These two faculties must necessarily be very strong in prophets, I mean the faculty of coinage and that of divination. And when the intellect overflows toward them, these two faculties become very greatly strengthened so that this may finally reach the point you know: namely, the lone indi¬ vidual, having only his staff, went boldly to the great king in order to save a religious community2 from the burden of slavery, and had no fear or dread, i. Literally: story. 2. Or: a nation.
83a] The Guide of the Perplexed II -58 777 because it was said to him: I will be with thee? This too is a state that varies in them,4 but it is indispensable for them. Thus it was said to Jeremiah: Be not afraid and so on. Be not dismayed at them, and so on. For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and so on? And it was said to Ezekiel: Be not afraid of them or of their words? Similarly you will find all of them, peace be on them, to be endowed with great courage. Also, because of the abundance of the faculty of divination in them, they give information regarding future events in the shortest time. This faculty likewise varies in them as you know.
Know that the true prophets indubitably grasp speculative matters; by means of his speculation alone, man is unable to grasp the causes from which what a prophet has come to know necessarily follows. This has a counterpart in their giving information regarding matters with respect to which man, using only common conjecture and divination, is unable to give information. For the very overflow that affects the imaginative faculty — with a result of rendering it perfect so that its act brings about its giving information about what will happen and its apprehending those future events as if they were things that had been perceived by the senses and had reached the imaginative faculty from the senses | — is also the overflow that renders perfect the act of the rational faculty, so that its act brings about its knowing things that are real in their existence, and it achieves this apprehension as if it had apprehended it by starting from speculative premises. This is the truth that is believed by whoever chooses to be equitable toward himself. For all things bear witness to one another and indicate one another. This should be even more fitting for the rational faculty. For the overflow of the Active Intellect goes in its true reality only to it [that is, to the rational faculty], causing it to pass from potentiality to actuality. It is from the rational faculty that that overflow comes to the imaginative faculty. How then can the imaginative faculty be perfected in so great a measure as to apprehend what does not come to it from the senses, without the rational faculty being affected in a similar way so as to apprehend without having apprehended by way of premises, inference, and reflection?
This is the true reality of the notion of prophecy, and these are the opinions that are peculiar to the prophetic teaching. In my exposition I have put in the proviso that it refers to true prophets only. This was in order to exclude from it the people belonging to the third class, who have no rational conceptions at all and no knowledge, but only imaginings and whims.
17 j j8 The Guide of the Perplexed 11-59 [ 856 Perhaps they — I mean what these people apprehend — are merely opinions that they once had had and of which traces have remained impressed upon their imaginings together with everything else that subsists in their imaginative faculty. Accordingly when they void and annul many of their imaginings, the traces of these opinions remain alone and become apparent to them; whereupon they think that these are things that have unexpectedly occurred to them and have come from outside. To my mind they may be compared to a man who had with him in his house thousands of individual animals. Then all of them except one individual, which was one of those that were there, went out of that house. When the man remained alone with that individual, | he thought that it had just now entered the house and joined him, whereas that was not the case, that individual being the one among that multitude that did not go out. This is one of the points that lead astray and cause perdition. How many among those who have aspired to obtain discernment have perished through this! Hence you will find that certain groups of people establish the truth of their opinions with the help of dreams that they have seen, thinking that what they have seen in sleep is something else than the opinion that they believe in or that they had heard while awake. Therefore one ought not to pay attention to one whose rational faculty has not become perfect and who has not attained the ulti¬ mate term of speculative perfection. For only one who achieves speculative perfection is able to apprehend other objects of knowledge when there is an overflow of the divine intellect toward him. It is he who is in true reality a prophet. This is explicitly stated: And the prophet [possessetti] a heart of wisdom.1 It says here that one who is a prophet in true reality has a heart of wisdom. This too ought to be known.
CHAPTER 39 After we have spoken of the quiddity of prophecy, have made known uJLits true reality, and have made it clear that the prophecy of Moses our Master is different from that of the others, we shall say that the call to the Law followed necessarily from that apprehension alone.1 For nothing similar to the call addressed to us by Moses our Master has been made 7. Ps. 90:12.
1. I.e., that of Moses.
84 a ] The Guide of the Perplexed 11-59 j jy before him by any one of those we know who lived in the time between Adam and him; nor was a call similar to that one made by one of our prophets after him. Correspondingly it is a fundamental principle of our Law that there will never be another Law. Hence, according to our opinion, there never has been a Law and there never will be a Law except the one that is | the Law of Moses our Master. The explanation of this, according to what is literally stated in the prophetic books and is found in the tradition, is as follows. Not one of the prophets — such as the Patriarchs, Shem, Eber, Noah, Methuselah, and Enoch — who came before Moses our Master, has ever said to a class of people: God has sent me to you and has commanded me to say to you such and such things; He has forbidden you to do such and such things and has commanded you to do such and such things. This is a thing that is not attested to by any text of the Torah and that does not figure in any true tradition. These men only received prophetic revelation from God according to what we have set forth.2 He who received a great overflow, as for instance Abraham, assembled the people and called them by the way of teaching and instruction to adhere to the truth that he had grasped. Thus Abraham taught the people and explained to them by means of speculative proofs that the world has but one deity, that He has created all the things that are other than Himself, and that none of the forms3 and no created thing in general ought to be worshipped. This is what he instructed the people in, attracting them by means of eloquent4 speeches and by means of the benefits5 he conferred upon them. But he never said: God has sent me to you and has given me commandments and prohibitions. Even when the commandment of circumcision was laid upon him, his sons, and those who belonged to him, he circumcised them alone and did not use the form of a prophetic call to exhort the people to do this. Do you not see the text of the Torah referring to him that reads: For I have known him, and so on.6 Thus it is made clear that he acted only through injunction. Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohat, and Amram also addressed their call to the people in this way. You will find likewise that the Sages say with reference to the prophets who came before him: the court of justice of Eber, the court of justice of Methuselah, the school of Methuselah.1 For 2. Cf. I 63. 3. I.e., the forms of the stars, etc. 4. Literally: beautiful.
5. The word translated as “benefits" derives from the same verbal root as the word referred to in the preceding note.
6. Gen. 18:19. The verse continues: to the end that he may command his sons and his house after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment.
7. Genesis Rabbah, XLIII.
j8o The Guide of the Perplexed II • 59 [846 all of them, peace be on them, were prophets who taught the people through being instructors, teachers, | and guides, but did not say: The Lord said to me: Speak to the sons of so and so. Things were like that before Moses our Master. As for Moses, you know what was said to him, what he said, and what all the people said to him: This day we have seen that God doth speak, and so on.8 As for the prophets from among us who came after Moses our Master, you know the text of all their stories and the fact that their function was that of preachers who called upon the people to obey the Law of Moses, threatened those wrho rejected it, and held out promises to those who were firm in observing it. We likewise believe that things will always be this way. As it says: It is not in heaven, and so on f for us and for our children for ever!0 And that is as it ought to be 5 for when a thing is as perfect as it is possible to be within its species, it is impossible that within that species there should be found another thing that does not fall short of that perfection either because of excess or deficiency. Thus in comparison with a temperament whose composition is of the greatest equibalance possible in the species in question, all other temperaments are not composed in accordance with this equibalance because of either deficiency or excess. Things are similar with regard to this Law, as is clear from its equibalance. For it says: Just statutes and judgments j-11 now you know that the meaning of just is equibalanced. For these are manners of worship in which there is no burden and excess — such as monastic life and pilgrimage and similar things — nor a deficiency necessarily leading to greed and being engrossed in the indulgence of appetites, so that in consequence the perfection of man is diminished with respect to his moral habits and to his speculation — this being the case with regard to all the other nomoi of the religious communities12 of the past. When we shall speak in this Treatise about the reasons accounting for the commandments,13 their equibalance and wisdom will be made clear to you in so far as this is necessary. For this reason it is said with reference to them: The Law of the Lord is perfect,14 As for those who deem that its burdens are grievous, heavy, and difficult to bear — all of this is due to an error in considering them. I shall explain later on | how easy they are in true reality according to the opinion of the perfect. For this reason it says: What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, and so on.i5 And it says: Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, and so on.16 However, all this refers to the virtuous, whereas 12. Or: nations. 13. I.e., the commandments promulgated by Moses.
85* ] The Guide of the Perplexed II -40 j8i in the opinion of those who are unjust, violent,17 and tyrannical, the existence of a judge who renders tyranny impossible is a most harmful and grievous thing. As for the greedy and the vile, the most grievous thing in their opinion is that which hinders their abandoning themselves to debauchery and punishes those who indulge in it. Similarly everyone who is deficient in any respect considers that a hindrance in the way of the vice that he prefers because of his moral corruption is a great burden. Accordingly the facility or difficulty of the Law should not be estimated with reference to the passions of all the wicked, vile, morally corrupt men, but should be considered with reference to the man who is perfect among the people. For it is the aim of this Law that everyone should be such a man. Only that Law is called by us divine Law, whereas the other political regimens — such as the nomoi of the Greeks and the ravings of the Sabians and of others — are due, as I have explained several times, to the action of groups of rulers who were not prophets.
CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 40 It has been explained with utmost clarity that man is political by nature and that it is his nature to live in society. He is not like the other animals for which society is not a necessity. Because of the manifold composition of this species 1 — for, as you know, it is the last one to have been composed — there are many differences between the individuals belonging to it, so that you can hardly find two individuals who are in any accord with respect to | one of the species of moral habits, except in a way similar to that in which their visible forms may be in accord with one another. The cause of this is the difference of the mixtures,2 owing to which the various kinds of matter differ, and also the accidents consequent to the form in question. For every natural form has certain accidents proper and consequent to it, those accidents being other than those that are consequent to matter. Nothing like this great difference between the various individuals is found among the other species of animals, in which the difference between indi¬ viduals belonging to the same species is small, man being in this respect an 17. ghadab (anger) in Joel’s edition seems to be a misprint; the correct reading is ghasb (violence).
1. I.e., the human species. 2, Or: temperaments.
3 82 The Guide of the Perplexed II • 40 [ 86c exception. For you may find among us two individuals who seem, with regard to every moral habit, to belong to two different species. Thus you may find in an individual cruelty that reaches a point at which he kills the youngest of his sons in his great anger, whereas another individual is full of pity at the killing of a bug or any other insect, his soul being too tender for this. The same holds good for most accidents.
Now as the nature of the human species requires that there be those differences among the individuals belonging to it and as in addition society is a necessity for this nature, it is by no means possible that his society should be perfected except — and this is necessarily so — through a ruler who gauges the actions of the individuals, perfecting that which is deficient and reducing that which is excessive, and who prescribes actions and moral habits that all of them must always practice in the same way, so that the natural diversity is hidden through the multiple points of conventional accord and so that the community becomes well ordered. Therefore I say that the Law, although it is not natural, enters into what is natural. It is a part of the wisdom of the deity with regard to the permanence of this species of which He has willed the existence, that He put it into its nature that individuals belonging to it should have the faculty of ruling. Among them there is the one to whom the regimen mentioned has been revealed by prophecy directly; he is the prophet or the bringer of the nomos. Among them there are also those who have the faculty to compel people to accomplish, observe, | and actualize that which has been established by those two.3 They are a sovereign who adopts the nomos in question, and someone claiming to be a prophet who adopts the Law of the prophet — either the whole of it or a portion. His adopting a portion and abandoning another portion may be due either to this being easier for him or to his wishing out of jealousy to make people fancy that those matters came to him through a prophetic revelation and that with regard to them he does not follow somebody else. For among the people there are men who admire a certain perfection, take pleasure in it, have a passion for it, and wish that people should imagine that this perfection belongs to them, though they know that they possess no perfection. Thus you see that there are many who lay a claim to, and give out as their own, the poetry of someone else. This has also been done with regard to certain works of men of science and to particular points of many sciences. For an envious and lazy individual sometimes comes upon a thing invented by somebody else and claims that it 3. I.e., the prophet and the bringer of the nomos.
86A j The Guide of the Perplexed II • 40 was he who invented it. This has also happened with regard to the pro¬ phetic perfection. For we find people who laid a claim to prophecy and said things with regard to which there had never been at any time a prophetic revelation coming from God $ thus, for instance, Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah* And we find other people who laid a claim to prophecy and said things that God has indubitably said — I mean things that had come through a prophetic revelation, but a prophetic revelation addressed to other people 5 thus, for instance, Hananiah, son of Azzur.5 Accordingly these men give out as their own the prophetic revelation in question and adorn themselves with it. The knowledge and discernment of all this are very clear. I shall explain this to you in order that the matter should not be obscure to you and so that you should have a criterion by means of which you will be able to distinguish between the regimens of nomoi that have been laid down, the regimens of the divine Law, and the regimens of those who took over something from the dicta of the prophets, raised a claim to it, and give it out as their own.
Concerning the nomoi with respect to which those who have laid them down have stated clearly that these are nomoi that they have laid down by following their own thoughts, there is no need to adduce proofs for this, for with its being recognized by the adversary, no further evidence is needed. Accordingly I only want to give you knowledge concerning the regimens | with regard to which the claim is made that they are prophetic 5 some of them are truly prophetic — I mean divine — while others are nomoi,6 and others again are plagiarisms.
Accordingly if you find a Law the whole end of which and the whole purpose of the chief thereof, who determined the actions required by it, are directed exclusively toward the ordering of the city7 and of its circum¬ stances and the abolition in it of injustice and oppression; and if in that Law attention is not at all directed towrard speculative matters, no heed is given to the perfecting of the rational faculty, and no regard is accorded to opinions being correct or faulty — the whole purpose of that Law being, on the contrary, the arrangement, in whatever way this may be brought about, of the circumstances of people in their relations with one another and provision for their obtaining, in accordance with the opinion of that chief, a certain something deemed to be happiness — you must know that 4. Cf. I Rings 22:11 and 24. 5. Cf. Jer. 28:1 ff.
6. I.e., composed of man-made laws. 7. madlna, i.e., polls.
^84 The Guide of the Perplexed 11 • to [ 87c that Law is a nomos8 and that the man who laid it down belongs, as we have mentioned, to the third class, I mean to say to those who are perfect only in their imaginative faculty.
If, on the other hand, you find a Law all of whose ordinances are due to attention being paid, as was stated before, to the soundness of the circumstances pertaining to the body and also to the soundness of belief— a Law that takes pains to inculcate correct opinions with regard to God, may He be exalted in the first place, and with regard to the angels, and that desires to make man wise, to give him understanding, and to awaken his attention, so that he should know the whole of that which exists in its true form — you must know that this guidance comes from Him, may He be exalted, and that this Law is divine.
It remains for you to know whether he who lays claim to such a guid¬ ance is a perfect man to whom a prophetic revelation of that guidance has been vouchsafed, or whether he is an individual who lays claim to these dicta, having plagiarized them. The way of putting this to a test is to con¬ sider the perfection of that individual, carefully to examine his actions, and to study his way of life. The strongest of the indications you should pay attention to is constituted by his renunciation of, and contempt for, the bodily pleasures, for this is the first of the degrees of the people of science and, all the more, of the prophets. In particular this holds good with regard to the sense | that is a disgrace to us — as Aristotle has set forth9 — and especially in what belongs to it with regard to the foulness of copulation. For this reason God has stigmatized through it everyone who lays a claim to prophecy, so that the truth should be made clear to those who seek it and they should not go astray and fall into error. Do you not see how Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah, and Ahab, son of Kolaiah, claimed prophecy, were followed by the people, and give forth dicta deriving from a revelation that had come to others; and how they were plunged into the vileness of the pleasure of sexual intercourse so that they fornicated with the wives of their companions and followers so that God made them notorious, just as He disgraced others, and the King of Babylon burned them. As Jeremiah has set forth, saying: And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the exiles of Judah that are in Babylon, saying: The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the King of Babylon roasted in the fire; because they have 8. The expression used is shariza namusiyya; literally: nomic Law. ndmusiy-y-a derives from namus, which is the Arabic form of the Greek word nomos. It signifies in the context a law promulgated by a legislator who was not a prophet.
87 b] The Guide of the Perplexed II • 41 wrought vile deeds in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neigh¬ bors' wives, and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I commanded them not; but I am He that knoweth and am witness, saith the Lord.10 Understand this intention.
CHAPTER 41 Ido not need to explain what a dream is. As for a vision — as in: I do make Myself known unto him in a vision 1 — it is that which is called a vision of prophecy and is likewise called the hand of the Lord 2 and sight [, mahazeh ].3 It is a fearful terrifying state, which comes to a prophet when he is awake, as is made clear regarding Daniel in his saying: And 1 saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.+ And he says: And I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face toward the ground.s The speech of the angel to him and his setting him upright, all this happened in a vision of prophecy. In a state such as this the senses too cease to function, and the overflow in question comes to the rational faculty and overflows from it to the imaginative faculty so that the latter becomes perfect and performs its function. Prophetic revelation begins sometimes with a vision of prophecy. Thereupon the terror and the strong affection consequent upon the perfection of the action of the imaginative faculty become intensified and then prophetic revelation comes, as is recounted of Abraham. For with regard to the beginning of that prophetic revelation, it is said: The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision.6 And with regard to its termination: And a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and so on.7 After that: And He said unto Abram, and so on.6 Know with regard to all the prophets, concerning whom it is men¬ tioned9 that prophetic revelation has come to them, that some ascribe it to an angel while others ascribe it to God, though indubitably it was produced 10. Jer. 29 122-23.
3. Cf. Gen. 15:1; Num. 24:4 and 16. The word sight renders mahazeh; vision is used to translate mar* eh.
6. Gen. 15:1. The word translated as vision in this verse is mahazeh.
7. Gen. 15:12. 8. Gen. 15:15. 9. Or: who have mentioned.
3 86 The Guide of the Perplexed II • 41 [880 through the agency of an angel. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have expressed this by saying: And the Lord said unto her 10 — through the agency of an angel. 1 1 Know again that in the case of everyone about whom exists a scriptural text that an angel talked to him or that speech came to him from God, this did not occur in any other way than in a dream or in a vision of prophecy.