See Also: Acosta, Uriel(encyclopedia)
Acosta's disease(medicine)
Acosta, Joseph de(medicine)
Llinares Acosta Inversiones, SICAV, S.A.(finance)

Acosta, Uriel (sh)




orig. Gabriel da Costa

born งใ 1585, Oporto, Port.
died April 1640, Amsterdam, Neth.

Portuguese Jewish freethinker.

Born into a Marrano family, he came to feel that there was no salvation through the Roman Catholic church and converted to Judaism. His mother and brother also converted, and he and his family fled to Amsterdam. In 1616 he attacked rabbinic Judaism as nonbiblical and was excommunicated. When he enlarged on his criticisms in 1623-24, denying the immortality of the soul, he was arrested and fined. He recanted but was later excommunicated again. He recanted publicly in 1640, after which he wrote a short autobiography, Example of a Human Life, and shot himself.