והאומר שיש שם רבון אחד אלא שהוא גוף ובעל תמונה. א"א ולמה קרא לזה מין וכמה גדולים וטובים ממנו הלכו בזו המחשבה לפי מה שראו במקראות ויותר ממה שראו בדברי האגדות המשבשות את הדעות: He who says that there is One Lord but that He is corporeal and has a form. Why does he call such one an atheist? Many greater and better than he followed this opinion according to what they saw in phrases, and more particularly in the texts of the Agadot (legends of the Talmud) which misdirect opinions.* Possibly the version of this criticism was tampered with, and should rather stand corrected in the language of the Joseph Albo (Ikkarim, 2. 41) which is much more intelligent, not to say polite: "Although the component part of belief is so, nevertheless, he who believes His Being corporeal because he understood the language of Scriptural phrases and the Midrash literally, deserves not to be called an atheist". Of course, even in the version before us, the RABD. does not differ in principle with Maimonides. It is merely amazing that our Master had to suffer such indignities for having purged Judaism from the dross of Anthropomorphism. C. G.
וכן האומר שאינו לבדו הראשון. א"א כאותו שאמר אלהיכם צייר גדול היה אלא שמצא לו סמנים גדולים תהו ובהו חושך ומים ורוח ובהם עשה מה שעשה: Likewise one who says that He alone is not the First Cause. For instance, as the one who said, 'Your God was a great Architect, but found ready great drawings, such as the circle of earth, stones of the abyss, (Tohu Vobohu, see Hagigah, 12a) darkness and water, and therewith He made what He did make.* This comment is intended by the RABD. as a distinction between the one who denies the existance of God mentioned before, and the one presently under discussion. What improvement this is on Maimonides only the RABD knew. C. G.