Originally, especially in the time of the kings, Israel found itself, with respect to all things, in a just relationship, that is, natural. Their Jehovah was the expression of the feeling of power, of joy in itself, of hope in itself; victory and salvation were expected from him, without him one relied on nature, which provides what the people need: above all, rain. Jehovah is the God of Israel and therefore the God of justice. It is the logic of every people that possess power and have a clear conscience. Nevertheless, all hopes were unfulfilled. The old God could no longer do anything he had done before. He should have been abandoned. What happened? His concept was transformed, the notion of God was denaturalized: it was at such a price that Jehovah, the God of Justice, could be preserved; he was not one with Israel or the expression of the feeling of national dignity; he was nothing but a conditional God...

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His notion becomes an instrument in the hands of priestly agitators, who now interpret all happiness as a reward, all misfortune as a punishment for disobedience to God, as a sin: the most deceptive way of interpreting a supposed universal moral law that once and for all inverts the natural concept of cause and effect.

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What is Jewish morality, what is Christian morality? Chance that has lost its innocence; unhappiness tainted by the idea of "sin"; well-being as danger, as temptation; physiological discomfort poisoned by the gnawing worm of conscience.

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The will of God, that is, the condition of preservation for the power of the priest, must be known; to achieve this end, a revelation is necessary. In other words: a great literary forgery becomes necessary, the Holy Scriptures are discovered; they are made public with all the hieratic pomp, with fasting and lamentations because of the long state of sin. Since then, the affairs of life are ordered in such a way that the priest becomes indispensable everywhere.

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Disobedience to God, that is, to the priest, to the law, is now called sin; the means of reconciling oneself with God are, as is right, means that ensure even deeper submission to the priest; only the priest saves... Psychologically examined, sins become indispensable, they are properly the instruments of power. The priest lives by sins, he needs people to sin... Supreme principle: "God forgives those who repent", or, in other words: those who submit to the priest.

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If there is happiness in considering oneself saved from sin, it is not necessary, as a condition, for the man to be a sinner, the essential thing is that he feels guilty. But if faith is necessary above all, reason, knowledge, scientific investigation must be discredited: the path of truth becomes a forbidden path.

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Excerpts from Nietzsche's book The Genealogy of Morals