The Guide of the Perplexed
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text · 28 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~440,000 words · 2,097 passages
Cite this work
- APAMaimonides. (n.d.). The Guide of the Perplexed. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed
- MLAMaimonides. "The Guide of the Perplexed." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed.
- ChicagoMaimonides. The Guide of the Perplexed. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/maimonides/the-guide-of-the-perplexed.
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.
M- honored pupil Rabbi Joseph,'2- may the Rock guard you, son of Rabbi Judah , may his repose be in Paradise. When you came to me, having conceived the intention of journeying from the country farthest away in order to read texts under my guidance, I had a high opinion of you because of your strong desire for inquiry and because of what I had observed in your poems of your powerful longing for speculative matters. This was the case since your letters and compositions in rhymed prose came to me from Alexandria, before your grasp was put to the test. I said however : perhaps his longing is stronger than his grasp. When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the science of astronomy and prior to that texts dealing with mathematics, which is necessary as an introduction to astron¬ omy, my joy in you increased because of the excellence of your mind and the quickness of your grasp. I saw that your longing for mathematics was great, and hence I let you train yourself in that science, knowing where you would end. When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the art of logic, my hopes fastened upon you, and I saw that you are one worthy to have the secrets of the prophetic books revealed to you so that you would
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