85
See also: Johannes Scotus Eriugena 332 ■ Thomas Aquinas 88–95 ■
Meister Eckhart 333 ■ Søren Kierkegaard 194–95
THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
This is because an attribute is
either accidental (capable of change)
or essential. One of my accidental
attributes, for example, is that I am
sitting; others are that I have gray
hair and a long nose. But I would
still be what I essentially am even if
I were standing, red-haired, and had
a snub-nose. Being human—that is,
being a rational, mortal animal—is
my essential attribute: it defines
me. God, it is generally agreed, has
no accidental attributes, because
God is unchanging. In addition,
says Maimonides, God cannot have
any essential attributes either,
because they would be defining,
and God cannot be defined. So God
has no attributes at all.
Speaking about God
Maimondes claims that we can say
things about God, but they must be
understood as telling us about God’s
actions, rather than God’s being.
Most discussions in the Torah should
be understood in this way. So when
we are told that “God is a creator”,
we must understand this as stating
what God does, rather than the
sort of thing God is. If we were to
consider the sentence “John is a
writer”, we might normally take it
to mean that being a writer is John’s
profession. But Maimonides asks us
to consider only what has been
done: in this instance John has
written words. The writing has been
brought about by John but it does
not tell us anything about him.
Maimonides also accepts that
statements which seem to attribute
qualities to God can be understood
if they are taken as double negatives.
“God is powerful”: should be taken
to mean that God is not powerless.
Imagine a game in which I think of
a thing and tell you what it is not
(it is not large, it is not red...) until
you guess what it is. The difference
in the case of God is that we have
only the negations to guide us: we
cannot say what God is. ■Moses Maimonides
Moses Maimonides (also
known as Rambam) was born
in 1135 in Cordoba, Spain, into
a Jewish family. His childhood
was rich in cross-cultural
influences: he was educated
in both Hebrew and Arabic,
and his father, a rabbinic
judge, taught him Jewish law
within the context of Islamic
Spain. His family fled Spain
when the Berber Almohad
dynasty came to power in
1148, and lived nomadically
for 10 years until they settled
first in Fez (now in Morocco)
and then Cairo. The family’s
financial problems led
Maimonides to train as a
physician, and his skill led to
a royal appointment within
only a few years. He also
worked as a rabbinic judge,
but this was an activity for
which he thought it wrong
to accept any payment. He
was recognized as head of
the Jewish community of
Cairo in 1191, and after his
death his tomb became a
place of Jewish pilgrimage.Key works1168 Commentary on the
Mishna
1168 –78 Mishneh Torah
119 0 Guide of the PerplexedWhen the intellects
contemplate God’s essence,
their apprehension turns
into incapacity.
MaimonidesThe Mishneh Torah was a complete
restatement of Jewish Oral Law, which
Maimonides wrote in plain Hebrew so
that “young and old” could know and
understand all the Jewish observances.