Thinker · TH-0369
Saadia Gaon
Saadia Gaon was a rabbinic scholar, born in the Fayyum in Egypt, who became head (gaon) of the academy of Sura in Iraq. Writing…
סעדיה גאון
Also known as Saʿadia ben Yosef, Saʿīd ibn Yūsuf al-Fayyūmī, Saadiah
882 – 942 · Fayyum (Egypt); Palestine; Baghdad; Sura (Iraq)
Traditions: Jewish
Schools: Kalam
Saadia Gaon was a rabbinic scholar, born in the Fayyum in Egypt, who became head (gaon) of the academy of Sura in Iraq. Writing mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, he was the first major medieval Jewish philosopher, drawing on the methods of Islamic kalām. In his Book of Beliefs and Opinions he argued that reason and revelation are mutually confirming: revealed truths can be demonstrated by reason, while revelation gives them quickly and with certainty to everyone.
Key ideas
- Reason and revelation teach the same truths and confirm one another.
- Valid knowledge comes from sense perception, reason, inference and reliable tradition.
- The world was created from nothing, which proves a Creator.
- Revelation is needed because not everyone can reason to the truth, and reasoning takes time.
Major works
- The Book of Beliefs and Opinions (Kitāb al-Amānāt wa-l-Iʿtiqādāt, c. 933)
- Tafsir (Arabic translation and commentary of the Torah)
- Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah
In the conversation
- Reading group Reading group: Saadia Gaon’s Book of Beliefs and Opinions, starting with the roots of knowledge
- Question Can revelation give moral knowledge to someone who does not share the faith that received it?
- Reading group Reading group: Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (1998)
- Discussion “Seventy faces” and “no verse leaves its plain sense”: the rabbis held both at once
- Debate The Mu’tazila were right: reason can know that injustice is wrong before any revelation
- Question Can reason tell right from wrong on its own, or does it need revelation?