Maimonides

Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam, was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He lived in Spain and later Egypt from 1138 to 1204, the year of the Sack of Constantinople in the 4th Crusade. His collection in English is called "Book of the Strong Hand."

Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) generally rejected a strictly literal interpretation of the Torah, particularly regarding anthropomorphic descriptions of God. He believed that taking such passages literally was a sign of intellectual immaturity and advocated for an allegorical or philosophical interpretation. His work was controversial at the time because it challenged literalist readings and emphasized a rationalist, philosophical approach to Scripture.

In The Guide for the Perplexed, he argued that the Bible speaks in the language of humanity, and when Scripture describes God with physical attributes (e.g., "hand of God"), it is a metaphor or an allegory. He considered the literal interpretation of God as a physical body to be blasphemous and idolatrous.

This section of the webiste highlights that the references are not Second Temple Judaism, which is what southern Christians had as primary sources. See Origen's hexapla.

There is an interesting overlap in the Platonic manner of approach. Some southern Christians also used the figurative (allegorical) interpretation of the scriptures, and this was called the Alexandrine school of thought. The method of Plato is a philosophical approach based on dialogue, dialectic, and the pursuit of abstract, non-physical realities known as Forms. It involves breaking down complex ideas into smaller parts to understand their essential nature, moving from sensory experience toward universal truths.

Contrast Maimonides with Rashi in the previous section. Both Rashi and Maimonides seem to emphasize or reproduce Masoretic Judaism, which developed between the 6th and 10th centuries AD. This is interesting to note that it connects to Rabbinic Judaism. This is a form that was not dominant in the period between 450 BC and 70 AD. Second Temple Judaism (STJ) was dominant in the times of the compilers of the first versions of the Bible and the first century Apostles. 

STJ itself was not monolithic, but included various schools of thought, such as those of Hillel, Shammai, Saducees, Zealots, Herodians, Essenes, and other groups related to Samaritan Israelites or Judeans. The Apostle Paul was a student of Gamaliel, who was the primary exponent of Hillel's teachings and succeeded him in leading the Sanhedrin. Some Pharisees, some Saduccees, some Sribes, some Essenes, some Samaritans, some among the Jews believed, but some did not. This is related to what the traditions were. See Acts 23:6-8; John 3:1-15; Luke 14:1; Luke 16:16

The "Law" was clearly 5 scrolls. But the "Prophets" ranged from 17 scrolls to over 80 scrolls depending on who you asked in the first century. Maimonides reflects a group that inclines to less scrolls. But not necessarily the 22 (tanakh). His writing show he considered "[Ben Sirach] a waste of time." But the Talmud that he studied explicitly mentions "as it is written in the book of Ben Sira" such as Marriage and Social Advice (Yevamot 63b-64a), Social and Personal Conduct (Sanhedrin 100b), Wisdom and Hidden Matters (Hagigah 13a), Proverbs on Daily Life: "Honor the physician before thou hast need of him" (cf. 38:1). "Gold must be hammered, and the child must be beaten." In conclusion, although Rashi and Maimonides became authorities for medieval Judaism, they were not the only authorities in either medieval or pre-masoretic Judaism. And the first christians came from Judaism (specifically Second Temple Judaism) which often relied on "all scripture as God-breathed..." and thus prophetic, or "of the Prophets."