the natural reason is
insufficient for such results is plainly untrue, firstly, for the
reasons above stated, namely, that the difficulty of interpreting
Scripture arises from no defect in human reason, but simply from the
carelessness (not to say malice) of men who neglected the history of the
Bible while there were still materials for inquiry; secondly, from the
fact (admitted, I think, by all) that the supernatural faculty is a
Divine gift granted only to the faithful. But the prophets and apostles
did not preach to the faithful only, but chiefly to the unfaithful and
wicked. Such persons, therefore, were able to understand the intention
of the prophets and apostles, otherwise the prophets and apostles would
have seemed to be preaching to little boys and infants, not to men
endowed with reason. Moses, too, would have given his laws in vain, if
they could only be comprehended by the faithful, who need no law.
Indeed, those who demand supernatural faculties for comprehending the
meaning of the prophets and apostles seem truly lacking in natural
faculties, so that we should hardly suppose such persons the possessors
of a Divine supernatural gift.

The opinion of Maimonides was widely different. He asserted that each
passage in Scripture admits of various, nay, contrary meanings; but that
we could never be certain of any particular one till we knew that the
passage, as we interpreted it, contained nothing contrary or repugnant
to reason. If the literal meaning clashes with reason, though the
passage seems in itself perfectly clear, it must be interpreted in some
metaphorical sense. This doctrine he lays down very plainly in Chap.
xxv. part ii. of his book _More Nebuchim_ for he says: "Know that we
shrink not from affirming that the world hath existed from eternity,
because of what Scripture saith concerning the world's creation. For the
texts which teach that the world was created are not more in number than
those which teach that God hath a body; neither are the approaches in
this matter of the world's creation closed, or even made hard to us: so
that we should not be able to explain what is written, as we did when we
showed that God hath no body, nay, peradventure, we could explain and
make fast the doctrine of the world's eternity more easily than we did
away with the doctrines that God hath a beatified body. Yet two things
hinder me from doing as I have said, and believing that the world is
eternal. As it hath been