Note 24 — THE THIRTEEN PRINCIPLES OF OUR CREED. (continued 4)

Maimonides (Mishneh torah, Hilchoth Yesode ha-torah ix.) says on this principle as follows:—“It has been distinctly stated in the Torah that its precepts remain in force for ever without change, diminution, or addition. Comp. ‘The word which I command you that you must keep to do, thou shalt not add ought unto it nor take ought away from it’ (Deut. xiii. i); ‘That which has been revealed for us and for our children for ever is to do all the words of this Law’ (Ibid. xxix. 28). Hence it follows that we are bound for ever to do according to the words of the Torah. It is further said, ‘An everlasting statute for all your generations’ (Exod. xii. 14, 17, et passim); ‘It is not in heaven’24 (Deut. xxx. 12). Hence we see that a prophet cannot reveal any new law. If, therefore, any man, whether an Israelite or a non-Israelite, should rise, perform signs and miracles, and say that the Lord sent him to add one precept or to abolish one of the Divine precepts, or to interpret a precept in a way different from what has been handed down to us from Moses, or assert that the precepts which were given to the Israelites had only temporary force and were not permanent laws: such a man is a false prophet, because he contradicts the prophecy of Moses. The mission of the Prophets after Moses is to exhort the people to obey the Law of Moses, and not to make a new religion.”—Comp. “The Guide,” II. xxxix.; and Saadiah, Emunoth ve-deoth, III. chap. vii. to x.