Ibn Daud's Conception of Prophecy

This article is a commentary on the first chapter of the fifth basic principle in the second treatise of The Exalted Faith by Abraham Ibn Daud (born, 1110 C.E.). As the first work of Aristotelian Jewish philosophy The Exalted Faith initiated a method of doing Jewish religious thought that dominated at least the next three hundred years of Jewish theology Ibn Daud formulates in this work the way that traditional Jews even today understand their faith. Thirty years after its publication another Cordovan Jew, Moses Maimonides, published his Guide of the Perplexed. Little attention has been given to a comparison of these two major works of Jewish thought beyond the recognition that both thinkers operated from the same intellectual and religious milieu. Yet they said very different things about key religious doctrines and a comparative study of these two classics could shed light on the religious thought of both authors. This paper examines one key issue in Ibn Daud's religious thought that also occupied a central place in the theological writings of Maimonides. The topics considered in the body of the article are the following. (1) The logic of the place that Ibn Daud's theory of prophecy occupies in his entire philosophy. (2) A general account of the epistemology underlying Ibn Daud's theory of prophecy with particular emphasis on the obscurity of his understanding of the nature of imagination and the ambiguity of his distinction between the rational and irrational faculties of the soul. (3) An analysis on Ibn Daud's list of the preconditions for attaining prophecy and the logical sense in which preconditions are to be understood as preconditons. Particular attention is given to the role of divine will and particularist conditions such as the location of the individual in a specific people speaking a specific language at a specific time in a specific place. Attention also is given to the distinction that Ibn Daud draws between having a natural capacity for receiving prophecy and being trained to become a prophet. (4) A discussion of Ibn Daud's hierarchy of grades of prophecy and the principles that underly his classification. Particular attention is given to those marks that distinguish Mosaic from lesser forms of prophecy. (5) A discussion of the sense in which Ibn Daud describes prophecy as a natural phenomenon. Particular attention is given to what Ibn Daud means by the term “nature” and “miracle.” The paper concludes by comparing and contrasting the respective theories of prophecy of Ibn Daud and Maimonides in The Guide. This discussion also includes some references to Judah Halevi's account of prophecy.

Art · Epistemology · Faith · Irrational number · Islam · Jewish philosophy · Judaism · Literature · Soul · Theology · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Mathematics · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Religious studies