Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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bac kground. What makes this c onversation distinc tive is no unique flavor or ac c ent,
no values or c onc erns that are unshared by others, but a respec t for prior Jewish
efforts found worthy as points of referenc e or departure as the c onversation
c ontinues.
The unity and distinc tiveness of Jewish philosophy, then, are both c onc eptual
and hist oric al. T here is a historic al c ontinuity from one partic ipant to the next – as
t here is in general philosophy. And t here is a c rit ic al reappropriat ion and
redefinition of the elements of the tradition in eac h generation – as there must be
in any religious or c ult ural t ransmission.
T he first major Jewish philosopher was Philo (c a. 20 BCE–c a. CE 50), a
c ultured Alexandrian whose c ommitme nts to his people were evident in his
embassy t o Caligula in t heir behalf, but also in his c reat ive synt hesis of Plat onic ,
St oic , and Biblic al ideas.... Adapt ing t he St oic t ec hnique of allegory, Philo present ed
the Torah as a paradigm of the rational legislation Plato had called for, a law that
grounds its commands in reasons, not sheer sanctions or obscure mysteries.
Underlying the Law’s authorit y was God’s role as t he Creat or, not as arbit rary lord
but as sourc e of the wisdom manifest in nature and ec hoed in the Mosaic norms
pursuing human harmony, c reativity, and c harity. It was by wisdom that God made
his love manifest. For the plan of nature, the Logos (a concept appropriated by
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers) was at onc e nature’s immane nt arc hetype
and God’s transc endent attribute. In nature and in the Law we grasp, as it were,
God’s idea.
Philo spoke of philosophy as the handmaiden of theology. But it was to
philosophy, not astrology or textual stratigraphy, that he entrusted theology.
Through his eyes we see the Torah as a philosophic al text – Genesis, not just as a
c reation myth but as a self-c onsc ious effort to fathom the natural world, by
reference to the act of an utterly transcendent – yet not insc rutable – God.... Just
as modern Bible scholars assay the poetic chastity of Genesis against the
theomac hies and theogonies of anc ient Near Eastern myths, Philo assays Mosaic
nat uralism and rat ionalism against t he Hellenist ic myst ery c ult s. He finds in Moses
t he philosophic al lawgiver for whom Plat o had hoped. But relianc e on a single
individual’s disc ret ion is gone, displac ed by a c alm c onfidenc e in t he norms of t he
Law; and philosophy guides the reading of those norms. For human wisdom reflec ts
the wisdom that founded the Law.
T he first syst emat ic Jewish philosopher was Saadiah Gaon (882–942), a
pioneer exegete, grammarian, liturgist, and lexicographer. Born in Egypt, Saadiah
st udied in Tiberias and led the ancient Talmudic academy of Pumpedita, by now
loc at ed in Baghdad. His Book of Crit ic ally Selec t ed Beliefs and Convic t ions surveys
the views on major issues and defends those judged best-founded in reason and
sc ript ure – c reat ion, providenc e, and ac c ount abilit y, but also moral and epist emic
objec t ivism.. Saadiah rebuts skepticism and moral/aesthetic monism, favoring a
humanizing pluralism over t he Neoplat onic , myst ic al, or asc et ic appet it e for
simplic it y or aust erit y. Maimonides speaks of Saadiah as a practitioner of kalam, an
apologet ic , dialec t ic al t heology root ed in aut horit y. But Saadiah’s Biblic al
hermeneut ic s are as informed by philosophy as his philosophic al views are by
sc ripture. Convinc ed of the Torah’s verac ity, he insists that Biblic al expressions be
t aken as familiarly underst ood only if logic and sc ienc e, sound t radit ion and ot her