Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in Hebrew Scripture, Philo of Alexandria, and Maimonides

Jacques Émile Édouard Brandon

Shema Yisrael

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." - Deuteronomy 6:4,5 KJV*

As we continue our discussion of the tripartite transcendental virtues of truth, beauty, and goodness characteristic of Classical Greek philosophy, I would like to make a cursory, non-exhaustive segue way into some of the significant Jewish contributions that permeated and transformed nearly all subsequent religious, artistic, and intellectual development in Western civilisation.

The Hebrew Scriptures

There of course is a surplus of Hebrew scripture that one could consider including canonical, apocryphal, as well as countless Rabbinic commentaries. However, for the purpose of this essay I'll be limiting my sources to the Tanakh, that is to say the Torah (pentateuch), Nevi'im (prophets), and Ketuvim (other writings) that roughly correspond to what is otherwise known as the Old Testament or Hebrew bible. Certainly there is much to be expressed concerning truth, beauty, and goodness in the Tanakh which we'll subsequently consider.

It is easy to pick up on a correspondence with Greek, particularly Platonic philosophy in the concept of Love (as Eros) being the drawing, attractive force towards the One. Admittedly though, there is a different emphasis to be found in Hebrew scripture than Greek metaphysical thought. This is exemplified in the above cited Shema Yisrael, a central feature of the Jewish call to prayer (Barechu) in which God's unity is the point of emphasis. Our primary obligation towards Him is such love that surpasses mere attraction so as to indicate responsible action on our part. That virtue of love is to be manifested in its own tripartite arrangement: the metaphorical heart, soul, and might that correspond to our emotions, reason, and physical body; in other words the harmonious alignment of our entirety of being. Here we see a fascinating similarity with the hierarchy of being outlined by Plato of the vegetal, animal, and human souls that correspond to physical, emotional, and rational aspects of man appropriately proportioned in the harmonised individual. With a careful reading what begins to emerge here is the basis for a great deal of compatibility between these world views.

So what was the ancient Hebrew relationship to truth, beauty, and goodness? Well, let's start with the Good.  In the Hebrew cosmology God brings light, the earth, and all life upon it in six creative periods or "days" after which he reflects, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." - Genesis 1:31. Here we see it positively asserted that the physical creation, the material world is good. This is possible because God himself is repeatedly associated with the good to the point of complete identification. Therefore when he gives goodness, God gives of himself. When God shows us the good, he reveals himself to us and invites us to participate in that goodness. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" - Micah 6:8

If the Good is the very being of God then truth appears to be a closely corresponding manifestation, "truth shall be to them that devise good." - Proverbs 14:22. In the Tanakh we find the familiar metaphor of truth with light. Truth is thus revelatory and identified with the word of God, with his speech. Furthermore, such divine truth is eternal, "the truth of the Lord endureth for ever." - Psalms 117:2. He is described repeatedly as the God of truth, truth being what pours out from the good. Along with truth are associated countless other virtues, prominent among them: mercy, peace, and especially justice. In fact, it is the truth of God's word as recorded in his laws and commandments that provide the basis for a just society. The word of truth is in some way alive and animating. God searches for men of truth to follow in His way or path, to walk in truth as a dynamic activity. Here again, I think we can point to a certain shift of emphasis in Jewish thought that sees in the notion of truth more than the logical certainty of the Greeks. For the devout, truth was instead embraced as a highly motivational virtue that organises human life and must be not merely understood but acted out.

Alexandre Cabanel

Samson and Delilah

It would be uncharitable to say that beauty is given short shrift in the Hebrew scriptures; however, it is presented with a double aspect that must be acknowledged. Curiously we're advised that, "charm can lie, beauty can vanish." - Proverbs 31:30 CJB**. So here we're confronted with an aspect of beauty that is potentially opposed to truth and is not eternal. Father Adam, Samson, and King David all seem to be led astray by feminine beauty although it must be pointed out that in fact they fall prey to their own weakness, a possessive desire which leads to their moral corruption. Yet elsewhere beauty is described as a gift of God that we are to beseech him for. The tabernacle, later the temple, all the garments of the priests, and all of the implements within were to be beautiful. Beauty was thus strongly affiliated with that which was sacred, holy so as to represent God's earthly abode  "Zion, the perfection of beauty." - Psalms 50:2. The tension inherent to the concept of beauty is never fully resolved in scripture and its uncertain status as a virtue reverberates through time until the present day.

Jewish Philosophy

"For God, being God, judged in advance that a beautiful copy would never be produced except from a beautiful pattern and that no sense object would be irreproachable that was not modeled after an archetypal and intelligible idea." - Philo of Alexandria

In Philo of Alexandria we have a character that is at once very faithful to his Jewish upbringing yet quite well schooled in the Greek paideia: the Hellenistic education that involved training in the liberal arts and philosophy. Philo's writings make it patently clear that he was well versed in Greek religion, myth and the philosophical schools of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, the Stoics, the Sceptics, and the Epicureans. Regarding divine truth, he partially adheres to the scepticism of Gorgias that in some sense God is “ineffable, inconceivable and incomprehensible”, at least by reason alone. Philo thus inverts the Platonic view that the One is distant yet knowable (through remembrance) by claiming that God is proximate yet inscrutable except by revelation and divine law. The Stoic concept of a divine Logos is modified from being precisely synonymous with God. Rather it is metaphorically recharacterised as the only begotten son of God; the eternal ideas of God personified as divine wisdom that act as both utterance and creator of all which is limited: the physical creation. The Logos manifests itself in human reason as exemplified through allegory by the prophet Moses who has divine truth revealed to him in thought as well as the high priest Aaron who serves as the rhetorical word of God to Israel.

It is not that Philo rejects the efficacy of human reason (since after all it is of divine origin); nevertheless, he subjects reasons to faith in revelation. This would establish an hierarchical relationship between faith and reason that would be heartily embraced by the early Church. At the same time he develops a theology of negation that claims the impossibility of making specific positive assertions about God. Such representations would be insufficient in discussing the ineffable; worship so directed would amount to idolatry. Otherwise the best we can do with our own intellectual resources is attribute qualities of the creation in a superlative analogy towards God, a self-confessedly insufficient representation of His infinitude. Hence is revealed Philo's motive for placing emphasis on the vital importance of revelation in granting us necessary truth concerning God.

For Philo the Good originates in God, manifestly one of His powers associated with creation. By contrast, he firmly rejects the Epicurean notion of the good as a life that maximises pleasure. This he explains would substitute a mere relative good for a perfect one. Philo likewise rejects the Stoic concept of a life led by reason alone as the telos or ultimate purpose of man. As with truth, Philo contends that reason alone is insufficient rather, "“the only good that is infallible and firm is faith in God.” Nevertheless, the influence of Greek philosophy as manifest in the interconnectedness of truth, beauty, and goodness is more evident in his philosophy than we can find directly in Hebrew scripture. Philo claims that Adam was created kalos kagathos, that is to say beautiful and good. Moreover, Philo presents a descending hierarchy of creation reminiscent of Plato wherein beautiful copies are created on the basis of archetypal beautiful patterns contained in the mind of God.

Maimonides

Over a thousand years later the philosopher Maimonides emerges from the intellectual millieu of Cairo, Egypt. Like Philo, Maimonides was a devout Jew whose philosophy is interwoven with theology. Among his foundational assertions is a fascinating reduction of the entire Mosaic law to two commands encountered in the Shema Yisrael: the love of God and the categorical rejection of idolatry.

The implication Maimonides makes is that love of God entails knowing the truth about God. Reason and revelation were two modes of divine truth, the former was explicit and intellectual whereas the latter was allegorical and non-philosophical thus accessible to common people. Human reason has limits; it can demonstrate neither the creation nor the concepts of eternity and infinity e.g. In this manner revelation is proven necessary and is complimentary to reason. Worship misdirected, involving a false understanding will result in something other than God as its aim which amounts to idolatry. Maimonides finds many truths in Greek philosophy which he accounts for as a mere accident of history. He speculates that such truth was revealed to Adam and again in patriarchal times but was partially lost in Jewish exile though echoes of it remain in the Tanakh. Nevertheless, truth is neither Jewish nor Greek, rather divine and eternal so that “you must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.”

Maimonides proposes that there is a good for man, a flourishing and perfection of the intellect which necessarily involves the pursuit of truth. The scriptures are true; however, often times literal interpretations of it can be shown to be false. Therefore, metaphorical interpretations must be sought and literal interpretations ought to be rejected if they conflict with the truths uncovered in science and philosophy. There is a direct connection asserted between truth and the Good. Evil does not exist as such rather results from a lack of accurate knowledge, possessing imaginative and confused ideas which is to say deprivation of the Good.

God has perfect knowledge and is thus infinitely Good which is all we can directly say of him. In this regard Maimonides largely shares the aforementioned negative theology. However, he goes even further than Philo of Alexandria. Maimonides asserts that to talk of God by way superlative analogy would be to compare God who is infinite to man who is finite. To do so is nothing less than idolatry. We're presented with a metaphysical gulf between God and man. Maimonides illustrates that the truth regarding God can only be reached at indirectly. This was explained to us in the account of Moses and the burning bush where God did not reveal His essence (face) directly but only the effects of His being indirectly. Regarding beauty, Maimonides surprisingly says little beyond the observation that the appreciation of natural beauty as enjoyed in gardens can serve as a means of relaxation that can stimulate the vital work of contemplation in pursuit of truth.

This is hardly a comprehensive survey of all Jewish philosophical thought and really just aims to touch lightly on the philosophy of Philo of Alexandria and Maimonides as it relates to our ongoing consideration of truth, beauty, and goodness. In my next essay, we'll consider the last of the Hellenistic schools, the Stoics and explore how intellectual interchange with the East accompanied by theological ideas begins to exert an influence, blending and building upon the foundation of Greek philosophy in Neoplatonism and the early Christian church. 


*All passages are from the Kings James Version unless otherwise noted
**Complete Jewish Bible


Contributed by Patrick Webb