How to Read the Bible

Readers coming to the Guide of the Perplexed for the first time may find themselves perplexed by the work’s opening sections. Perhaps expecting some profound pearls of wisdom about God, the world or human nature, what they discover instead is a long series of entries – over three-dozen chapters – on Hebrew semantics and etymology, along with exegeses of passages from the Hebrew Bible (also called TaNaKh , the Hebrew acronym for the Pentateuch/ Torah , the texts of the prophets/ Nevi’im , and other writings/ Ketuvim ). Chapters are devoted to the ambiguity of such mundane words as “foot,” “eye,” “standing and “sitting,” “rock,” and “touch.” Maimonides explains how the Hebrew word for “eat” can refer both to the taking in of food by living beings and to any kind of destruction or undoing, and that “face” can signify either the familiar front part of the head or emotional states like “anger and wrath” (as in “He set his face against them”).