In the commentary on Book XVIII of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, I describe a text deceptively prosaic in its phrasing and structure. At the center of that discussion I described Montesquieu's appropriation (vide: correction) of Herodotus in service of his subsequent demonstration of the claim that the advent of Christianity constituted the consummation of a fundamental political principle that superseded the principle of regime coherence and stability. I did not analyze the basis of that claim in the commentary, inasmuch as it was not central to the task I then undertook, which was only to show that a careful reading of Book XVIII revealed significant pointers indicating the overall thrust of Spirit of the Laws. It was apparent, however, that the argument concerning Herodotus implied a more fundamental analysis concerning the nature and course of universalism as fundamental political motive.

In this essay I seek to explore the ground of Montesquieu's discovery in principles and processes prior to the development of modem Europe, which, as Remi Brague argues, already manifests completely the evidence of cultural Romanity (which is how he defines the relevant universalism). The thesis of this essay is that the secular acknowledgment of the authority of Yahweh by Persia's King Cyrus constituted the decisive moment that launched the world-historical discovery or invention of humanity and its corollary, progressivism. The moment arrived in the sixth century BC. Herodotus was born and wrote in the fifth century BC. The Septuagint was created in the third or fourth century BC. In other words, from the moment of Cyrus's famous decree ordering the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, over the ensuing three centuries Jews (who had previously been dispersed through the Babylonian exile) dispersed throughout the regions of the settled West.

While the chosen people clung to their special providence, they came increasingly to enjoy it in diverse cultural settings. Judaism increasingly came to detach its self-understanding from any concrete political manifestation, such that by the time of Christ (and what ultimately seemed the final destruction of the temple) Jews could claim almost any nationality. What befell Jews had consequences for non-Jews as well, even when non- Jews could not so easily become Jewish (though we may well imagine Christianity as the form in which it finally became easy and desirable for non-Jews to become Jew-like, if not Jews).