Maimonides and his approuch to anthropomorphic verses of the bible

Document Type : علمی پژوهشی

Authors

• maryamsadat mahmoodi ¹
• f m ²
• f h ²

¹ oloum va tahghighat

² a

10.22067/philosophy.v49i2.64867

Abstract

Encounter with the anthropomorphic verses of the Jewish Holy Scripture and its interpretation has been of concern to the Jewish philosophers in the Middle Ages. This issue has been of more importance especially for the Jews living in the Islamic jurisdiction because of the Muslims considered the Jews as anthropomorphist. Thus, the Jewish scholars attempted to interpret the anthropomorphic verses in such a way as to be compatible to the Transcendence and Uniqueness of God. From among these philosophers, Maimonides (Ibn Maimūn), who has been regarded as the most renowned figures of Jewish history, has undertaken to study and interpret the anthropomorphic verses of the Old Testament in a new way. With an emphasis on the Uniqueness and Transcendence of God, he chose the ta’wīl method in the encounter with anthropomorphic verses. Maimonides tried to define the real meaning of the words used about God and compare it to a transcendent and metaphysical word. Studying the ambiguous words, Maimonides concluded that the common words used between God and man are used only in a homonymic form because there is no similitude between God and the creatures.

Keywords

• Maimonides
• metaphorical verses
• interpretation
• equivocal

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