmista volendo dinotare la

che portò a popoli gentili, tuttavia li santi del popolo hebraico gli erano più prossimi e favoriti, usando la metafora delle mani, come il Salmista volendo dinotare la