72 CHAPTER THREE
words to suggest that he accepted the book as an authentic, authoritative
work, or that he condoned the book’s anthropomorphism. Quite on the
contrary, he promises to devote a book to explain the Bible’s imagery as
precisely that: imagery. The suggestion that he saw any value in a book
that developed, on the basis of biblical verses, an anthropomorphic per-
ception of God is no more likely than to say that he accepted, at any
stage of his life, a literal understanding of the verse mentioning God’s
mouth.^81
Nevertheless, Maimonides obviously did change his mind: not in the
attitude to the book, but in the policy toward discussing it. As a general
rule, Maimonides tries to avoid criticizing the Sages, lest such criticism
be interpreted as challenging Rabbinic authority. Therefore, although he
is far from espousing the book’s content, he also does not criticize it
openly.^82 One may assume that, when fi rst composing the Mishneh To-
rah, he intended to tread gently, and to prepare the ground for a later
discussion of shiur qoma. As he never wrote the planned books on mi-
drash and on prophetic language, this promised discussion never materi-
alized. At some point later, however, a question addressed to him high-
lighted the popularity of the book, as well as its reputation as dealing
with “formidable issues, pertaining to physics or to theology.” At this
point Maimonides saw the danger of this book, whose topic he identifi ed
as specifi cally anthropomorphic, as more pressing. He may also have re-
alized that his soft- spoken, vague words could have been misinterpreted.
He therefore implicitly refers to this previous position, and explains it,
saying:
I have never thought that this is a composition of the Sages... ;
God forbid that this would be one of their compositions! This
[book] is nothing but a composition of one of the Christian preach-
ers (ahadha-darshanı ̄nal-rum). The bottom line is that it is a great
virtue to destroy this book and to wipe out its memory. [For it is
written:] “And make no mention of the name of other gods” [Ex.
23:13]—and whoever has a bodily stature is undoubtedly an other
god.”^83And indeed, Maimonides followed his own ruling, removing any refer-
ence to the book from his Commentary of the Mishnah.^84
(^81) Num. 12:8 is explained in the Mishneh Torah, the Foundations of the Law (Yesodei ha-
Torah), 7:6
(^82) See chap. 4, below.
(^83) Responsa, 200– 201;Epistles, 578.
(^84) See Shelat, Epistles, 578n3.