Samuel Ibn Tibbon - Original Writings

Original Writings

He composed in 1213, on shipboard, when returning from Alexandria, Biur meha-Millot ha-Zarot, an explanation of the philosophical terms of Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides.

When finishing his Hebrew translation of the Guide (which was originally in Arabic), he wrote an alphabetical glossary of the foreign words that he had used in his translation. In the introduction to the glossary he divides these words into five classes:

1. Words taken mainly from the Arabic;
2. Rare words occurring in the Mishnah and in the Gemara;
3. Hebrew verbs and adjectives derived from substantives by analogy with the Arabic;
4. Homonyms, used with special meanings; and
5. Words to which new meanings were given by analogy with the Arabic.

He gives also a list of corrections which he desired to be made in the copies of his translation of the "Guide". The glossary gives not only a short explanation of each word and its origin, but also in many cases a scientific definition with examples.

Samuel wrote a commentary on the whole Bible, but only the following portions are known:

• Ma'amar Yikkawu ha-Mayim, a philosophical treatise in twenty-two chapters on Gen. i. 9. It deals with physical and metaphysical subjects, interpreting in an allegoric-philosophical manner the Bible verses cited by the author. At the end of the treatise the author says that he was led to write it through the propagation of philosophy among Gentiles and the ignorance of his coreligionists in philosophical matters.
• A philosophical commentary on Ecclesiastes, quoted by Samuel in the foregoing work (p. 175), and of which several manuscripts are extant.
• A commentary on the Song of Solomon. Quotations from this work are found in his commentary on Ecclesiastes; in Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 1649, 2, fol. 21; and in his son's commentary on the Song of Solomon. These make it evident that he really composed this work; but its contents are unknown.

Samuel ibn Tibbon was an enthusiastic adherent of Maimonides and his allegorical interpretation of the Bible; he held that many Bible narratives are to be considered simply as parables ("meshalim") and the religious laws merely as guides ("hanhagot") to a higher, spiritual life. Such statements, not peculiar in his age, aroused the wrath of the adherents of the literal interpretation of the Bible, the anti-Maimonidean party (see Maimonides for more details).