On the other hand, it is sometimes thought that, according to our opinion and our doctrine of the production in time of the world as a whole 6. I.e., the efficient cause. 7. I.e., the efficient, formal, and final causes.
8. ghaya. This word has been translated "final end” in the preceding part of this chapter.
9. According to Ibn Tibbon’s version: which are. 10. I.e., for man’s sake.
24° ] The Guide of the Perplexed III 13 after nonexistence, this question is obligatory — I mean that it is obligatory to seek out the finality of all that exists. It is likewise thought that the finality of all that exists is solely the existence of the human species so that it should worship God, and that all that has been made has been made for it alone so that even the heavenly spheres only revolve in order to be useful to it and to bring into existence | that which is necessary for it. Some passages in the books of the prophets, if taken according to their external sense, give strong support to this thought. Thus: He formed it to be inhab¬ ited f If My covenant had not been with day and night, I would not have appointed the statutes of heaven and earth}'1 And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in} 3 Now if the spheres exist for the sake of man, all the more is this the case for all the species of animals and of plants. However, if this opinion is carefully examined, as opinions ought to be carefully examined by intelligent men, the flaw in it becomes clear. This result is achieved through posing to him who believes this opinion the following question: The final end being the existence of man, is the Creator able to bring him into existence without all these preliminaries, or was it possible for him to be brought into existence only after they were carried out? If someone answers that this is possible and that, for instance, God was able to bring man into existence without there being a heaven, the following question may be posed. What is the utility for him14, of all these things, which are in themselves not the final end, but exist for the sake of a thing that could have existed without all of them? Even if the universe15 exists for the sake of man, and the final end of man is, as has been said, to worship God, a question remains to be asked regarding the final end of his worship. For He, may He be exalted, would not acquire greater perfection if He were worshipped by all that He has created and were truly apprehended by them, nor would He be attained by a deficiency if nothing whatever existed except Him. If the answer is given that this is not with a view to His perfection, but to our perfection, for that is the most excellent thing for us — namely, our per¬ fection— the same question follows necessarily: namely, what is the final end of our existence with that perfection? Necessarily and obligatorily the 11. Isa. 45; 18.
12. Jer. 33:25- This explanation of the verse, which Maimonides evidently had in mind, is suggested in B.T., Pesahim, 68b, and is referred to in Rashi’s commentary; however, the latter remarks that it does not fit in with the rest of the passage. The probable translation of the quoted portion of the verse is that given in the English Bible: If My covenant be not with day and night, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.
13. Isa. 40:22. 14. Probably God is referred to here. 15. Literally: the all.
The Guide of the Perplexed III • 15 [ <i\b argument must end with the answer being given that the final end is: God has wished it so, or: His wisdom has required this to be so. And this is the correct answer. Accordingly you will find that the Sages of Israel have inserted into the text of their prayers:16 Thou hast set man apart from the beginning and acknowledged him | that he should stand before Thee. Yet who shall say unto Thee, What dost Thou? and if he be righteous, what boon is this to Thee? Thus they have explicitly stated that there does not exist a final end, but only the Will alone.17 Now this being so and, in addition, given the belief in the production of the world in time — thus making it indispen¬ sable for us to say that what exists, its causes, and its effects, could be different from what they are — an incongruity follows necessarily with reference to the existence of everything brought into existence except man. It follows, namely, that all the beings in question have been brought into existence without any final end at all, inasmuch as the only purposed final end, namely, man, could have existed without all of them.
For this reason, to my mind, the correct view according to the beliefs of the Law — a view that corresponds likewise to the speculative views — is as follows: It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else. Thus even according to our view holding that the world has been produced in time, the quest for the final end of all the species of beings collapses. For we say that in virtue of His will He has brought into existence all the parts of the world, some of which have been intended for their own sakes, whereas others have been intended for the sake of some other thing that is intended for its own sake. Just as He has willed that the human species should come to exist, He also has willed that the spheres and their stars should come to exist 5 and He also has willed that the angels should come to exist. In respect to every being He intended that being itself j and whenever the existence of some thing was impossible unless it was preceded by some other thing, He first brought that thing into existence — as in the case of the senses, which precede reason.
This view too has been expressed in the prophetic books. Thus it says: The Lord hath made everything lamalanehu [ for His sake or for its sake],1 8 where the third person19 may refer to the complement.20 If, however, it refers to the subject, the interpretation of the word21 would be: for the sake 16. The following passage is in the prayer called NeHlah, recited on the Day of Atonement.
17. Or: except the Will alone. 18. Prov. 16:4. 19. I.e., His or its.
20. I.e., to everything. 21. Of lamaSanehu.
25 b ] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 15 ^ of His essence, may He be exalted — that is, j for the sake of His wall, as the latter is His essence, according to what has been made dear in this Treatise.22 We have already explained that His essence is also called His glory, as in its saying: Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory.21 Thus his saying here, The Lord hath made everything lamahanehu [for His sake\, would be like saying: Everyone that is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him.24 It says that everything whose making is ascribed to Me,25 has been made by Me solely because of My will. The expression, I have formed him, yea, I have made him, refers to what I have explained to you, namely, to the fact that there are beings whose existence is only possible after that of something else. Thus He might say: I have created that first thing, as for instance matter, which must indispen¬ sably have come prior to everything material. Then I made in that thing which came first or after it that which I intended to bring into existence, without there being anything26 except will alone.
If you consider that book which guides all those who seek guidance toward what is correct and therefore is called Torah,27 the notion that we have in view will become manifest to you from the commencement of the Account of the Beginning 28 till the end. For with reference to none of them29 is the statement made in any way that it exists for the sake of some other thing. He only says that He brought every part of the world into existence and that its existence conformed to its purpose. This is the meaning of his saying: And God saw that it was good [tob].50 For you know what we have explained with regard to their saying: The Torah speaketh in the language of the sons of man.51 And good [tob] is an expression applied by us to what conforms to our purpose. About the whole,32 it says: And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good [ tob me0od].55 For the pro¬ duction in time of everything that was produced conformed to its purpose, and nothing went wrong. And that is the meaning of the expression: very [mdod]; for sometimes a thing is good and conforms for a time to our pur¬ pose, whereas afterwards the goal is missed. Accordingly it gives the infor¬ mation that all the things made, conformed to [ His intention and purpose 25. Certain manuscripts have a text that may be translated: everything that may be ascribed to My action. Ibn Tibbon’s translation conforms to the one given in this note.
26. In the way of finality.
27. The word derives from the verb horoth (to show the way).
28. I.e., the story of the Creation. 29. I.e., of the things created. 30. Cf. Gen. 1.
32. The whole work of Creation. 33. Gen. 1:31.
4 $4 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 13 [ 26a and that they continued without ceasing to correspond to what was intended with regard to them. Be not misled by its saying with regard to the stars, To give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night,1* so that you think that it means: in order that they should do this.35 It is merely information about their nature, which He willed to create thus — I mean to say, giving light and ruling. Similarly it says of man, And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and so on,36 which dictum does not mean that man was created for the sake of this, but merely gives information about man’s nature with which He, may He be exalted, has stamped him. As for its saying with regard to the plants 37 — namely, that they are given over to the Adamites and the other animals — Aristotle38 and others have made explicit statements about this; and it is manifest that plants were brought into existence only for the sake of the animals, for these must of necessity be nourished. However, this does not apply to the stars; I mean to say that they do not exist for our sake and so that good should come to us from them. For, as we have made clear, its dictum, to give light and to rule, merely gives information about the utility of what comes from them and overflows toward that which is below, according to what I have made clear to you concerning the nature of the constant overflow of the good from one thing toward another. As far as what is reached by the good that is always coming is concerned, it may seem that what receives the benefit is the final end of the thing that caused its good and its liberality to overflow toward it. Thus an individual from among the people of a city might think that the final end of the ruler consists in safeguarding his 59 house at night against robbers. And this is true from a certain point of view. For since his house is safe¬ guarded and this benefit comes to him because of the ruler, the matter looks as if the final end of the ruler were the safeguarding of the house of that individual. We must interpret in this sense every text whose external sense we find indicates that something sublime has been made for the sake of something inferior to it; this text means that this act follows necessarily from the nature of the sublime.
Thus we are obliged | to believe that all that exists was intended by Him, may He be exalted, according to His volition. And we shall seek for it no cause or other final end whatever. Just as we do not seek for the end of His existence, may He be exalted, so do we not seek for the final end of His 34. Gen. 1: 17-18.
35. I.e., that the stars were created in order to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night.
36. Gen. 1:28. 37. Cf. Gen. 1:29. 38. Cf. above in this chapter.
2 6b ] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 15 j volition, according to which all that has been and will be produced in time comes into being as it is. Hence be not misled in your soul to think that the spheres and the angels have been brought into existence for our sake. For it has explained to us what we are worth: Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. 40 Consider accordingly your substance and that of the spheres, the stars, and the separate intellects 5 then the truth will become manifest to you, and you will know that man and nothing else is the most perfect and the most noble thing that has been generated from this [inferior] matter; but that if his being is compared to that of the spheres and all the more to that of the separate beings, it is very, very contemptible. Accordingly it says: Behold, He putteth no trust in His servants, and His angels He chargeth with deficiency [ tahalah ]. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust!4'1 Know that His servants that are referred to in this verse do not belong at all to the human species; this is proven by its saying: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust! But His servants mentioned in this verse are the angels. Similarly also, His angels referred to in this verse are indubitably the spheres. The same notion is made clear and repeated by Eliphaz himself in different terms and in another text, saying: Behold, He putteth no trust in His holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How much less one that is abominable and impure, man [wA] who drinketh iniquity \^avlah\ like water!*2 Thus it is made clear that His holy ones are identical with His servants and that they do not belong to the human species. His angels, which are referred to in this verse, are the heavens. And the word deficiency [ tahalah ] means the same thing as are not clean in His sight. I refer to their being endowed with matter. And though they have | the purest and most luminous matter, it is — if compared to the separate intellects — obscure, dark, and not clear. As for its saying regarding the angels, Behold, He putteth no trust in His servants, it means that they have no trustworthy existence. For, according to our opinion, they are made; according to the opinion of those who profess the doctrine of the eternity of the world, they are caused. And their part in existence is not trustworthy or fixed if compared with Him, may He be exalted, the absolutely necessary being. The words, How much less one that is abominable and impure, correspond to the words, How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay. It is as if it said: How much less one that is 40. Isa. 40:15. 41. Job 4: 18-19. 42' J°b 15:15-16.
abominable and impure, the human being [ha-adam] with whom obliquity 43 is mingled, spread, as it is, through all his members. I mean to say that privation is his concomitant. c Avlah means iniquity: In the land of upright¬ ness will he deal iniquitously [yecavvel].** Its saying ish [man] 45 is like its saying adam [ human being]; for sometimes the human species is called ish [man]: He that smiteth a man [z's/z], so that he dieth.+6 This is what one ought to believe. For when man knows his own soul, makes no mistakes with regard to it, and understands every being according to what it is, he becomes calm and his thoughts are not troubled by seeking a final end for what has not that final end; or by seeking any final end for what has no final end except its own existence, which depends on the divine will — if you prefer you can also say: on the divine wisdom.
CHAPTER 14 What man ought also to consider in order to know what his own soul is worth and to make no mistake regarding this point, is what has been made clear concerning the dimensions of the spheres and of the stars and the measures of the distances separating us from them. For | the measures of all the distances with reference to half the diameter of the earth having been made clear and the dimensions of the diameter of the earth and con¬ sequently those of its half diameter being known, all the distances are known. Accordingly it has been demonstrated that the distance between the center of the earth and the highest part of the sphere of Saturn is one that could be covered in approximately eight thousand and seven hundred years of three hundred sixty-five days each, if each day a distance is covered of forty of our legal miles, of which each has two thousand of the cubits used for working purposes. Consider this great and terrifying distance. It conforms to what is said: Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the topmost of the stars, how high they are Z1 This means: can you not draw from the height of heaven a conclusion as to the remoteness of the apprehension of the deity? For if we are at such an extreme remoteness from that body, 43. “Obliquity” is the literal translation of the Arabic term used by Maimonides. Obviously the figurative meaning “moral iniquity” is intended.
1. Job 22:12.
27^ ] The Guide of the Perplexed III ■ 14 7 which in point of place is so far away from us, so that its substance and most of its actions are hidden from us, this applies all the more to the appre¬ hension of its maker, who is not a body. This great distance that has been demonstrated is only a minimum. It is not possible that the distance between the center of the earth and the concavity of the sphere of the fixed stars should be less than that measure, but it is possible that it be many times greater. For the thickness of the bodies of the spheres has only been demon¬ strated with respect to its minimum possible dimensions, as is made clear in the Epistles concerning distances. Similarly it is impossible to determine exactly the thickness of the bodies that, according to Thabit,2 reasoning forces us to admit between every two spheres. For in these bodies there are no stars from which an inference can be drawn. As for the sphere of the fixed stars, its minimum thickness is equal to the distance that can be covered in | four years. This is known from the measure of some3 of its stars, the body of each of these stars being ninety-odd times as great as that of the terrestrial globe. It is, however, possible that the thickness of their body4 is even greater. As for the ninth sphere, which causes the universe5 to accomplish the diurnal motion, its dimension is not known at all 5 for no star is to be found in it, and consequently we have no device enabling us to know its size. Consider how vast are the dimensions and how great the number of these corporeal beings. If the whole of the earth would not constitute even the smallest part of the sphere of the fixed stars, what is the relation of the human species to all these created things, and how can one of us imagine that they exist for his sake and because of him and that they are instruments for his benefit?
This is the state of things when the bodies are compared. How then would things look if you consider the existence of the intellects? Some¬ times doubts are expressed concerning the opinion of the philosophers in this matter. It is said: If we claimed that the final end of the spheres consists in the governance of, for instance, a human individual or of several individuals, this would be impossible according to philosophic speculation. However inasmuch as we think that their final end consists in the governance of the human species, there is no absurdity in thinking that the final end of these great individual bodies is the existence of the individuals of the various 2. Thabit Ibn Qurra. Cf. II 24, n. 4.
3. According to certain manuscripts: of the distance. This is a reading adopted by Ibn Tibbon, Alharizi, and Ibn Falquera.
4. Literally: its body. It seems more probable that the body of the stars, and not, as Munk would have it, the body of the sphere, is meant.
5. Literally: the all.
4$ 8 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 1+ [ 28a species, the number of which individuals cannot — according to their doc¬ trine— ever have an end. This would resemble the case of the artisan who has iron tools weighing one hundred-weight in order to manufacture a small needle weighing one grain. If this were done for the sake of one needle, this would have been bad management from the point of view of a certain speculation, even though not in an absolute sense. But in view of the fact that with the help of these heavy tools he manufactures one needle after another | and thus several hundred-weights of needles, the making of these tools is in all respects an act of wisdom and of good management. Similarly the final end of the spheres consists in the continuance of coming-to-be and passing-away; and the final end of coming-to-be and passing-away consists, as has already been said, in the existence of the human species. We can find texts and traditions that support this imagining.
However, the philosopher will resolve the doubt by saying: If the difference between the bodies of the spheres and the individuals belonging to the species subject to generation and corruption had only consisted in their respective bigness and smallness, this objection would be possible. However, seeing the difference there is between them concerning the nobleness of substance, it would have been most disgraceful if what is nobler served as an instrument for the existence of what is most base and vile.
To sum up: This doubt may be called upon to help us in our belief concerning the production of the world in time, which notion was my main object in this chapter. Besides there is the fact that I have always heard from all those who had some smattering of the science of astronomy, that what the Sages, may their memory be blessed, have said regarding distances6 was exaggerated. For they have clearly stated that the thickness of every sphere equals a distance that can be covered in five hundred years and that the distance between every two spheres can only be covered in five hundred years.7 There are seven spheres in all;8 consequently the distance of the seventh sphere, I mean its convex part, from the center of the earth can only be covered in seven thousand years. Whoever hears this must imagine that in these words there is great exaggeration and that the distance does not reach this measure. However, from what has been demonstrated with regard to distances, it has become clear to you that the distance between the center of the earth and the lower part of the sphere of Saturn, which is the seventh sphere, can only be covered in approximately seven thousand and twenty-four years. As for the distance mentioned by us, which can only be 6. I. e., the astronomical distances. 7. Cf, J.T., Berakhoth, la.
8. According to the talmudic Sages.
The Guide of the Perplexed III • 15 2ga] 459 covered in eight thousand seven hundred years, it | goes up to the concavity of the eighth sphere. When you find that [the Sages] say that between every two spheres there is such and such a distance, this refers to the thickness of the body found between the spheres and does not mean that there is a vacuum there.
Do not ask of me to show that everything they have said concerning astronomical matters conforms to the way things really are. For at that time mathematics were imperfect. They did not speak about this as transmitters of dicta of the prophets, but rather because in those times they were men of knowledge in these fields or because they had heard these dicta from the men of knowledge who lived in those times. Because of this I will not say with regard to dicta of theirs, which, as we find, corresponds to the truth, that they are incorrect or have been said fortuitously. For whenever it is possible to interpret the words of an individual in such a manner that they conform to a being whose existence has been demonstrated, this is the con¬ duct that is most fitting and most suitable for an equitable man of excellent nature.
CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 15 The impossible has a stable nature, one whose stability is constant and is not made by a maker; it is impossible to change it in any way. Hence the power over the maker of the impossible is not attributed to the deity. This is a point about which none of the men of speculation differs in any way. And none but those who do not understand the intelligibles, is ignorant of this. The point about which there is difference of opinion among all the men of speculation concerns a certain species of imaginable things, with regard to which one1 of the men of speculation says that they belong to the class of impossible things regarding which that power to change them cannot be attributed to the deity, whereas another says that | it belongs to the class of possible things depending on the power of the deity to be brought into existence when He wills. Thus, for example, the coming together of con¬ traries at the same instant and at the same place and the transmutation of substances, I mean the transformation of a substance into an accident and of an accident into a substance, or the existence of a corporeal substance without i. Or: some.
460 The Guide of the Perplexed III ■ 15 [ 29 b