{"id":202,"date":"2009-08-19T20:06:03","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T20:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html"},"modified":"2009-08-19T20:06:03","modified_gmt":"2009-08-19T20:06:03","slug":"ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html","title":{"rendered":"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those who think that finding evidence of design in nature is a Christian preoccupation, not a Jewish one, the hits just keep coming. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abraham_ibn_Ezra\">Abraham ibn Ezra<\/a>&nbsp;(1089-1164) is one of a handful of the most important classical commentators on the Torah. Explaining the first of the Ten Commandments, &#8220;I am the Lord your God Who took you out of Egypt&#8221; (Exodus 20:1), Ibn Ezra asks why God commands our belief using this formulation with its two clauses. The sage argues that religious believers whose faith is gained through tradition alone will be in good shape&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\"><p>until a heretic begins to argue with them that there is no God, [then] they put their hands over their mouths, because they don&#8217;t know what to respond. On the other hand, if a person applies himself to the study of the sciences, which are like steps to help a person reach his desired destination, he will be able to discern the handiwork of God in metals, plants, living creatures, and in the human body itself&#8230; From God&#8217;s ways [in nature] the discerning person comes to know God. That is why Scripture writes, &#8220;I am the Lord your God&#8221; [&#8211; the God Whom you discern in nature]. But this can only be appreciated by someone who is extremely wise&#8230; As for the miracles done in Egypt&#8230; everyone saw this, both the wise and the unwise, both adults and children&#8230; Therefore, Scripture first writes, &#8220;I am the Lord,&#8221; for the discerning individual. It then writes, &#8220;Who took you out,&#8221; so that even the non-discerning individual may understand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There &#8212; once again &#8212; you have it. For the simple, simple faith. For the wise, intelligent design. My translation here is from the Introduction to Rabbi Korobkin&#8217;s outstanding new translation of the <i>Kuzari<\/i>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/a-heretic-in-jewish-terms-someone-who-denies-intelligent-design.html\">which we discussed<\/a> in an earlier entry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those who think that finding evidence of design in nature is a Christian preoccupation, not a Jewish one, the hits just keep coming. Abraham ibn Ezra&nbsp;(1089-1164) is one of a handful of the most important classical commentators on the Torah. Explaining the first of the Ten Commandments, &#8220;I am the Lord your God Who&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifes-origins-evolution"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment - Kingdom of Priests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment - Kingdom of Priests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those who think that finding evidence of design in nature is a Christian preoccupation, not a Jewish one, the hits just keep coming. Abraham ibn Ezra&nbsp;(1089-1164) is one of a handful of the most important classical commentators on the Torah. Explaining the first of the Ten Commandments, &#8220;I am the Lord your God Who&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kingdom of Priests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-19T20:06:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Klinghoffer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment - Kingdom of Priests","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment - Kingdom of Priests","og_description":"For those who think that finding evidence of design in nature is a Christian preoccupation, not a Jewish one, the hits just keep coming. Abraham ibn Ezra&nbsp;(1089-1164) is one of a handful of the most important classical commentators on the Torah. Explaining the first of the Ten Commandments, &#8220;I am the Lord your God Who&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html","og_site_name":"Kingdom of Priests","article_published_time":"2009-08-19T20:06:03+00:00","author":"David Klinghoffer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html","name":"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment - Kingdom of Priests","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-19T20:06:03+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-19T20:06:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/6e6734f7e172e24221264a565e8f4454"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/08\/ibn-ezra-on-intelligent-design.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ibn Ezra on Intelligent Design and the First Commandment"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/","name":"Kingdom of Priests","description":"David Klinghoffer","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/6e6734f7e172e24221264a565e8f4454","name":"David Klinghoffer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/285\/28517f740f5d348f010a20178619ea6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/285\/28517f740f5d348f010a20178619ea6cx96.jpg","caption":"David Klinghoffer"},"description":"David Klinghoffer is an author and senior fellow in the Religious, Liberty & Public Life program at the Discovery Institute. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Jewish Forward. A California native, he currently lives on Mercer Island, Washington, with his wife and five children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/author\/dklinghoffer"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}