Emunot ve-Deot אמונות ודעות
The first book of Jewish philosophy: Saadia Gaon sets out in order what we believe and why—and argues with those who believe otherwise. Written in Arabic in the year 4693.
Before Saadia, Jewish books were commentary, law or prayer. Emunot ve-Deot is a book of another kind: it takes a question ("was the world created?", "what is the soul?", "what are the commandments for?") and sets out the opinions in order, his own and others', with arguments.
Why it was needed. The age was contentious: the Karaites rejected the Oral Torah, Muslim theologians built proofs, translations of the Greeks passed from hand to hand. To answer "thus it is written" was no longer enough, and Saadia answered in the language of those who were asking.
What matters in it for us. It sets a pattern: first the argument of reason, then the verse. With it opens the line in which the Kuzari, the Guide for the Perplexed and the Ikkarim stand later—and in each book the previous one is argued with. The examination of the opinion of transmigration, to which we give an article of its own, is from here too.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Saadia Gaon, Emunot ve-Deot — the book itself: ten treatises, from the creation of the world to reward and punishment
Basis: documents and evidence.