Editing Uriel da Costa (section)

==Influence==
{{Original research section|date=June 2010}}
[[File:Dacosta und Spinoza.jpg|thumb|Imagined portrait of da Costa instructing the young [[Baruch Spinoza]], by [[Samuel Hirszenberg]] (1901)]]
[[File:Uriel Da Costa Pharisees.JPG|thumb|250px|right|English translation of Da Costa's ''Examination of Pharisaic Traditions'']] In his lifetime, ''Examination'' inspired not only da Silva's answer, but also [[Menasseh Ben Israel|Menasseh ben Israel]]'s more lasting ''De Resurrectione Mortuorum'' (1636) directed against the "Sadducees",<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4v5wRSYnT0kC&q=da+costa+1636+resurrection&pg=PA101|title=Menasseh Ben Israel and His World|last=van den Berg|first=Jan|date=1989|publisher=Brill |isbn=9004091149|pages=101|language=en|chapter=Menasseh ben Israel, Henry More and Johannes Hoornbeeck on the Pre-existence of the Soul}}</ref> and a listing in the [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Prohibited Books]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/A295133|page=[https://archive.org/details/A295133/page/n439 354]|title=Novus index librorum prohibitorum et expurgatorum|publisher=ex typographaeo Francisci de Lyra|last=Zapata|first=Antonio|date=1632|language=la}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Den Boer|first=Harm|date=1989-01-01|title=Was Uriel Da Costas's "Examen" Seized by the Spanish Inquisition? The Spanish "Index librorum prohibitorum" as a bibliographical source|jstor=41481685|journal=Studia Rosenthaliana|volume=23|issue=1|pages=5–7}}</ref>

After his death, da Costa's name became synonymous with the ''Exemplar Humanae Vitae''. Müller publicized da Costa's excommunication, to make an anachronistic point that some Sephardic Jews of his days were Sadducees.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher =Zacharias Härtel | last = Müller| first = Johannes| title = Judaismus oder Jüdenthum,...| date = 1707 |orig-year = 1644 |page=59 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rK1iAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA59}}</ref> Johann Helwig Willemer made the same point, and implied that this extreme heresy leads to suicide.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tNTAAAAcAAJ&q=Helvicus%20Willemer%20sadducaeis&pg=PT47|title=De Sadducaeis, ex veterum Hebraeorum monumentis instituta|last1=Willemer|first1=Johann Helwig|last2=Langenbeck|first2=Georg|date=1680|language=en|quote=Inter Hispanicos Judaeos quaedam Sadducaeorum reliquae supersunt uti constat vel exemplo Urielis Rabulae Hebrei qui hispanico idiomate "Examen Traditionum Philosophicarum ad legem scriptam" edidit in eo humanarum mortalitatem, propugnavit а tandem Anno christi 1640 . Ipse violentas manus sibi intulit.}}</ref> <!--Limborch why . Bibliotheque Universelle review 1687: Deist? --> [[Pierre Bayle]] reported the contents of the ''Exemplar'' quite fully, to demonstrate among other things that questioning religion without turning to revelation would bring one to miserable faithlessness.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia| last1 = Bayle| first1 = Pierre| last2 = Desmaizeaux| first2 = Pierre| last3 = Tricaud| first3 = Anthelme| last4 = Gaudin| first4 = Alexis| title = Acosta (Uriel)| encyclopedia = [[Dictionnaire Historique et Critique|The dictionary historical and critical of Mr. Peter Bayle]]| date = 1739 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=r21XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA93}}</ref>

The later [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] saw da Costa's rational religion more tolerantly. [[Johann Gottfried Herder|Herder]] eulogized him as a crusader of authentic belief.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-ZKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA522|title=The Monthly Review|last1=Herder|first1=Johann Gottfried von|date=1796|publisher=R. Griffiths.|language=en}}</ref> [[Voltaire]] noted that he left Judaism for philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2BiAAAAcAAJ&q=pg&pg=PA116|title=Letters addressed to his Highness the Prince of *****, containing comments on the writings of the most eminent authors, who have been accused of attacking the Christian Religion|last=Voltaire|date=1769|publisher=Robert Urie|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddg4FpOVPEMC&q=voltaire+orbio&pg=PA6|title=Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity: Rethinking the Enlightenment|last=Mitchell|first=Harvey|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134002344|language=en}}</ref> [[Hermann Samuel Reimarus|Reimarus]] embraced da Costa's appeal to have legal status based on the [[Seven Laws of Noah]], when he made an analogous argument that Christian states should be at least as tolerant toward modern [[Deism|Deists]] as ancient Israelites had been.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RvJkAAAAcAAJ&q=acosta&pg=PA188|title=Fragmente des Wolfenbüttelschen Ungenannten. Hrsg. von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. 4. Aufl|date=1835|publisher=Sander|edition=1835|language=de|chapter=Von Duldung der Deisten <!--|postscript=. [http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/germanica/Chronologie/18Jh/Lessing/les_deif.html html]-->}}</ref>

Internally to Judaism, da Costa has been regarded variously as a [[Heresy|heretic]] or as a [[martyr]] against the intolerance of the [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic]] establishment. He has also been seen as a precursor to [[Baruch Spinoza]] and to modern [[biblical criticism]]. Da Costa had a connection to the Spinoza family, through Baruch's mother, Hanna, with both families coming from Porto, in northern Portugal, and might have known each other there. The Spinozas would have known of da Costa in the Jewish community of Amsterdam, of his troubles with the authorities, and his suicide. There is a 1901 imagined portrait of da Costa and the young Spinoza, but a Spinoza biographer, [[Steven Nadler]] describes the painting as "overwrought" and its depiction of Spinoza being instructed by da Costa as "pure fantasy."<ref>Nadler, ''Spinoza, A Life'', 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press 2022, 76, 84</ref> Spinoza was just eight years old when da Costa committed suicide, and he might not have known then about his family's connection to him. However, as an adolescent he likely learned the details of the public and family scandal.<ref>Israel, Jonathan I. ''Spinoza, Life & Legacy''. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023, 90</ref>

Da Costa is also indicative of the difficulties faced by many [[New Christian]]s seeking to return to their ancestral Jewish roots upon arriving in an organized Jewish community. As a [[Crypto-Judaism|Crypto-Jew]] in [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]], he read the Bible and was impressed by it. Yet upon confronting an organized rabbinic community, he was not equally impressed by the established ritual and religious doctrine of Rabbinical Judaism, such as the [[Oral Torah|Oral Law]].  As da Costa himself pointed out, traditional [[Pharisee]] and Rabbinic doctrine had been contested in the past by the [[Sadducees]] and the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaites]], respectively.