Epistle on the Resurrection of the Dead

This public letter, called the “Epistle on the Resurrection of the Dead” (Iggeret teḥiyat ha-metim), was composed in response to a bitter dispute between the Baghdadi gaon Samuel ben Eli Ibn al-Dastūr (see his “Epistle on Resurrection”) and Joseph Ibn Sham‘ūn, a favorite student of Maimonides (see his “Silencing Epistle on the Resurrection of the Dead”). Maimonides seems to have known Samuel’s views only from Joseph’s citations of it in his “Silencing Epistle.” Maimonides tries to deny that he rejected the idea that in the future the dead would be miraculously resurrected, an interpretation of his views based on Maimonides’ cursory discussion in his Commentary on the Mishnah and his emphasis, in the Mishneh Torah, on the incorporeal nature of the world to come. In these extracts, Maimonides elaborates on some of his motives, his interpretation of bodily resurrection, and his acceptance of it as a received tradition.