Talk:The Guide for the Perplexed

Public Comments

Wow, I'm shocked, the book itself isn't used as an reference? :D ems 14:43, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

-SirlupinwatsonIII:

Hi there, wikipedia should not be used for personal opinion i think. it should be used for data or share valid informations, not what you think is right or seem to be. Calling this book the name you mention, and also if i can use this word , profanating it and what around it. I am not jewish, i am french canadian, but as information for the entire world, i would erase a big part of it. Not sure what other think about it, but its not the place to say actual opinion or personal .

Article name

Why is this article called "Guide for the Perplexed"? Its name [in Hebrew], "moreh nevukhim" means "teacher of the baffled". I could understand perhaps "Guide of the Perplexed", but where does "for" come from? Tomer^talk 03:03, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey Tomer, I would say that in English, a "Guide for X" or a "Guide to X" are more common phrasings than "Guide OF," especially when "Guide" is referring to a book or thing rather than a person. However, if "Guide" refers to a person, one might describe that person as a "Guide of the Blind" or "Guide of the Lost" or something like that. Since in this case "Guide" is referring not to Maimonides but to the work itself, it is probably better translated as "Guide for the Perplexed." Maimonides himself might be described as a Guide of the Perplexed, though. I guess in Hebrew "Moreh" can be applied to an inanimate object like a book? Or perhaps it is just an arbitrary choice of preposition, like in Hebrew deciding when to use "Lo" "Oto" "Bo", "Eleha", etc. Is there any logic to that? Because as a student of Hebrew I can't see any. Best, Kaisershatner 18:44, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I think Tomer is probably right on this. It's not so much an issue of what is the best translation, as what is the standard among English language translations. The Pines two-volume translation is entitled Guide of the Perplexed and whenever Isadore Twerski (one of the most important English language Maimonides scholars) references it, it's also "of". Usage is not 100% (Abraham Joshua Heschel uses "for") but the majority go for the more literal "of". LansdowneMike (talk) 21:05, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

It is all because the first English publication in 1881 used the title translation of "Guide for the Perplexed." That title has stuck in English ever since, regardless of how accurate the translation is. Your average English speaker, therefore, knows the text by that name. Ruyn13 (talk) 09:18, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

2 Major inaccuracies in the topic:

1 The Arabic name of the book is: Dalālah al-ḥā'irīn. Dalālah with h at the end (not with t).

2 The Guide for the Perplexed is divided to 3 Parts!!! and not to 3 Books. In Judeo-Arabic אלג'ז is חלק, part. Rambam177 (talk) 13:40, 12 April 2023 (UTC)

The oldest existent translation available is still Arabic?

I notice that the Guide was originally written in Arabic then second to Hebrew by "Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon". Under "External links" on the wiki page for the Guide it lists the available original Arabic text for the Guide available. When it says "Munk and Joel edition" that is just referring to the fact they edited and revised it right? It is the raw original Arabic text just cleaned up? It says under "Translations" that Moreh Nevukhim was the name for the Hebrew translation by Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon. Then on the page that leads to Munk and Joel's edition it says it is the Moreh Nevukhim in Arabic. So it isn't the original?! So it is not the "Original Judeo-Arabic full text" as it says under "External links" then? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.57.2.205 (talk) 06:05, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Strange wikilink

The phrase "positive characteristics" used in the article wikilinks to an article about an algebraic term. 'Maimonides was strongly against what he believed to be a heresy present in unlearned Jews who then assume God to be corporeal (or even possessing positive characteristics). I don't think he was saying that unlearned Jews view God in ring theoretic terms. Perhaps someone should change the wikilink to a better target. FiredanceThroughTheNight (talk) 05:53, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Contradiction between two articles

The current article says: "The Guide for the Perplexed was originally written about 1190 by Maimonides in Judeo-Arabic. It was first translated in 1204 into Hebrew by a contemporary of Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon..."

The article on Rambam: (https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Maimonides) says: "... the Guide for the Perplexed (which was initially written in Arabic as Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn) ..."

Nu, German and Judeo-German (Yiddish) are close, but certainly not the same! Which is correct?

Bob Rabinoff — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.161.213.74 (talk) 03:36, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

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"by finding rational explanations for many events in the text"

In the opening paragraph of the article we read:

   It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish theology by
   finding rational explanations for many events in the text.

This is unclear. Which text is meant? Toddcs (talk) 04:40, 19 September 2023 (UTC)