Biography

Little is known about Gersonides’ life. He was born in Provence in 1288 and was probably the son of the Talmudic scholar Gershom of Besiers. Under the rule of the Duke of Anjou and, later, the Pope (then based in Avignon during the Papal schism), Jews in Provence enjoyed a relatively high degree of toleration, even support, and a rich intellectual tradition was able to flourish in this hospitable environment. While Gersonides, unlike Mai-monides, was not a major religious leader in the community, his stature in Provence and beyond was high, both during his lifetime and after. He died in 1344.

The primary influences on Gersonides’ philosophy are Aristotle (through the commentaries of Averroes) and Maimonides. He wrote all his works in Hebrew, and it is uncertain whether he knew Latin, Arabic, or even Provencal. His Bible commentaries include works on the Pentateuch, Job, Song of Songs, Daniel, Esther, and Ruth, and several of these serve as useful supplements to his philosophical writings; they often provide an accessible discussion, through Biblical texts, of philosophical matters treated more technically in his supercommentaries on Averroes and, especially, in his own original philosophical masterpiece, The Wars of the Lord (Sefer Milhamot ha-Shem, completed around 1329).

In many respects, Gersonides was a more radical thinker than Maimonides, less deferential to either Aristotle or rabbinic tradition, and willing to depart from traditional views when philosophical reasoning demanded it. Thus, while he agreed with Maimonides in rejecting Aristotle’s views on the eternity of the world, he also rejected creation ex nihilo and favored the Platonic position of divine creation operating on a preexisting material substrate.