Voltaire - Abbé & Abraham

I love Voltaire's sarcasm and wit. This is the first of many entries on Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, translated by Peter Gay. Just a sample of his sarcasm comes in his Preface to the Seventh Edition: "This book will be read by enlightened persons alone, the common herd are not made for such knowledge, philosophy will never be their portion. Those who say there are truths that should be hidden from the people need not feel any alarm; the common people do not read; they work six days a week and go to the tavern on the seventh" (Voltaire, 56). I have read this volume before, though I don't know how fully so there may be some posts in other journals that will be added here duplicating these. But, that is ok for me - sorry, if it bores the readers, of which I am sure there are only a few enlightened ones.

Abbé

Voltaire notes the distinction between a father (Abbé means father) and a Father of some group of monks. A father does a work for the state; he does the best thing a man can do - causing the birth of a human being. But a Father of some Abby has become a perverse office. In the beginning they were poor men leading other poor men. Now they are corrupt and rich. Sarcastically, he encourages them to enrich themselves to the fullest at the downfall of the common man. But, he warns them to tremble, "lest the day of reason arrive" (Voltaire, 58).

Abraham

The post on Abraham is a scathing, anti-Semitic rant. But in some of the shrillness of the article he poses some difficulties for Christians to tend with. First, he brings up the age question of Abraham. The ages of the Old Testament patriarchs are definitely difficult to deal with for the believer. The second point of difficulty he brings up is the fact that Abraham passed his wife off as his sister to the king of Egypt and the king in the desert. While Voltaire attacks this from numerous angles, the angle I'm most concerned with is the moral aspect. If Abraham is the father of the Jews and through spiritual descent the father of Christians everywhere are we to absolve Abraham of this lie? What are we to do with it? I haven't answers at the moment, but it is a question to be asked.

Now his attack on why we give credit to the Jews rather than the more ancient established cultures like that of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Phoenicia is much easier for me to understand. He claims that "The Jews, then, treat their history and ancient fables as their peddlers treat their old clothes: they turn them and sell them for new as dearly as possible" (Voltaire, 61). Firstly, that shows some of Voltaire's racist tendencies towards the Jews, earlier he speaks of the Jews as "our masters and our enemies, whom we believe in and detest" (Voltaire, 58). But, the sum of his argument is that the Israelites were relative newcomers on the scene in the Ancient Near East, surrounded by powerful and more ancient civilizations like the aforementioned societies. Why then do we give credit to the Jews and not these others? He claims that the name Abraham or Ibrahim, comes from Babylonians and that the Jews gave names to God such as Eloi, Eloa, Adonai, and Jehovah after the Phoenician usage. I'll disregard his skepticism about the historicity of Abraham at this point. Just because the journey of Abraham seems to difficult to have been done is not a valid argument for it not having been undertaken. (The age question still persists though). But, as for language it is only natural that languages adopt from their neighbors. Also, on a more fundamental level the commonality of language and religion throughout the region (and really throughout the world) often leads those skeptical of the existence of God, or of organized religion to point out that the similarities between the religions automatically show that religion is man-made, hence the similarities. But, a counter point to this is that the similarities of religious sentiment could also point to the fact that there is a truth behind all of these religions and some of the closeness of religion throughout the world is actually a testament to the existence of God, or the event of the flood, or other shared "fables" across world religions. He ends this article with an elevation of the Greeks above the Jews. "A man must be either a great ignoramus or a great rascal to say that the Jews taught the Greeks" (Voltaire, 62). Even in the Greek philosophy, which is highly sophisticated we can weave it in to this commonality theory. Not, so much a commonality theory as a divine plan theory. To some God gave a similar vein of religion to pave the way for the human understanding and eventual acceptance of Him. To some he gave Philosophy to pave the path for understanding Him. To others he gave some ineffable, mystical experience. To all he gave a general revelation. To the Jews he gave the Chosen revelation. And through the Jews he gave Christ and at that moment all the other paths were the framework for which Christ could be understood culturally. The other paths were not paths to salvation, but paths to the one way to salvation.