The Guide for the Perplexed (Selections)

Introduction

Maimonides wrote this book for a pupil who was at once devout in his faith in Scripture and well versed in the philosophy of Aristotle, and who had fallen into perplexity on finding that the literal sense of the Bible seemed to contradict the arguments of philosophy. Maimonides tells him that where Scripture speaks of God as having hands and a face, as growing angry or repenting, it speaks in figures; God is without body or form and beyond all words, and we can say only what God is not; faith and reason can confirm each other. The book also discusses the nature of prophecy, whether the world was created, the problem of evil and the reasons for the commandments. Written in Arabic, it was soon translated into Hebrew and Latin and deeply influenced Thomas Aquinas, Spinoza and Leibniz. This volume translates its most important parts.