Emunoth ve-Deoth

For the doctrine of the creation of the world Saadia offers four proofs; three of these show the influence of Aristotelian philosophy, which may be traced also elsewhere in this author's writings. After his rational demonstrations has led him to the conclusion that the world was created ex nihilo, he proceeds to state and refute the twelve theories of the origin of the world. This part of the first section gives a most interesting insight into Saadia's knowledge of the Greek philosophers, which he probably derived from reading Aristotle. At the end of the section Saadia refutes certain objections to the Jewish doctrine of Creation, especially those that proceed from the concepts of time and space.

The theory of God is prefaced by a development of the view that human knowledge arises by degrees from the merest sensuous impressions to the most subtle concepts; so that the idea of the divine, which transcends all other knowledge in subtlety, is itself a proof of its verity. The concept of God as a creator necessarily implies the attributes of life, power, and knowledge. In like manner the concept of the Creator demonstrates the unity of God. For this view three direct and three indirect proofs are offered by Saadia, the latter consisting in demonstrating that dualism is absurd. See apophatic theology and divine simplicity.

The thesis of the absolute unity of God is established by a refutation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which arises, in Saadia's opinion, from a misinterpretation of the three attributes of God already named: life, power, and knowledge. Connected with the refutation of the dogma of the Trinity is an outline of the various theories respecting the person of Jesus that reveals an accurate knowledge of Christian controversies. See Jewish principles of faith: Divine Unity.

To render possible an understanding of the monotheistic concept of God in all its purity, and to free the statements of the Scriptures from their apparent contradictions of the spirituality of the absolute idea of God, Saadia interprets all the difficulties of the Bible that bear upon this problem, using the scheme of the ten Aristotelian categories, none of which, he shows, may be applied to God. At the conclusion of this section the author pictures with deep religious feeling the relation to the Deity sustained by the human soul when permeated by the true knowledge of God.

The mitzvot "divine commandments" revealed in the Torah have been given to man by the grace of God as a means to attain the highest blessedness. According to a classification borrowed by Saadia from the Muʿtazila but based upon an essentially Jewish view, the commandments are divided into those of reason and of revelation, although even the latter may be explained rationally, as is shown by numerous examples. An excursus, in which Saadia attacks the view of the Hindu sect of the "Barahima" (Brahmans) to the effect that man needs no prophets, introduces his account of prophecy and his apology for the Prophets. This is followed by theses on the essential content of the Bible and the credibility of Biblical tradition, by a detailed refutation of the Christian and Islamic view that the Law revealed in Israel has been abrogated, and by a polemic against a series of Hiwi al-Balkhi's objections to the authority of the Scriptures.

The foundation of this section is the theory of the freedom of the will and its reconciliation with the omnipotence and omniscience of God. In its opening portion Saadia postulates the anthropocentric doctrine that regards man as the object of all creation; and at its close he explains under eight headings those passages of the Bible that might cause doubt regarding the freedom of the acts of man. See Free will In Jewish thought.

Men fall into ten classes with regard to merit and demerit, and their religious and moral bearings. In his description of the first two, the pious and the impious, Saadia devotes himself in the main to the problem of the sufferings of the pious and the good fortune of the impious, while the description of the last class, that of the contrite, leads him to detailed considerations, based upon the Bible, of repentance, prayer, and other evidences of human piety.

His view on the soul is prefaced by a survey of six other theories. The list is a parallel of those provided already by Aristotle and Pseudo-Plutarch.[2] He states the relation of the soul to the body, the basis of their union, their cooperation in human activity, their coexistence or the appointed term of life, their separation or death, and the state of the soul after death. The section concludes with a refutation of the doctrine of metempsychosis.

Here Saadia refutes the objections made, on the basis of nature, reason, and the Bible, to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and presents the proof for it contained in tradition. He then discusses ten questions bearing on this doctrine, which are of interest as "affording an insight into popular views that then prevailed, and which, despite their singularity, could not be ignored even by such a man as Saadia" (Guttmann).

The teachings regarding Messianic redemption are based almost entirely on statements of the Bible and the Talmud, the definite year of salvation being fixed by an interpretation of well-known passages in the Book of Daniel. In the concluding portion the author refutes those who assume that the Messianic prophecies refer to the time of the Second Temple; and he argues also against the Christian doctrine of the Messiah.

Saadia demonstrates that the recompenses of the world to come are proved by reason, the Bible, and tradition, and answers various questions bearing upon this subject.

The system of ethics contained in the appendix is based for the most part on a description and criticism of thirteen different objects of life, to which Saadia adds his own counsels for rational and moral living. He adds also that in the case of each of the five senses only the concordant union of sensuous impressions is beneficial, thus showing how great is the need of a harmonious combination of the qualities and the impulses of the soul of man. He concludes with the statement that he intends his book only to purify and ennoble the hearts of his readers.

Although the work was originally in Arabic, it was translated by rabbi and physician Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, who also translated the Kuzari of Judah Halevi. This version was first printed in Constantinople in 1562 and frequently republished, while the original was edited in Arabic characters by Samuel Landauer (Leiden, 1880),[3] and another (superior) Judeo-Arabic edition prepared by Yosef Qafih in 1970.

• Saadia, Gaon (1948). The Book of Beliefs and Opinions. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300008654.

Another translation, or rather paraphrase, of the Kitāb al-Amānāt wa l-Iʿtiqādāt, of uncertain authorship, is contained in several manuscripts (the most important being MS. Vatican 266); large portions of this rendering were edited by Gollancz (ha-Nakdan, Berechiah (1902). The ethical treatises of Berachya son of Rabbi Natronai Ha-Nakdan: being the compendium and the Marṣref. David Nutt.; comp. "Monatsschrift," xlvi. 536). It was the principal means by which Saadia's philosophy was known to non-Arabic speaking Jews during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Paraphrase was an important and influential document to the evolution of theology of the early medieval Haside Ashkenaz (not to be confused with Hasidic Judaism of the 18th century), the Maimonidean controversy and early Kabbalah. Its language is highly poetic. The seventh section, on the resurrection, is contained in two versions, the first of which, the basis of the translation of Ibn Tibbon, has been edited by Bacher in the "Steinschneider Festschrift," pp. 98–112, and the second by Landauer. This paraphrase, entitled Pitron Sefer ha-Emunot ve-Ḥerṣav ha-Binot, is to be published in its entirety by the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Humanities.