Old Testament Defender Was Ostracized by Jews
October 27, 2009
Most people think Judaism is synonymous with the Old Testament. But Uriel de Costa (1585-1640) became a famous Jewish heretic because he upheld the Law of Moses.
In 14th & 15th century Spain, over 250,000 Jews were forced to become Christians on pain of death or expulsion. The family of Uriel de Costa was among these "conversos" or "marranos." A member of the nobility and very wealthy, Uriel studied at a Jesuit University and became a priest. However, he began to question his faith: "Reason whispered in my ear something utterly irreconcilable with faith."
He read the Old Testament and found it offered "fewer difficulties." He believed in Moses and "decided to live according to his law." So he gave up his ecclesiastical office and beautiful home and sailed to Amsterdam, a "place where we felt the Jews could live in freedom and fulfill the commandments." On arrival he and his brothers immediately "submitted to circumcision."
De Costa had a rude awakening. Biblical Judaism no longer existed. "After the first few days, I began to understand that the customs and institutions of the Jews were not at all in accordance with what Moses had written. ..the Jews were wrong to have invented so many things which deviated...The present day sages have maintained both their customs and their evil character. They still fight stubbornly for the sect and the institutions of the evil Pharisees.."
He could not find a basis for most Jewish customs in the Bible nor does the Old Testament speak of resurrection or immortality of the soul.
Ironically for a man who left his home for religious freedom, Amsterdam Jewry would not let him deviate from their opinion "in the slightest." He was threatened with excommunication and exclusion from the community. He insisted on religious freedom and was expelled. "Even my brothers whose teacher I was, passed me by, so afraid were they of the authorities that they did not even greet me in the street."
De Costa "believed in doing something pleasing to God [by] defending freely and openly the law of Moses," he wrote in his autobiography, "Example of a Human Life."
But he lived in isolation from the Jewish community and in great loneliness. After seven years, he sought reconciliation. He describes the humiliation he had to endure. He was stripped to the waist, tied to a column and made to recite a psalm while being lashed 39 times. Following this, he dressed and lay down over the threshold of the synagogue while the whole congregation --men, women, children and elderly--walked over him into the street.
"No monkey could have invented a more despicable, tasteless and ridiculous action," he wrote.
The sting of this humiliation stayed with De Costa and he could not execute the reconciliation. He saw no way out but to shoot himself. As a suicide, he could not be buried in a marked grave in the Jewish cemetery.
CONCLUSION
Faced with Christian intolerance, De Costa discovered its Jewish counterpart. Like many Marranos, he was stranded between two worlds.
He belonged to the tradition of the Sadducees and later the Karaites who insisted on adherence to the written law. But these groups had been suppressed by the Pharisees who dominated Judaism with the oral tradition (Talmud) and the Satanic pseudo mystical Cabala. (The Cabala pretends man can be God without becoming God-like, i.e. morally perfect.)
The Old Testament strikes me as a mixed bag. You have to scour it for inspiring parts. Certainly it contains the same kind of xenophobia as the Talmud. But the Prophets' denunciation of corruption and decadence ring true.
De Costa should probably have melded back into Christian society. Instead, he remained loyal to his God to the end.
---------
Source: The Secret Jews by Joachim Prinz (1973)
Comments for "Old Testament Defender Was Ostracized by Jews"
Michael said (October 28, 2009):
Thought compelling article once again henry. As of late I have been doing a little study of the Torah. When the series of stories are read objectively one begins to realize that there are two separate and distinct gods being depicted. First there is the creator, god of love and light, second is the lord god, the vengeful, murderous god. This distinction becomes all the more apparent the more one compares stories within this text.
God and lord God are written of as two separate and distinct personalities. God the creator, lord god of the earth. Who is lord god of the earth? The fallen angel perhaps.
When Jews encounter the numerous contradictions of their faith they project a false confidence as if this were the glue to hold it all together. This false confidence has become the faith of the jews more so than any text. I use Nancy Pelosis recent ridicule of the constitution as an example of this false confidence in action and its effectiveness on the weak minded.
With the advent of the new holocaust religion I don't really see any room left for the torah or Talmud, Jewish false confidence now rests with a more modern myth.
The adventures of Uriel were more matter of his spiritual confusion at "fitting in" or "belonging" to a group. Once again we see the basis of false confidence to hide this spiritual confusion. He would have had the similar experiences had he tried to switch football teams.
Tom said (October 28, 2009):
Tony [below] captures a very important principle to having a sane life !
Unfortunately, the modern world does not encourage this. True faith is found when one has peace and quiet, not when one is in a constant toxic downpour of media; tv, cellphones, computers, ipods and other intrusive technologies. Of course the material offered via these media are also often very negative influences on one's soul.
What is most interesting, people in general have no hesitation about being available and demanding electronic access to others at all times, behaviour which seems to be socially acceptable. People who seek private space get chastised for not being responsive enough, being discourteous.
Add government control with its ever increasing rules and regulations and bureaucracy to bring only more confusion and fear into everyone’s life while transferring as much wealth as possible into public coffers, and you have a totally stressed citizenry who is being bombarded at from every level.
With governments there is never any choice; challenging this system is a psychiatric illness, a la soviet communism.
Welcome to our brave new world.
Steve said (October 28, 2009):
As a non-Jew I have found is curious that most current day Jews do not follow the OT. But I find it curious also that Roman Catholics put the word of the Pope over the written word of God, forbid meat on Fridays, and pray to saints instead of God.
There are a number of "administrations" in the Bible, and those of use who did not live in them at time can find it difficult to understand the law of the land at the time.
The Patriarchal (from the end of Paradise until Mosaic Law) and the Law Administrations can seem harsh, cut and dry, compared to the Grace Administration which is current today. And without an understanding of how Satan worked then, and of the protective umbrella of God that was there for believers in the one true God and who looked forward to the coming of the promised Seed, we can do a lot of head scratching.
As a Christian I marvel and am in awe of the OT believers who stood fast, yet never lived to see the first coming of the promised seed. Believers today for the most part have it very easy. Whenever I start to complain I usually read Hebrews 11.
Steve (from Australia) said (October 28, 2009):
Good article on Uriel de Costa (1585-1640) became a famous Jewish heretic because he upheld the Law of Moses.
The bible says "seek God and you shall find Him" - I believe Uriel did. I am sorry that Uriel did not have a better choice of Christianity than the Catholic Church [Roman] Empire. Pity he did not enjoy the reformation! Nevertheless he was a man of faith it would appear, if so, he follows in the footsteps of his God-fearing fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [Israel]. May you Henry be one of the number of Jews whom God reconciles as promised via His Son Jesus [God in the flesh] before the New World order is destroyed and all its psychopaths.
Asim said (October 28, 2009):
Your latest article about Uriel de Costa broke my heart. If only Uriel had access to the Holy Quran during his time in Moorish Spain, his life may have turned out completely different. Uriel in fact lived the life of a muslim. He saw the complete fallacy of the Christian concept of the Trinity and of the corruption and tampering of the Old Testament and tried to espouse the true oneness of God by following the true teachings of Prophet Moses as revealed in the Torah. Again, like Christianity, the Jewish Torah was also tampered with and the end result was the Cabala and Talmud. This is why the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in order to amend the grave lies that were incorporated into the said books. Tragically Uriel was not the know about this and it cost him his life.
Tony said (October 27, 2009):
By his words which you quoted, de Costa suffered the problem of everyman. The choice between reason and faith. The two are irreconcilable in this world from the pure "reason" side. Not so from the pure "faith" side. It is easy to have faith in a spiritual world, seeing the evidence of it everywhere by your own reason, when you put reason on the proper level with faith in your perspective. "Reason above all," however, totally eliminates faith.
This is what evolution is all about. The insane theory of evolution, the biggest, big lie of all time, has effectively destroyed faith in God in the world today. Even in most who claim to live by faith. None of the gross errors of official life which are today status quo could even exist without the lie of evolution being treated as the new standard gospel.
Furthermore, evolution, with its myriad points of foolish supposition and conjecture (called "reasoning," but, in fact, an obvious belief system or faith) could never have gotten any sort of foothold on mankind's thinking processes without the flawed concept that reason is all that is necessary for thought. It is truly said that most of those considered insane are perfectly reasonable in their thinking.
Reason alone will lead man astray and ruin his life every time. Reminds me of my asking certain prisoners doing time why they got involved in satanism, in past years. Every one I asked gave the same answer. They all said you would not believe the money, women, prestige and fancy living that comes with it. It was only after they discovered the promise of all these material things was short-lived that they understood their error. In their totally material world it was absolutely reasonable for them to get involved in satanism for the promised gains. Yet, even here, and even though these men were not, at the time of commitment, spiritual in any sense, again, they followed a belief system as being materialistic is using man's puny reason alone.
Why does reason alone always fail over the long run? Because there is (obviously to anyone who looks) more to the world than reason. And reason itself, when analyzed, always seems to actually constitute a faith, usually a false one. False faith will also be derailed but not nearly as easily as reason.
True faith is a different story. Each must come to it in his own way, sometimes with much trial and error. Once acquired, it gives man much more strength and resolve than anything else.
This used to be common knowledge.
Henry Makow is the author of A Long Way to go for a Date. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto. He welcomes your feedback and ideas at
Frederick said (October 28, 2009):
... nor does the Old Testament speak of resurrection or immortality of the soul."
I would just like to say that the Old Testament does speak of resurrection:
Isa 26:19-21 KJV Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. (20) Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. (21) For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
Job 14:12-15 KJV So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. (13) O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! (14) If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. (15) Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
Job 19:25-27 KJV For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: (26) And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: (27) Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
As for the teaching of the immortality of the soul:
2Th 1:7-9 KJV And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, (8) In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (9) Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
1Co 15:51-55 KJV Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1Ti 6:15-16 KJV Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; (16) Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.