ABSTRACT
SAADYA’S exegesis of the Old Testament, both in his Arabic translation of it and in his commentaries on several books which have survived, represents the first systematic attempt at setting out in coherent treatises its legal, ethical and theological teachings. To achieve this, Saadya has made extensive studies of Hebrew grammar and lexicography: he wanted to establish the plain meaning of Scripture. He became thus the founder of Hebrew philology among the Jews. Besides, as is to be expected from the head of the principal academy of traditional learning, he brought the traditional interpretation of the Bible fully to bear on his own investigation of the text. Being, moreover, steeped in the culture of his Islamic surroundings, he made full use of the secular knowledge of his age, which spread as the result of the renaissance of Greek science and Hellenistic philosophy, and applied the findings of reason to the text: especially if the literal meaning would be incompatible with reason, Saadya would bring out the inner meaning of a word or passage. As a teacher he was determined to make his generation understand the lesson of the Bible in a language they spoke and understood: Arabic. Fierce opposition on the part of the Karaites, who rejected Jewish tradition and fought it by going back to the Bible which they closely examined, made a fresh authoritative interpretation of the Bible necessary. This interpretation was not only to vindicate the orthodox tradition but aimed at a revival of Rabbanite Judaism. 1 The message of the Bible as the eternal fundament of Judaism had to be interpreted afresh so as to answer the doubts and confusion caused not only by the Karaites, but also by adherents of philosophical schools as they were found among the Muslims. The battle between orthodoxy and enlightened philosophical free-thinkers was in full swing in Saadya’s time: scepticism and confusion found their way also into the Jewish camp. The clear, unmistakable teachings of the Bible were to be once more the true guide to a full, moral life. The precepts of the Bible setting out a way of life with clear injunctions for the relations between man and man and man and his Creator were to be made accessible to every Jew: hence Saadya’s life-long work on the Bible, including his great so-called philosophical magnum opus. Even in this work, the first systematic exposition of the basic ideas of Judaism, the theologian and teacher takes first place, only that Saadya employed the philosophical method and philosophical argument. This Book of Beliefs and Convictions is actually a primer of Theology more philosophico.
