Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Ẓāhir al-Naṣṣ The Geonic-Andalusian Heritage -- Ẓāhir al-Naṣṣ in Maimonides’ System -- Rationale for the Commandments -- Mashal as Hermeneutical Model -- Peshuto Shel Miqra Halakhic Exegesis and Muslim Jurisprudence -- Maimonides’ Rule of Peshat Primacy -- Transformation of the Peshat Principle -- Integrating Halakhah and Peshat -- Comprehensive Overview Coordinating Peshat and Ẓāhir -- The Gates of Taʾwīl and Interpretive -- Maimonides in the Exegetical Constellation -- Meaning and Translation of the Peshat Principle -- The Term Peshat in Maimonides’ Other Writings -- Ibn Ezra’s List of Examples in Yesod Mora -- Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Index of Authors -- Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Sources -- Index of Maimonidean Citations.

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The biblical hermeneutics of the illustrious philosopher-talmudist Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) has long been underappreciated, and viewed in isolation from the celebrated philological schools of “plain sense” ( peshat ) Jewish Bible exegesis. Aiming to redress this imbalance, this study identifies Maimonides’ substantial contributions to that interpretive movement, assessing its achievements in cultural context. Like others in the rationalist Geonic-Andalusian school, Maimonides’ understanding of Scripture was informed by Arabic learning. Drawing upon Greco-Arabic logic, poetics, politics, physics and metaphysics, as well as Muslim jurisprudence, he devised sophisticated new approaches to key issues that occupied other exegetes, including a variety of interpretive cruxes, the reconciliation of Scripture with reason, a legal hermeneutics for deriving halakhah (Jewish law) from Scripture, and the nature of interpretation itself. \'It is a valuable contribution to the entire study of medieval biblical exegesis and will undoubtedly serve as the basis of all subsequent discussions of Maimonides' hermeneutics.\' Daniel J. Lasker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev