Gersonides on Divine Knowledge and the Eternity of the World

Levi ben Gershom, known by the Latinized acronym Gersonides or by the Hebrew acronym Ralbag (1288–1344), lived in Bagnols and Orange in Provence, and combined an active career as Talmudic commentator, biblical exegete, astronomer, and mathematician with the composition of his major philosophical work, The Wars of the Lord (Milhamot ha-Shem), completed around 1329. Gersonides also made original contributions to astronomy, inventing an observational instrument called the Jacob's staff (in Hebrew, Megalleh Amuqqot) for measuring the angular separation of celestial bodies, and his astronomical tables and critique of Ptolemaic epicycles were later cited respectfully by Christian astronomers, including, reportedly, figures within the Copernican tradition of source citation. Wars of the Lord is explicitly structured, in its introduction, as a set of six investigations into questions Gersonides felt Maimonides had left unresolved or answered evasively, most notably the nature of the human intellect, divine knowledge of particulars, providence, celestial influence, the eternity or createdness of the world, and astronomy.