Samuel Ibn Tibbon and the Esoteric Character of theGuide of the Perplexed

Abstract

Samuel ben Judah Ibn Tibbon, translator of theGuide of the Perplexedand of other treatises of Maimonides, is in many ways also the first interpreter of Maimonides' philosophic teaching. The orientation of his interpretation of Maimonides' philosophy is already seen in his early writings—epistles, critical notes appended to his translations of theGuide, a philosophic glossary and the introductions to his translations. His interpretation was extensively developed, however, in his later and more comprehensive treatises—theCommentary on EcclesiastesandMa'amar yiqqavu hamayim. These treatises are explicitly devoted to philosophic exegesis of biblical verses, but are deeply impregnated with the proper interpretation of Maimonides' philosophy and with its problematics. Samuel Ibn Tibbon's writing had a decisive influence on Maimonidean thinkers throughout the thirteenth century, among whom may be numbered the authors of two comprehensive commentaries on theGuide, Moses ben Solomon of Salerno, and Zerahiah ben Shealtiel Hen.