Philosophy of The Bible
Benjamin seems to have written a work in which he expounded the philosophical ideas contained in the Bible. Judging from the quotations made by later Karaite writers, such as Jacob al-Qirqisani, Yefet ben Ali, and Hadassi, Benjamin betrayed the influence of Philonic ideas, while he adopted the Motazilite theories on the divine attributes, free-will, and other questions of a like character expounded before by Anan. God, he holds, is too sublime to mingle with the material world; and the idea that matter proceeded directly from God is inadmissible. God created first the Glory ("Kabod"), then the Throne ("Kisse"), and afterward an Angel. This Angel created the world, in which he is the representative of God. God Himself never came in contact with men, nor did He speak to Israel on Mt. Sinai. The Law and the communications to the Prophets proceeded from the Angel, to whom are referable all the anthropological expressions concerning God found in the Bible (Hadassi, "Eshkol," 25b). The soul forms a part of the body, and is therefore perishable. The Biblical references to reward and punishment can be applied only to the body (Saadia, "Emunot we ha-De'ot," vi. 4).
This theory of an intermediary power, and the system of allegorizing all the Biblical passages concerning God, upon which Benjamin insists again and again in his commentaries on the Bible, were borrowed from the writings of the etc. Magâriyah (Men of the Caves). This etc., the establishment of which, in consequence of a confusion in the text of Shahrastani, has been wrongfully attributed to Benjamin, is identified with the Essenes by Abraham Harkavy, who shows that they were called "The Men of the Caves," because they lived in the desert. Benjamin wrote his halakhic works in Hebrew.
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