The Guide of the Perplexed
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 28 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~440,000 words · 2,097 passages
Cite this work
- APAMaimonides. (n.d.). The Guide of the Perplexed. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed
- MLAMaimonides. The Guide of the Perplexed. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed.
- ChicagoMaimonides. The Guide of the Perplexed. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The attempt to show that the Torah and Aristotelian philosophy do not contradict each other, written for readers who know enough of both to see the conflict.
Context and history
Written in Arabic in Hebrew letters around 1190, in the form of a letter to a pupil. The 'perplexed' of the title is not the ignorant man but the educated believer who has read the philosophers. Maimonides argues that biblical passages ascribing body or passions to God must be read as metaphor, and that of God one can say only what he is not. The book was banned and burned by Jews, and read closely by Aquinas.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
of the intentions of the Mutakallimun in this respect, and to let you know whether their methods were demonstrative and, if not, to what art they belonged. As I also saw, you had already acquired some smattering of this subject from people other than myself 5 you were perplexed, as stupefaction had come over you; your noble soul demanded of you to find out acceptable words.3 Yet I did not cease dissuading you from this and enjoining upon you to approach matters in an orderly manner. My purpose in this was that the truth should be established in your mind according to the proper methods and that certainty should not come to you by accident. Whenever during your association with me a [biblical] verse or some text of the Sages was mentioned in which there was a pointer to some strange notion, I did not refrain from explaining it to you. Then when God decreed our separation and you betook yourself elsewhere, these meetings aroused in me a resolu¬ tion that had slackened. Your absence moved me to compose this Treatise, which I have composed for you and for those like you, however few they are. I have set it down in dispersed chapters. All of them that are written down will reach you where you are, one after the other. Be in good health. 3. Eccles. 12 : 10. [INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST PART] Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, For unto Thee have I lifted my soul} Unto you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men.2 Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thy heart unto my knowledge .3