A guide to the AfterDeath

Maimonides on olam ha-ba’

Bibliographic Data

ID20312922
AuthorsJosef Stern (0000-0001-6777-6434, University of Illinois Chicago, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume60
IssueS1
PagesS74-S90
Publication date2024-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligious Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-4125 • E-ISSN: 1469-901X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s003441252300001x
OpenAlexW4320915676
LanguageEN
References cited13

This article analyses Moses Maimonides' account of the AfterDeath and, more specifically, of olam ha-ba’ (lit.: the world to come), the state of ultimate human happiness and perfection (in contrast to this world). Maimonides is unequivocal about what olam ha-ba’ is not. Contrary to a competing medieval Jewish tradition, it is utterly incorporeal and, contrary to rabbinic tradition, it is not a motivational reward nor compensation for undeserved suffering in a theodicy. Instead, Maimonides gives two positive accounts of the metaphysics of olam ha-ba’ . The first is an intellectualist account on which the denizens of olam ha-ba’ are perfected intellects engaged in intellectual apprehension of the deity. The second is sceptical: it denies that humans have any understanding or knowledge ( ‘ilm , episteme) of olam ha-ba’ and claims that all language used to describe it is purely equivocal or homonymous, although it allows that some immutable thing, whatever it is, survives death. Instead of being a motivational reward or compensation, olam ha-ba’ is the end, that is, final cause or telos, of the best possible human life in this world at which one aims and which one attempts to approximate even if one cannot actually realize it

Apprehension · Epistemology · Happiness · Metaphysics · Perfection · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

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