Kidder, Richard. A Demonstration of the Messias, In which the Truth of the Christian Religion is Proved Especially Against the Jews

(ANGLO-JUDAICA).

J. Heptinstall

London

1684

FIRST EDITION. English interspersed with Hebrew

Considering that the Re-admission of the Jews to England was as late as the year 1656, it is interesting to note with what alacrity English missionaries set to work to convert the Jews. The Anglican theologian Richard Kidder (1633-1703) was something of an Hebraist. Roth (Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 355, no. 73) lists a work by Kidder of proverbs in various languages including Hebrew. The present work by Kidder influenced the librettist Charles Jennens in writing Handel's “Messiah.” See M. Morissen, Rejoicing against Judaism in Handel's Messiah, in: Journal of Musicology (Spring 2007), Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 167-94. Kidder inveighs here the authority of Menasseh Ben Israel in his Conciliator no less than three times (pp. 82,162 and 428)