Skip to main content
  • 124 Accesses

Abstract

Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom [acronym RaLBaG], 1288–1344), one of the most important figures in the history of Jewish philosophy, was a fourteenth-century rabbi, philosopher, scientist, and Bible commentator who flourished within the Jewish community in the tolerant environment of Provence. The primary influences on his thought are Aristotle (through the commentaries of Averroes) and Maimonides. His most important philosophical work, The Wars of the Lord, is a wide-ranging treatise in the tradition of Maimonidean rationalism. Its five books cover topics such as the immortality of the soul; dreams, divination, and prophecy; divine knowledge and providence; free will; and creation and cosmology. He is also the author of treatises of biblical exegeses, including influential commentaries on the Pentateuch, Job, and Song of Songs, as well as work in astronomy, mathematics, and halakhah.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Bibliography

Primary Sources

  • Levi ben Gershom (1866) Sefer Milhamot ha-Shem. Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi ben Gershom (1946) Commentary on the book of Job, trans. Lassen AL. Bloch, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi ben Gershom (1984, 1987, 1999) The wars of the lord, trans. Feldman S, 3 vols. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Levi ben Gershom (1998) Commentary on song of songs, trans. Kellner M. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

Secondary Sources

  • Dahan G (ed) (1991) Gesonide en son temps. Peeters, Louvain

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson H (1992) Gersonides on the material and active intellects. In: Freudenthal (ed) Studies on Gersonides: a fourteenth-century Jewish philosophy-scientist. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisen R (1995) Gersonides on providence, covenant, and the Jewish people. SUNY, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman S (1978) Gersonides on the possibility of conjunction with the agent intellect. Assoc Jewish Stud Rev 3:99–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner M (1974) Gersonides, providence, and the rabbinic tradition. J Am Acad Relig 42:673–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Manekin C (1998) On the limited-omniscience interpretation of Gersonides’ theory of divine knowledge. In: Ivry A, Wolfson E, Arkush A (eds) Perspectives on Jewish thought and mysticism. Harwood, Amsterdam, pp 135–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadler S (2000) Gersonides on providence: a Jewish chapter in the history of the general will. J Hist Ideas 62:37–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudavsky T (1983) Divine omniscience and future contingents in Gersonides. J Hist Philos 21:513–536

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuelson N (1972) Gersonides’ account of God’s knowledge of particulars. J Hist Philos 10:399–416

    Google Scholar 

  • Staub J (1982) The creation of the world according to Gersonides. Scholars, Chico

    Google Scholar 

  • Touati C (1973) La Pensée philosophique et théologique de Gesonide. Editions de Minuit, Paris

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Nadler, S. (2011). Gersonides. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_189

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_189

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9728-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9729-4

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics