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Which, if any, of the Thirteen Articles of Faith require sources outside the five Torah books?

1 G-d guides and creates,
2 is unique and eternal,
3 is not physical,
4 is first and last,
5 and to him alone is it proper to pray.
6 All the words of the prophets are true,
7 Moses being preeminent,
8 the Torah given to him is that which we have,
9 and will never be exchanged.
10 G-d knows the thoughts and deeds of all,
11 rewards and punishes observance and violations of commandments,
12 will one day send the Messiah,
13 and, when he wishes it, will resuscitate the dead.

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  • judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/26434/…
    – Gershon Gold
    Aug 31, 2015 at 17:28
  • a quarter of an hour with google suggests that one of the verses used for #13 is Exodus 3:6 - "I am, He said, the G-d of your father, the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob."
    – chrysanthemum
    Aug 31, 2015 at 19:51
  • @chrysanthemum That is indeed the verse i was referencing. How it is used to refer to the resurrection of the dead is that since God is a God of the living, not of the dead, and God is speaking about Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the present tense, then clearly they must not either be dead, or will not remain dead. The other proof verses used in Sanhedrin are of the same vein.
    – Aaron
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:01
  • @Aaron what I found online told me the Exodus verse, but not where I could find the bit about the living and the dead - please could you me that?
    – chrysanthemum
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:04
  • @chrysanthemum Matthew 22:31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
    – Aaron
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:22

1 Answer 1

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The source for Rambam's 13 principles are detailed in his intro. to Talmud Sanhedrin chapter 10.

He cites at least 1 Torah verse for each of the 13 principles except for #5, which can be inferred by "reverse logic" in that there are many verses that prohibit devotion to other gods.

#6 (surprisingly) does not reference a particular verse.

#13 also does not list a specific verse. Rather, Ramba"m seems to indicate that he discussed this topic in other places, but it's unclear where this is.

For #13, I'm a bit surprised that Ramba"m didn't cite Rashi s explanation on Deuteronomy 11:21:

לְמַ֨עַן יִרְבּ֤וּ יְמֵיכֶם֙ וִימֵ֣י בְנֵיכֶ֔ם עַ֚ל הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר נִשְׁבַּ֧ע יְהוָ֛ה לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶ֖ם לָתֵ֣ת לָהֶ֑ם כִּימֵ֥י הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ (ס)

(Sefaria translation)

that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, upon the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

Rashi on Deuteronomy 11:21:2:

לתת להם. לתת לכם אין כתיב כאן, אלא לתת להם, מכאן נמצינו למדים תחית המתים מן התורה:

My translation:

It doesn't state (to give) to you, but "to give to them". From this, we learn that the concept of Resurrection of the dead is mentioned in the Torah.

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  • Thank you. For #6 I had guessed that it might have been derived from Deuteronomy 18:15-22.
    – chrysanthemum
    Aug 31, 2015 at 20:59
  • @chrysanthemum I had thought of that, myself. It certainly does appear to indicate that there will be prophets after Moses and they are assigned to speak G-d's words, which are assumed to be true unless you see that the prophet predicts something that doesn't happen (I'm puzzled about this rule, BTW; that sounds "risky" if the prophet says, "do this or you will die". Do you want to find out if you will die or not?) or if he speaks about other gods.
    – DanF
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:30
  • This shows that there is a source (for most of the thirteen) from within the Pentateuch, but doesn't demonstrate that no source is required from outside it. (I can't imagine why there would be, but that seems to be what the OP is asking.)
    – msh210 ♦
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:38
  • @msh210 I agree with you. However, in particular, regarding #8, Ramba"m does not mention the verses that the OP commented on (and I agree with) which comes from the Torah. Instead, Ramba"m indicates words cited by actual prophets such as Malachi, etc. which is is a source outside the Torah. #13, also, has a source in the torah, as I indicated, but for some reason, Ramba"m is not using it. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite understand specifically where Ramba"m gets his source for #13.
    – DanF
    Aug 31, 2015 at 21:46
  • 2
    No indication he had Rashi, or that he would have been a fan of Rashi in general if he had his commentary (his son was not a fan). Furthermore, this is obviously eisegesis, or at best, exegesis, but not p'shat. IIRC all of his proof-texts avoid exegesis.
    – mevaqesh
    Aug 31, 2015 at 22:18

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