Acosta, Uriel (

r`yĕl äkō`stä), or Uriel da Costa (dä kō`stä), c.1585–1640, Jewish rationalist, b. Oporto, Portugal. His original name was Gabriel da Costa, and his family had been converted to Roman Catholicism. When he reached manhood, he was restive in the Christian faith and persuaded his family to move to Amsterdam, where all of them returned to Judaism. In a work in 1624, he expressed rationalistic doctrines and criticized rabbinical Judaism. He was tried, imprisoned, and excommunicated. In 1633 he recanted, but soon he again offended and was excommunicated. After seven years, he once more recanted and was subjected to public humiliation. Rather than endure further trouble he committed suicide. He left an autobiographical sketch, Exemplar humanae vitae (1687, Eng. tr., Specimen of Human Life, 1695). Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow wrote a tragedy about him, Uriel Acosta.

Acosta, Uriel

orig. Gabriel da Costa

(born c. 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.