Page 214 - GQ 12

A 14th-century Karaite view of Jewish history and philosophy of religion 17*

This first section continues with a detailed list of God’s attributes as
‘Sender’, according to classical Mu‘tazilite teachings,14 and is titled as
follows:

‫אלפצל אלאול פי מערפ ̈ה אל ̇כאלק תע[אלי] ופי א ̇כתצאצה בני ישראל אמה לה וארסאלה‬
‫אלסי[יד] אלרסול ע"ס באלתורה יג[דל] ויא[דיר] פאחתוי עלי מערפ ̈ה אלראסל ואלרסול‬

.‫ואלרסאל ̈ה‬
“Chapter One regarding the knowledge of the Creator, the Exalted,
and his choosing the Children of Israel as his nation and sending
the noble Messenger, peace be upon him, with the Torah, may it be
glorified, and it [= the chapter] includes knowledge of the Sender, the
Messenger and the Message.”

It begins with a classic Mu‘tazilite description of God:

‫אעלם אן אללה סב' תע' אלאה ואחד ואגד אלוגוד חי קאדר עאלם ל ̇דאתה פאעל מ ̇כתאר‬
.‫סמיע בציר ליס בגסם ולא ער ̇ץ‬

“Know that God, the praised and exalted, is the one God, who brings
forth the existent world, living, powerful, knowing in his essence,
acting, choosing, hearing (and) seeing; He is neither a body nor an
accident.”

Yefet continues with a description of the figure of Moses, chosen by
God (here and passim designated as al-ḥaqq) as apostle (rasūl) and prophet
(nabiyy), as the addressee of God’s word via direct communication (bi-ḥarf
wa-ṣawt). Moreover, God ordered him to put down His words in the Hebrew
Scripture, ‘in the Assyrian [= square Hebrew] writing’15 (f. 1vb–3: ‫ואמרה‬

M. Gil, “The Origins of the Karaites,” in Karaite Judaism (ed. M. Polliack),
73–118.
14 Cf. H. Ben-Shammai, “Kalām in medieval Jewish philosophy,” in History
of Jewish Philosophy (ed. D. Frank and O. Leaman; London – New York:
Routledge, 1997), 115–148.
15 Yefet here adopts the Talmudic term for square Hebrew script, as
distinguished from the Paleo-Hebrew script used in the First Temple period
and known as ro‘etz in Talmudic sources. Yefet also partially adopts the