Christian Hebraism and Jewish Responses: A Comparison between Menasseh ben Israel, Saul Levi Morteira, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, and Moshe Raphael de Aguilar

In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, Christian Hebraism was a widespread phenomenon. In proximity to one of the most important Jewish communities of the Western hemisphere, Christians not only studied and edited Hebrew sources, they also approached Jewish scholars in their search for Jewish knowledge. Amsterdam rabbis responded in a variety of ways. In my essay, I propose a set of models to systematize the responses of Menasseh ben Israel, Saul Levi Morteira, Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, and Moshe Raphael de Aguilar. To our knowledge, only Menasseh ben Israel developed the project of an Abrahamic theology. Morteira was highly versed in Christian denominational difference but used his knowledge to mimic (and subvert) Christian Hebraism. Aboab and Aguilar were less concerned with Christian Hebraism than with Jewish distinctions and traditional replies to Christian anti-Jewish polemics.