body or in the overflow of good6 effects resulting necessarily from the motion of the body.
When all this became clear to Aristotle, he started to reflect again and found that it may be proved j by demonstration that the spheres are many and that the motion of one particular sphere differs from that of 3. Or: to realize. 4. I.e., Aristotle.
5. I.e., the endeavour to achieve likeness to God.
6. The Arabic equivalent of the word “good” is employed in this passage as a noun and in the plural.
14^] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 4 257 another in regard to swiftness or slowness as well as the direction of move¬ ment, although circular motion was common to all of them. According to physical speculation, he was compelled to believe that the notion represented to itself by one particular sphere, in consequence of which notion it accom¬ plishes the movement7 swiftly in one day, is not the notion represented to itself by another sphere, which accomplishes one movement in thirty years. Accordingly he affirmed categorically that there exist separate intellects whose number is equal to that of the spheres, that every sphere desires the intellect that is its principle and is the mover causing it to move according to the movement proper to it, and that that intellect is the mover of that sphere. Neither Aristotle nor anyone else has affirmed categorically that the number of the intellects is ten or one hundred 5 but he stated that their number was equal to that of the spheres. As it was thought in his time that there are fifty spheres, Aristotle stated that, if that were so, there were fifty separate intellects. For in his time there was little knowledge of mathematics, and this science had not been brought to perfection. It accordingly was thought that every motion requires a separate sphere.
For they did not know that many apparent movements may result from the inclination of one sphere. Thus you might speak of the motion of a star with respect to longitude and declination and also of its apparent motion in the circle of the horizon as far as the places of its rising and setting are concerned. However, this is not our subject, and we shall now go back to that with which we were dealing.
With regard to the opinion of the later philosophers that there are ten separate intellects, it may be explained by the fact that they counted the globes in which there are stars as well as the all-encompassing sphere, although in some of these globes there are several spheres. The globes are nine according to their reckoning; namely, the one that encompasses the universe, the sphere of the fixed stars, and the spheres of the seven | plan¬ ets.8 The tenth intellect is the Active Intellect, whose existence is indicated by the facts that our intellects pass from potentiality to actuality and that the forms of the existents that are subject to generation and corruption are actualized after they have been in their matter only in potentia. Now everything that passes from potentiality to actuality must have neces¬ sarily something that causes it to pass and that is outside it. And this cause must belong to the species of that which it causes to pass from potentiality to actuality. For a carpenter does not build a storehouse qua a maker, but because there subsists in his mind the form of the storehouse. For it 7. I.e. one revolution. 8. Literally: seven stars.
2^8 The Guide of the Perplexed II ■ 4 [ 14^ is the form of the storehouse subsisting in the mind of the carpenter that caused the form of the storehouse to pass into actuality and to be realized in timber. In this way the giver of a form is indubitably a separate form, and that which brings intellect into existence is an intellect, namely, the Active Intellect. Thus the relation of the Active Intellect to the elements9 and that which is composed of them is similar to the relation obtaining between every separate intellect particularly related to a sphere and that sphere. Furthermore the relation of the intellect in actu existing in us, which derives from an overflow of the Active Intellect and through which we apprehend the Active Intellect, is similar to that of the intellect of every sphere that exists in the latter, deriving its being in it from the overflow of a separate intellect — an intellect through which the sphere apprehends the separate intellect, makes a mental representation of the latter, desires to become like it, and in consequence moves.10 In this connection [Aristotle] deals further with a matter that has already been demonstrated, namely, that God, may He be magnified and held sublime, does not do things in a direct fashion. Thus He burns by means of a fire, and this fire is moved by means of the motion of the sphere, and the sphere in its turn is moved by means of a separate intellect. For the intellects are the angels, which are near to Him, by means of whom the spheres are moved. And as by reason of their being separate from matter, no multiplicity due to [ a difference between their essences is at all possible with regard to them because they are not bodies, it follows necessarily that the deity, may He be exalted, has — according to him11 — brought into existence the first intellect, who is the mover of the first sphere in the way that we have explained. Again the intellect that causes the second sphere to move has as its cause and principle the first intellect, and so on, so that the intellect that causes the sphere that is contiguous with us to move is the cause and principle of the Active Intellect. With the latter the separate intellects come to an end, just as bodies begin similarly with the highest sphere and come to an end with the elements and what is composed of them. It cannot be true that the intellect that moves the highest 9. The four elements found in the world of generation and corruption are meant.
10. The text does not make clear what is the second term of the relation of which the first term is either the intellect in actu existing in man or the one existing in each heavenly sphere. It seems probable, however, that Maimonides had in mind the rela¬ tion between the human intellect in actu and the Active Intellect, on the one hand, and the relation between the intellect in actu of each sphere and the separate intellect on which that sphere depends, on the other.
11. I.e., according to Aristotle.
15 a' The Guide of the Perplexed II • 5 259 sphere should be identical with the necessary of existence. For it has in common with the other intellects one separately conceivable thing, namely, that represented by the act of causing bodies to move. Now every intellect is distinguished from any other intellect with respect to one separately conceivable thing. In consequence each one of the ten intellects is endowed with two separately conceivable things. Accordingly there can be no doubt that all of them have one first cause. This is the assertion and the opinion of Aristotle; and his proofs for this, in so far as they are probable, are set forth in the works of his followers. All his disquisition may be summed up as follows: All spheres are living bodies, endowed with a soul and an intellect, having a mental representation and an apprehension of the deity and also a mental representation of their own first principles. In that which exists,12 there are separate intellects that are in no way a body. All of them overflow from God, may He be exalted, and they are the intermediaries between God and all these bodies.
I now shall explain to you in the following chapters what in our Law corresponds to these opinions and what in it differs from them. | CHAPTER 5 As for the assertion that the spheres are living and rational, I mean to say endowed with apprehension, it is true and certain also from the point of view of the Law; they are not dead bodies similar to fire and earth — as is thought by the ignorant — but they are — as the philosophers say — living beings who obey their Lord and praise Him and extol Him greatly. Thus Scripture says: The heavens tell of the glory of God, and so on} How very remote from mental representation of the truth are those who think that this is language appropriate to the state of the speaker. For the terms speaking and telling 2 are applied together in Hebrew only to a being endowed with intellect. The manifest proof of the fact that Scripture describes their state according to their essence — I mean to say the state of the spheres — not the state according to which people consider them, is the dictum:5 There is no speech, there are no words, neither is their voice 12. Literally: in existence.
1. Ps. 19:2. The verse continues: and the firmament speaketh of His handiwork.
2. The verb “to speak” occurs in the second part of the: verse; cf. preceding note.
3. Occurring in the same Psalm as the verse quoted earlier in this chapter.
260 The Guide of the Perplexed II • 5 [156 heard It thus makes it clear and manifest that it describes the essence of the spheres as praising God and making known His wonders without speech of lip and tongue. And this is correct. For he who praises through speech only makes known what he has represented to himself. Now this very representation is the true praise, whereas the words concerning it are meant to instruct someone else or to make it clear concerning oneself that one has had the apprehension in question. Thus it says, Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still, Selah,5 as we have explain¬ ed.6 This is a proof based on the Law that may be denied only by one who is ignorant or obstinate. As for the opinion of the Sages concerning this, I do not think that it requires to be explained or proved. Consider the way they arranged the blessing of the moon, as well as what is repeatedly stated in the prayers and the texts of the Midrashim 7 regarding the dicta: And the host of heaven j worshippeth Thee* and: When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.9 Similar dicta occur frequently in what they say. Thus they say in Bereshith Rabbah 10 with regard to the dictum of Him, may He be exalted,11 And the earth was tohu1 2 and bohu:13 [It was ] mourning [tohaf* and crying \boha]1* — which means that it, I mean the earth, cried woe and howled 15 because of her evil lot. It said, I and they were created together — which means the earth and the heavens. [Yet] those above are alive and those below dead. They also have said explicitly that the heavens are living bodies and not dead ones like the elements. Thus it has become clear to you that what Aristotle said likewise with regard to the sphere being endowed with apprehension and mental representation corresponds to the dicta of our prophets and of the bearers of our Law, who are the Sages, may their memory be blessed.
Know that there is a consensus of all the philosophers to the effect that the governance of this lower world is perfected by means of the forces overflowing to it from the sphere, as we have mentioned,16 and that the spheres apprehend and know that which they govern. This also is expounded in the letter of the Torah, which says:17 Which the Lord thy God hath 8. Neh. g:6. Cf. B.T., Sanhedrin, gib. 9. Job 38:7. Cf. B.T., Hullin, gib.
10. Genesis Rabbah, II. 11. Gen. 1:2.
12. In the English Bible this word is translated: without form.
13. In the English Bible this word is translated: void.
14. An Aramaic word. 15. Or: writhed in pain. 16. Cf. I 72.
17. Deut. 4:19. The verse begins as follows: And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them and serve them. The words quoted by Maimonides follow.
1 6a] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 6 261 allotted unto all the peoples, which means that He made the spheres inter¬ mediaries for the governance of the created beings and not with a view to their being worshipped. It says clearly: And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide, and so on.1* Now the meaning of ruling is domination through governance 5 and this is a supplementary notion added to that of light and darkness, which is the proximate cause of generation and corrup¬ tion. For the meaning of light and darkness is referred to in the words: And to divide the light from the darkness,19 Now it is absurd to assume that he who governs something should not know that thing which he governs, provided that the true reality of governance, as the word is applied here, is known. We shall speak at length about this subject elsewhere. I CHAPTER 6 The fact that angels exist does not require that a proof deriving from the Law be brought forward. For the Torah has stated this in a number of passages. Now you should know that Elohim is a term applied to judges. Thus: The cause of both parties shall come before Elohim} For this reason this word is applied figuratively to the angels and to the deity because of His being a judge of the angels. Hence it says: For the Lord your Elohim2 — this being addressed to the whole of mankind; after which it says:3 He is the Elohim of the Elohim — which means, the deity of the angels — and the Lord of lords — that is, the Master of the spheres and the stars, which are the lords of everybody other than themselves. This is the meaning of the verse, and not that the Elohim and the lords 4 belong to the human species; for they are too lowly for that. This is so particularly in view of the fact that the dictum, your Elohim, includes the whole human species, the rulers as well as the ruled. Nor can the meaning5 be either that He, may He be exalted, is the master of everything that is believed to be divine — even if it is fashioned of stone and wood. For there is no glorification and no magnifi¬ cation in the affirmation that the deity is the master of stone, timber, 18. Gen. 1:18. The verse refers to the sun and the moon. 19. Gen. 1:18.
1. Exod. 22:8. Elohim in this verse means “judges.” This is also the interpretation found in the English Bible’s translation of this passage.
2. Deut. 10:17. 3' In the same verse. 4. Referred to therein.
5. Of the expression, Elohim of the Elohim, and perhaps also of that other expression, the Lord of lords.
262 The Guide of the Perplexed II - 6 [ 16 b and of a piece of cast metal. What is meant is that He, may He be exalted, is the Judge of the judges, I mean to say of the angels, and the Master of the spheres. Now a chapter making it clear for us that the angels are not bodies occurs previously in this Treatise.6 This is also what Aristotle says. But there is a difference in the terms; for he speaks of separate intellects, and we speak of angels.
As for his saying that these separate intellects are also intermediaries I between God, may He be exalted, and the existents; and that it is through their intermediation that the spheres are in motion, which motion is the cause of the generation of the things subject to generation: this too is the textual teaching of all the books. For you never find therein that an act was performed by God otherwise than through an angel. Now you already know that the meaning of angel is messenger. Accordingly everyone who carries out an order is an angel; so that the movements of animals, even when these beings are not rational, are stated in the text of the Scripture to have been accomplished through an angel, if the motion was produced in accordance with the intention of the deity, who put a force in the living being that moved him according to that motion. Thus it says: My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me.7 The movements of Balaam's she-ass are all of them brought about through an angel. Even the elements are in their turn called angels. Thus: Who makest winds His angels, the flaming fire His ministers. 8 It will be explained to you that angel is said of a messenger9 from among men; Thus: And Jacob sent angels.10 It is also said of a prophet; thus: And the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochimf And He sent an angel, and brought us forth from Egypt,12 It is furthermore said of the separate intellects that appear to the prophets in the vision of prophecy. In addition it is said of the animal forces, as we shall explain later on.
Now our discourse here shall deal only with the angels, who are separate intellects. For our Law does not deny the fact that He, may He be exalted, governs that which exists here through the intermediation of the angels. Thus there is the text of the Sages with reference to the dictum of the Torah: Let us make man in our image f and its dictum: Come, let us go down,'* which dicta are in the plural. They said: The Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, does nothing without contemplating 15 the host 9. rasul. The word also means “prophet”; i.e., an envoy of God.
14. Gen. 11 -.7. The verse continues: and there confound their language.
15. Literally: before He has contemplated.
17a] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 6 263 [ pamalya ] above.16 Marvel17 at their saying contemplating, for Plato uses literally the same expression, saying that God looks at the world of the intellects [ and that in consequence that which exists overflows from Him. In certain other passages, they similarly make the absolute assertion: The Holy One, blessed be He, does nothing without consulting 18 the host [ pamalya\ above H The word pamalya means, in the Greek language, army. In Bereshith Rabbah 20 and in Midrash Qoheleth,21 it is likewise said in reference to the dictum: What they have already made.22 It is not said: He has made, but: they have made. [ That z's,] He, as it were, and His tribunal have decided regarding each of your limbs and have put it in its position; for it is said: He hath made thee and established thee.26 In Bereshith Rabbah, they have likewise said: Wherever it is said: And the Lord, He and His tribunal [ are meant].2* In all these texts the intention is not, as is thought by the ignorant, to assert that there is speech on the part of [God], may He be exalted, or deliberation or sight or consultation and recourse for help to the opinion of someone else. For how could the Creator seek help from that which He has created? Rather do all these texts state plainly that all this — including the various parts of that which exists and even the creation of the limbs of animals as they are — has been brought about through the intermediation of angels. For all forces are angels. How great is the blindness of ignorance and how harmful! If you told a man who is one of those who deem them¬ selves the Sages of Israel that the deity sends an angel, who enters the womb of a woman and forms the fetus there, he would be pleased with this assertion and would accept it and would regard it as a manifestation of greatness and power on the part of the deity, and also of His wisdom, may He be exalted. Nevertheless he would also believe at the same time that the angel is a body formed of burning fire and that his size is equal to that of a third part of the whole world. He would regard all this as possible with respect to God. But if you tell him that God has placed in the sperm a formative force shaping the limbs and giving them their configuration 16. The Hebrew pamalya, deriving in the last analysis from the Latin familia, means servants or courtiers surrounding a dignitary. The translation “host” is intended to conform to Maimonides’ explanation of pamalya as meaning an army. The origin of this quotation is unknown. Cf. n. 19 below for the source of a similar dictum.
17. Or: I marvel. 18. Literally: before He has consulted.
19. B.T., Sanhedrin, 38b; Jerusalem Talmud (hereafter cited J.T.), Sanhedrin, I.
20. Genesis Rabbah, XII. 21. Midrash Qoheleth, 2:12.
22. Eccles. 2:12. The entire verse reads: And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness and folly; for what can the man make that cometn after the king? what they have already made.
23, Deut. 32:6. 24. Genesis Rabbah, LI.
264 The Guide of the Perplexed II G [ 1 7b and that this force is the angel, or that all the forms derive from the act of the Active Intellect and that the latter is the angel and the prince of the world constantly mentioned by the Sages, [ the man would shrink from this opinion. For he does not understand the notion of the true greatness and power that consists in the bringing into existence of forces active in a thing, forces that cannot be apprehended by any sense. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have stated explicitly for the benefit of him who is a Sage that every force appertaining to the bodily forces is an angel— all the more, the forces distributed in the world — and that every force has only one particular activity proper to it and not two activities. For it is said in Bereshith Rabbah: It has been learnt: one angel does not perform two missions, nor do two angels perform one mission.25 Now this is the character¬ istic of all forces. A circumstance that should confirm in your opinion the assertion that individual natural and psychic forces are called angels is their dictum figuring in a number of passages and deriving originally from Bereshith Rabbah: Every day the Holy One, blessed be He, creates a group of angels; they sing before Him, and go away 26 When this dictum was criticized by a recourse to another dictum indicating that the angels are permanent — and in fact it has been explained several times that the angels are living and existing permanently — the answer is given that some of them are permanent and others liable to perish. And such is the truth of the matter. For the individual forces are being constantly generated and corrupted, whereas the species to which these forces belong are permanent and do not become defective. In the source referred to,27 it is said with reference to the story of Judah and Tamar: Rabbi Yohanan said: [Judah] wanted to pass by, but the Holy One, blessed be He, caused the angel put in charge of lust — he means to say: the force of orgasm — to present himself to him. Thus this force too is called by him an angel. And thus you will find that they constantly speak of: an angel put in charge of this or that. For every force charged by God, may He be exalted, with some business is an angel put in charge of that thing. Accordingly, Midrash Qoheleth has the following text: When man sleeps, his soul speaks to the angel, [ and the angel to the cherub.2* Thereby they have stated plainly to him who understands and cognizes intellectually that the imaginative faculty29 25. Genesis Rabbah, L.
26. Genesis Rabbah, LXXVIII. Cf. also (Ekhah Rabbathi) Midrash on Lamentations, 3:23; and B.T., Hagigah, 14a.
27. Genesis Rabbah, LXXXV. 28. Midrash Qoheleth, 10:20.
2g. The Arabic text has the word quwwah, which in other passages of the present chapter has been translated “force.”
i8£] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 6 26 f is likewise called an angel and that the intellect is called a cherub. How beautiful must this appear to him who knows, and how distasteful to the ignorant!