De Resurrectione Mortuorum [on the resurrection of the dead]
AUCTION 23 |
Tuesday, March 30th,
2004 at 1:00
Hebrew Printed Books & Manuscripts from The Rare Book Room of the Jews College Library, London The Third Portion
Lot 176
MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL.
De Resurrectione Mortuorum [on the resurrection of the dead]
Amsterdam: by the Author 1636
Est: $500 - $700
PRICE REALIZED $750
The Amsterdam Jewish community at this time was comprised primarily of Marranos, who in their Iberian homeland knew Judaism, if at all, only through the lenses of the Old Testament. Since the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is not elucidated in the Bible, some of the newly arrived Marranos came to doubt the belief in an Afterlife. The most notorious of these modern-day “Sadducees” was one Uriel Acosta. In response to these sceptics, Menasseh marshaled proofs from throughout Judaic literature as to the existence of an afterlife. See Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (Philadeplhia, 1945), pp. 92-4