Alleg-orical Interpretation
The head and front of all philosophical alleporism the Jews in the Middle Aires was iiiiiloiiht-
among
edly Mainionides. although of en'irsc he Van not be held responsible for the exeessive use made of it by those who ides. followed in his footsteps. He was the first Jewish thinker to si't up the principle that the supertieial sense of Scripture compares with the inner or allegorical signitication as silver does with gold. The benefit to be drawn by men from the lileral word is quite insignilicant <'oni pared with that de rivable from the perception of that deeper truth which may be learned from the word's inmost sense (Fntroiluclion to the " Jloreh," Arabic te.xt. (i//). Maiinonidesdistinguishes two kinds of allegorism that of each individual word of a passage and that of the passage as a whole. Of the former liis interjireta" tion of Jacob's dream is an example. The "angels are the prophets, wlio "ascend" the hnlder of |)erception " whose to|) reached to heaven "—that is. to who forever "stands" above it. When the (}od angels have reached a certain height of iK'rce]ition "they descend on it" in order to instruct men (" MoThe .second kind is illustrated by reh." i. 15, 22). Prov. vii. 5, where in the admonition against the adidterous woman he iicrceives the warning against all carnal desires; for woman is the allegorical designation for matter, or the animal craving (Introd. Concerning the relation of the inner mean7rt, S(i). ing to the .superficial one, JIainionides somewhat inconsistently d(!clares that the literal sense nuist give way when it contradicts the postidates of philosophy, and yet he leaves the Bililical miracles and many prophecies midisturlied in llirir literal acceptation, as not being irrecoiieilable with his particular jihilosophy. His statement that if the eternity of the world were philosophiially proven, "the gates of Alle.sorical Interpretation would not lie closed" (for this view, see Bacher, " Bibelexegese Mose Maimuni's," pp. l-t-17, So), is characteristic. All legal enactments, however, must be taken literally, and he energetically protests against that Christian allegorization of the Law which entirely strips away and destroys the significance of its conunands and prohibitions ("Iggeret Teinan," eil. Vienna, 1874. Maimoniiies' allegorism is tlnis confined, as p. 18). it were, between thcbarriersof his rationalism on the one hand and his fidelity to tradition on the other. But his interpretation of the Canticles (",Moreh,"iii. 51, r2(>)andof'Job(('i('(/. iii. 22. 4-14 f<.«('7.) contains premonitions of that excessive allegorization which after his death so strongly menaced the position of ralibinicalJudaism in southern France. Maimonides" modest conceptions of allegorism luidoubtcdly influenced such writers as David Kindii. as Bacher (AVinter and Wunsche,"JudischcLiteratur,"ii. 316) points out, so that the attempt to set up Samuel ibn Tibbon as the originator of the Proven(;al school of allegorists, with the a-ssumption of Christian infiuence. is enIbn Tilibon's allegorism in his tirely gratuitous. work." Yikkawu liaMayim," is jihysieal rather than thai is, ethical, as the Greek philo.sophers would say occupies itself chiefly with the Being of (!od and with natural phenomena whereas Christian or Philonie allegorism, which is by some claimed to have influenced him. is mainly ethical, seeking in Scripture for the philosophical foundation of moral truths and of the idea of man's relation to Cod. In the Maimonidcan "Pirke ha-Ha/.lahah " (Chapters on Happiness) largely interpolated by later writers (see Bacher. in "jew. Quart. Rev." i.. 27(1289) and the "Ethical Will" (Zawwaah), falsely ascribed to Maimonides, the allegorization of Bil>lical personages and events is carried still further;
Maimon-
—
—
—
—
—
—
408
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Pharaoh is the evil inclination; Moses, the intellect Egypt, the body; her princes, its members; the land Thus the Bibof Goshen, the heart. Ileal narrative connected with these is PseudoMaimoni- simply a representation of the conflict dean 'Wri- between human rea.son and luiman Even pa.ssion for sujieriority in man. tings. the minute and t<(hnical details of the construction of the desert talicrnaeli' are allegorized into a physiological portrayal of the human body, its mend]ers and their functions. Although this "higher wisdom "at first <lid not dare to undermine the historical an<l legal pas.sages of Scri])ture. accepting them in their true liti'ralness, it was not long before it aspired to complete iidiuence over the whole range of Scriptural int<'riiretation. The fundamental proposition of these allegorists was then fornudateil, to the effect that all the narrative ])ortions of Scripture, and especially those from the initial verse of (Jenesis down to F... XX. 2. are not to be taken literally jnD IJ? n't;*S"l3D
biifi
h^n
min "From
Creation to I{evelati(m
all is
(Minhat Kenaot, p. 1.53); and that even some of the legislative enactments are to be undi-rstood symbolically. First of the conservative allegorists parable
"
respected the literal word was Jacob b. Abba Mari Anatoli, at the beginning of the thirteenth In his " Ma mad ha Talniidim " (Goad for century.
who
I
Scholars), he allegorizes the story of Noah to the effect that, in order to preserve himself against the waters of sin, every man nnist make himself an ark oit of his good deeds, and this ark nuist consist of three stories, the mathematical, jihysical. and metaphysical elements (I.e. Via). Even Anatoli, however,
understands the Wisdom-Books of the
The Oppo-
Bible to consist of philosophical retleclions oidy. Although Levy b. AbraMaimon- ham, of Villefranche, who was so prominent in the conflict concerning Maiides, monides, protests most stoutly against radical allegorism, he, in his "Liwyat Hen." nevertheless allegorizes the campaign of the four kings
sition to
against five (Gen. xiv.), making of Chedorlaomer u representation of the Imagination, the leader in the battle of the five senses against the four elements. From the same school also came purely allegorical commentaries U]ion Scripture, of which the following, out of the few fragments extant to-day, is an illustration; "Out of the house of Levi" (Ex. ii. 1
)
— that means, from organic corporal a.ssociation ('p — — —
"went a man" that is. Form and "look luiioni to wife a daughter of Levi "; Form unites with MatFrom this union a S(m is born. Reason. "The ter.
datighfer of Pharaoh " is Active Reason, who is the daughter of God the Hecompenser (nSTlD, derived from )}-S- to recompense), and who is therefore called Bithiah (literally, the daughter of God), as
adoptive mother was traditionally named It is of the nature of Active Reason to work among lower beings, and make their passive reason active reason too; wherefore it is said (verse 5) "the daughter of Pharaoh came down" (compare the Zunz " Jubelschrift," p. 159). That such explanations of Scrijiture in point of fact are tantamount to a perfect negation of its words is incontrovertible, and the conservatives of Provence ]Moses'
(Meg.
13<0.
all the means at of the Jews from France in the beginning of the fourteenth century put an end to the conflict, but the subversive principles of extreme allegorism had no doubt by that Gersonides, untime been completely checked. doubtedly the most "important genius among the
were
justified in op|iosing it
their
command.
by
The expulsion
