Q0597
“Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not be equal in outcome;…” — Saadia Gaon (The Book of Beliefs and Opinions,…)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, on reward and punishment (Rosenblatt). Theme: justice.
English
Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not be equal in outcome; reward and punishment follow desert.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, on reward and punishment (Rosenblatt) and files it under Jewish Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Saadia Gaon
Saadia ben Joseph (882–942), gaon of Sura, wrote The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, the first systematic Jewish philosophical theology in the Islamic world. He defended rabbinic Judaism against Karaites and used Arabic kalām methods to show that Torah and intellect agree when both are rightly understood.
How to read this passage
Distributive, retributive, and restorative justice name different problems. Political philosophy asks what a just society owes its members and outsiders. This passage enters that discussion through justice, morality, god.
Concepts in this quote
- Justice
- Justice concerns fairness, rights, desert, and the arrangement of institutions that claim to treat people as equals.
- Morality
- Morality in philosophy concerns right and wrong, obligation, and the standards by which we judge persons and acts.
- God
- God appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat god as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Saadia Gaon. (n.d.). Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not be equal in outcome; reward and punishment follow desert. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0597
MLA: Saadia Gaon. “Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0597.
Chicago: Saadia Gaon. “Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0597.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Divine justice requires that obedience and disobedience not…”?
The passage is attributed to Saadia Gaon, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, on reward and punishment (Rosenblatt). The archive attributes this English wording to The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, on reward and punishment (Rosenblatt) and files it under Jewish Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Saadia Gaon mean by justice?
Distributive, retributive, and restorative justice name different problems. Political philosophy asks what a just society owes its members and outsiders. This passage enters that discussion through justice, morality, god.