MANUSCRIPTS


EH 48 B 13




CATEGORY

Polemics
Against Christianity

Prevenciones Divinas contra la Idolatria de las Gentes.



Polemical treatise by Isaac Orobio de Castro, copied by Abraham Machorro. Amsterdam, 1704.

Contents:

p. I: Title in decorated frame: Prevenciones Divinas contra la / Idolatria de las Gentes. / Pruevase que todo quanto se havia / de inventar en el Christia / nismo, se lo previno Dios / a Israel en los Cinco / Libros de la Ley: Para / que advertido no pudiesse / caer en tales errores. / Por / El Doctor Ishac Orobio / de Castro. / Copiado en Amsterdam / Por Abraham Machorro. / Año 1704. Empeçado en 1° / Junio / y acabado en 1° Otubre / Año 1704. Although not signed, according to Fuks this page is undoubtedly the work of Jacob Guedalha.

p. II: blank.

p. III: Second title: Prevenciones Divinas / contra la Idolatria de las Gentes / Libro Primero.

p. IV: blank.

p. V-VIII, 1-6: Preface.

p. 7-9: blank.

p. 10: Title: Pruevase, que todo quanto se havia de inventar en el Cristianismo,/ lo previno Dios a Israel, en los Cinco Libros de la Ley, para que/ advertido, no pudiesse caer en tales errores…

p. 10-127: First book.

p. 128: blank.

p. 129: Title: Contra los falsos misterios de las Gentes advertidas a/ Israel, en los escrito profeticos…

p. 129-325: Second book.

p. 131-132: Prologue.

p. 323: “Acabado en 2 Otubre 1704” (Finished on 2 October 1704).

p. 326: blank.

p. 327-331 : Table of contents.

According to Yosef Kaplan, Prevenciones divinas is one of the most incisive Orobio’s writings against Christianity. It was written between 1668 and 1675, and circulated widely in manuscript form among Sephardic Jews in Western Europe.

It is divided in two parts. In the first book, Orobio intends to prove that, in the Torah, God already warns the people of Israel against Christianity and its attacks on the Law of Moses. He also criticizes the Christian method of biblical exegesis (especially, its attempts to find mystical meanings instead of choosing more obvious explanations) and the accuracy of the Gospels as a historic source.

The second book is mostly a refutation against the Christian interpretations on the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, especially on Daniel 9 (20-7) and Isaiah 53.

Baron D’Holbach’s Israel vengé ou Exposition naturelle des Prophéties hébraïques que les Chrétiens appliquent à Jesus, leur prétendu Messie par Isaac Orobio (London, 1770) is the first printed edition of Orobio’s polemical writings, freely translated into French, and including abstracts from the Prevenciones divinas, under the title “Dissertation sur le Messie”.

Other copies in EH 48 B 6; EH 48 C 1, 2; EH 48 C 12; EH 48 D 6.

Belonged to the collection of David Montezinos.

For the author and his works cf. EH 48 C 12.

Of the copyist several other works repose in this collection. cf. EH 48 B 05, 48 B 12 etc.

Adam Sutcliffe, Judaism and Enlightenment, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003. Yosef Kaplan, From Christianity to Judaism: the story of Isaac Orobio de Castro, London, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004.


Paper / Spanish / 28,8 x 22,4 cm. / [8] + 326 + [6] pp. / 35 lines to a page / Neat Iberian current writing / Title written in capital lettering in ornamental frame in aquatint / Catchwords at the bottom of each page / Contemporary gold-tooled leather binding / The title page, though not signed, is undoubtedly the work of Jacob Guedelha.


Fuks 202. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.


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