Talk:Uriel da Costa

As far as I remember, it's d'Acosta, though I could be wrong. Danny

apparently there are multiple spellings of his name in common use... Acosta, d'Acosta, some other one as well (da Costa or something like that...)

He signed his own name as "daCosta" (we have a sample from a synagogue register.) The Costa part is the main part, since it means "coast" in Portuguese. Thus the confusion about da, d', and a. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.172.169.20 (talk) 10 Feb 2006

date of birth

What is the source on that date of birth? Israil Bercovici, in a footnote about Gutzkow's play about Uriel Acosta says 1590. Bercovici, Israil, O sută de ani de teatru evriesc în România ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998). ISBN 9739827225. Note is on p. 102. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:05, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Inquisition

"…had converted from Judaism to Catholicism in order to avoid the persecutions of the Inquisition." Presumably based on a misconception. The Inquisition had authority only over professing Christians, so converting from Judaism to Catholicism would place one under their authority, rather than removing one from it. Presumably the conversion would have been to escape persecution by civil authorities. I am changing the article accordingly. -- Jmabel | Talk 21:33, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Marrano

Similarly, and I don't know how to resolve this one: they can't be both "Marranos" and sincerely "devoutly religious" Roman Catholics. "Marranos" are insincerely converted Jews (or their descendants) who profess Catholicism while practicing Judaism in secret. Sincere conversos and their descendents—Teresa of Ávila, for example— are not Marranos. So which is it? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC) "Marrano" was originally a term of abuse which became an historical term. "Marrano" refers to converted Jews or their descendants. It is perfectly possible to be a very sincere and devout Roman Catholic and not to practice Judaism in any way as a religion and historically speaking still be a "marrano" because there is such a thing as Jewish ethnicity. "The Jew who abandons his faith remains a Jew", Albert Einstein. The Jews are a people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.43.123 (talk) 16:49, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:31, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Pharisees, Sadducees, Karaites

1. "gross incongruities" and "Rabbinic Judaism claims that there is an oral tradition that was given along side the written tradition even though there is no direct mentioning of such a phenomenon in the entire Jewish Bible". Are you expressing an opinion. This is not the place to vilify Pharisee Theology.

2. Sadducees and Karaites are not in any way related with the exception of one theological point. The Sadducee Theology centered on the Priesthood and Temple worship. They had a widely differing view from the Pharisees and the Essenes on Predetermination and Providence as part of their fundamental self-identity. Karaites concede the point that there is no Oral Law...but one would be hard pressed to come up with some body of positive philosophical assertions (even strict adherence to the text is very different) on which they wholly agree. Furthermore, they represent two socially and historically distinct movements. There is no historical continuity, with hundred of years between them.

I am changing the last paragraph.