The Guide for the Perplexed

The Guide for the Perplexed is the central philosophical work of Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), composed in Judeo-Arabic around 1190 CE and translated into Hebrew by Samuel ibn Tibbon during the author's lifetime. Maimonides wrote it for educated Jews troubled by the apparent conflict between Aristotelian philosophy and the Torah. His answer runs through three parts: Part I analyses the anthropomorphic language of scripture—arms, anger, jealousy—and shows that each term, read carefully, denotes something other than a bodily quality; Part II argues that Aristotelian cosmology is compatible with the account of creation in Genesis, and interprets the prophetic visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah as coded descriptions of physics and metaphysics; Part III addresses the origin of evil, the nature of divine providence, and the rational purposes of the commandments.

Underlying all three parts is Maimonides' negative theology: God has no positive attributes in common with created things, and every affirmative biblical statement about God is a denial of its contrary. This position—that we can only say what God is not—became one of the most influential ideas in medieval philosophy across Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. The work was composed as letters to a single student; its deliberate obscurity on certain points is itself a feature, intended to protect sensitive doctrines from being read by those unprepared for them.

Contents

Reception

The Guide for the Perplexed was immediately contentious. Anti-Maimonidean factions in Provence and Spain banned the book around 1232, and sections were publicly burned—one of the sharpest polemics in medieval Jewish history. At the same time, the Latin translation reached Christian scholars: Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and Duns Scotus all drew on Maimonides' treatment of divine attributes, negative theology, and the eternity of the world. Meister Eckhart cited him extensively. In Islamic philosophy, the book belongs to a dialogue Maimonides carried on with Al-Farabi and Avicenna, whose Aristotelian framework he adapted for a Jewish readership. The Shlomo Pines translation (University of Chicago Press, 1963), with Leo Strauss's introduction, is the standard scholarly English edition. The M. Friedländer translation (1904), kept in print by Dover, gave the text its broadest popular readership. Maimonides' positions on divine attributes, creation, and the nature of prophecy remain live problems in Jewish philosophy.

Frequently asked

What is The Guide for the Perplexed about?

It addresses educated Jews who find Aristotelian philosophy and Jewish scripture in conflict. Maimonides argues that biblical anthropomorphic language about God—hands, anger, location—is figurative, and that the Torah correctly read supports rational theology. The three parts cover divine attributes and biblical language, creation and prophecy, and the reasons for the commandments.

Who was Maimonides?

Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), also known as Rambam (an acronym of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher, rabbi, and physician born in Córdoba and based in Cairo for most of his adult life. He is considered the foremost Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and remains a central figure in Jewish law and thought.

Why is The Guide for the Perplexed historically important?

It is the primary source of Maimonides' philosophical views and one of the most widely read philosophical texts in medieval Europe. Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, and Duns Scotus all drew on it directly. Within Judaism it provoked a century of controversy and influenced the development of Kabbalah. Its negative theology—God can only be described by what He is not—shaped all three Abrahamic traditions.