§ 40: Thus enlightened with regard to their own unrecognized treasures, they returned and became an entirely different people, whose first concern was to make this enlightenment permanent among themselves. Soon, apostasy and idolatry among them was out of the question. For it is possible to be unfaithful to a national god, but never to God once he has been recognized.
§ 41: The theologians have sought to explain this complete change in the Jewish people in various ways; and one of them, who has well demonstrated the inadequacy of all these various explanations, finally concluded that the true cause of the change was "the apparent fulfillment of the oral and written prophecies concerning the Babylonian captivity and the release from it.” But even this reason can be the true one only insofar as it implies the, by now, newly refined conception of God. The Jews must only now have recognized that [the power] to perform miracles and prophesy the future is accorded to God alone, whereas they had formerly ascribed both of these powers to false gods, which is why even miracles and prophecies had hitherto made such a weak and fleeting impression upon them.
§ 42: Doubtless, the Jews became more familiar with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul under the Chaldeans and Persians. They became more familiar with it in the schools of the Greek philosophers in Egypt.
§ 43: But as this doctrine of immortality did not have the same relevance to their sacred writings as the doctrine of the unity and attributes of God, since the former had been crudely overlooked by this sensual people, whereas the latter would be sought after, and since the doctrine of immortality still required preparatory exercises, whereas only allusions and hints had been given as yet, belief in the immortality of the soul could naturally never become the belief of the entire people. It was, and remained, the belief of only a certain sect among them.
§ 44: An example of what I call preparatory exercises for the doctrine of immortality might be the divine threat to inflict the sins of the fathers on the children down to the third and fourth generation. This accustomed the fathers to be mindful of their most distant descendants, and to feel in advance, the misfortune that they had brought upon these guiltless ones.
§ 45: An example of what I call an allusion might be something that was intended only to excite curiosity and to occasion questions, such as the frequently reiterated phrase to describe death: "to be gathered to his fathers."
§ 46: An example of what I call a hint might be something that already contains some germ from which the truth, still withheld, may develop. Christ’s inference from the naming of God as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” is one such example. To me, this hint certainly seems capable of being developed into a strong proof.
§ 47: The positive perfection of a primer consists of such preparatory exercises, and allusions; just as the negative perfection consists of the aforementioned quality of not blocking or making more difficult the path to those truths which are still withheld.
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