The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Moses Maimonides (Author), Shlomo Pines (Author), Leo Strauss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1974

This monument of rabbinical exegesis written at the end of the twelfth century has exerted an immense and continuing influence upon Jewish thought. Its aim is to liberate people from the tormenting perplexities arising from their understanding of the Bible according only to its literal meaning. This edition contains extensive introductions by Shlomo Pines and Leo Strauss, a leading authority on Maimonides.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (December 15, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226502309
• ISBN-13: 978-0226502304
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Translation Available of an Arabic Masterpiece, May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

There is no translation of Maimonides' Guide which compares to this, and, although Pines is known to side more with the Strausian school, his views are rarely if at all worked into this translation. For Maimonidian studies, this is a must buy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best translation of an essential work, January 5, 2002

By 

R. J. Corbett (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This is volume one of a two volume set, so be sure to get both volumes. Volume one contains two interpretive essays, one by Leo Strauss and one by the translator, the former alone making this translation worthy of purchase, according to the Times Literary Supplement. Maimonides' work itself is an intentionally tangled web of reason, and casual readers will likely leave disappointed with its obscure style. Maimonides assumes a great deal of Scriptural knowledge and a familiarity with the most important commentators of his time. Nevertheless, for those willing to put in the effort both in learning the fundamentals of religion and in exploring an almost endless maze of logic, Maimonides will sketch the outlines of his view of philosophy and faith.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limitations, October 24, 2010

By 

Patricia Heil "attitude counts" (Greenbelt, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: THE GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED: VOLUME ONE (Paperback)

The reasons for reading this book and the second volume are limited. One is that you are studying Maimonides' thought, another that you are studying medieval religion, and so on. But if you really want to know what Judaism means or what the Pentateuch means, this work has limited usefulness.

I have to admit that my viewpoint was prejudiced by reading Strauss' introduction. He makes excruciatingly clear that Maimonides was an Aristotelian. Maimonides believed that there is no way to understand Pentateuch unless you have first studied the science of nature which to him means Aristotle and nothing else. On the face of it this is false. Judaism developed and the Pentateuch was put into writing before Aristotle was ever born or thought of, and generations of Jews operated their culture before Aristotle, and without knowing any of his work after it became available. In fact Greek philosophy was prohibited reading for a long time. That's why the Guide won't really tell you as much about Judaism as it does about Maimonides.

That's aside from the fact that Aristotelian science is a dead letter now. What you will find when you get to volume 2 is that the Mutakallim, against whom Maimonides argues, were right about some things that Aristotle got wrong; they were atomists and believed that a vacuum could exist. The technology to decide these issues as physics didn't exist in Maimonides' time, and even scientific method was half a millennium in the future.

I have to wonder about the student Joseph to whom the work is addressed. Maimonides apparently felt he was intelligent enough to understand the Maaseh Breshit and Maaseh Merkavah, and only lacked the necessary Aristotelian viewpoint. Joseph didn't stay with Maimonides long enough to study Aristotle with him and the work is an attempt to supply alternative training with the caveat that without actually knowing Aristotle, Joseph is just going to have to accept Maimonides' authority as to the meaning. Maybe Joseph was like me: he realized that Judaism and Pentateuch are older than Aristotle and therefore unrelated; and he wasn't willing to just accept the authority of somebody who will only teach from that untenable position. Whatever the reason, he disappeared into history and we don't even know if he ever read the Guide written specifically for him.

I think there are also problems with the translation, or else Maimonides chose to import meanings into Hebrew that it doesn't properly bear. A discussion in Volume 1 about the Hebrew verb "qum" seems to ignore the structure of the Hebrew verb system, and uses examples of "haqimoti" as if they meant physically standing upright, when that verb form actually means "establish"; the discussion fails to reflect this definition. The root does not determine the meaning of the verb, it only relates it to a conjugational paradigm. Maimonides uses this verb in a series of discussions explaining away the anthropomorphisms in Pentateuch.

The original text is available free online, so is ibn Tibbon's Hebrew translation and an English translation. It's up to you to decide what you can use the Guide for and whether you want to accept the authority of the translator as correctly representing what Maimonides said, or of Maimonides as a commentator on the Pentateuch.