The Religions Book

184

GOD IS INCORPOREAL,

INDIVISIBLE, AND

UNIQUE

S

ince biblical times, belief in

one God has been a central

feature of Jewish religion. Yet

the idea that God is one may be

understood in a variety of ways:

that is, God could be the greatest of

many divine beings, or God could

be a single being composed of

several different elements. In the

Middle Ages, a number of Jewish

philosophers in the Muslim sphere

of influence sought to demonstrate

that the oneness of God, properly

understood, excluded all of these

other possibilities.

Moses Maimonides was a

particularly influential philosopher

of this school. He explained the

IN CONTEXT

KEY THINKER

Moses Maimonides

WHEN AND WHERE

12th century, North Africa

BEFORE

30 BCE–50 CE The Jewish

philosopher Philo describes

the God of the Bible in Greek

philosophical terms, as lacking

Aristotelian attributes.

933 CE Rabbi Sa‘adia Gaon’s

Book of Beliefs and Opinions

proposes several arguments

for God’s unity.

AFTER

13th century The Zohar,

a Jewish mystical text,

propounds the idea that an

infinite and unified Godhead

became manifest in creation

and in ten emanations.

c.1730 Rabbi Moshe Chaim

Luzzatto’s The Way of God

states that God encompasses

all perfections, but these

exist in him as a single,

essential attribute.

God has no physical or

mental attributes that we

can describe, as these cannot

exist outside his oneness.

God is eternal, because we

cannot conceive of a time at

which he did not exist.

God is infinite, because we

cannot imagine any limits to

his presence and power.

God is all-powerful,

because there can be

nothing over which he

does not have control.

God has a unity and nature unlike

anything that we can comprehend.

DEFINING THE INDEFINABLE