Stage 3 · Moses Maimonides (1138–1204)

Moreh Nevukhim: Part III, Chapter 50 — Narratives in the Torah and Their Purposes

דלאלהֵ אלחאירין — The Guide of the Perplexed

Every narrative passage in the Torah serves either to establish a principle of faith or to regulate action and prevent injustice. Maimonides explains passages that seem superfluous — genealogies of Noah's descendants, the families of Seir, the kings of Edom, the wilderness stations — each serving a specific religious or legal purpose. The genealogies establish the unity of mankind from one ancestor; the story of the flood teaches divine justice; the Sabean kings of Edom warn against foreign rulers; the wilderness itinerary preserves the memory of the great miracle of forty years in the desert. Maimonides closes with the principle: what seems vain in Scripture is so only because we do not see the details that made it necessary.

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Part Three · Chapter Fifty — Narratives in the Torah and Their Purposes

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THERE are in the Law portions which include deep wisdom, but have been misunderstood by many persons.; they require, therefore, an explanation. I mean the narratives contained in the Law which many consider as being of no use whatever; e.g., the list of the various families descended from Noah, with their names and their territories (Gen. x.); the sons of Seir the Horite (ibid. 36:20-30); the kings that reigned in Edom (ibid. 31, seq.); and the like. There is a saying of our Sages (B Ṭ. Sanh. 99b) that the wicked king Manasse frequently held disgraceful meetings for the sole purpose of criticising such passages of the Law. "He held meetings and made blasphemous observations on Scripture, saying, Had Moses nothing else to write than, And the sister of Lotan was Timna" (Gen. 36:22)? With reference to such passages, I will first give a general principle, and then discuss them seriatim, as I have done in the exposition of the reasons of the precepts.

Every narrative in the Law serves a certain purpose in connexion with religious teaching. It either helps to establish a principle of faith, or to regulate our actions, and to prevent wrong and injustice among men; and I will show this in each case.

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In like manner there is a good reason for every passage the object of which we cannot see. We must always apply the words of our Sages: "It is not a vain thing for you" (Deut. 32:47), and if it seems vain, it seems your fault.

English is a working draft — alignment is sentence-by-sentence.

Scripture cited in this chapter

Jeremiah 12:2 ↗Psalms 4:5 ↗