Uriel Da Costa - Analysis of Da Costa

Analysis of Da Costa

Ultimately there are many ways to view Uriel da Costa. He has been seen as a crusader of free thought and an early precursor of modern biblical criticism. Internally to Judaism, he was seen by many as both a troublemaking heretic and martyr against the intolerance of the Orthodox Jewish establishment. He has also been seen as a precursor to Baruch Spinoza.

Costa is also indicative of the difficulty that many Marranos faced upon their arrival in an organized Jewish community. As a Crypto-Jew in 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 Law. As da Costa himself pointed out, traditional Pharisee and Rabbinic doctrine had been contested in the past by the Sadducees and the Karaites.