Abraham Gómez Silveira

1656–1740

Abraham Gómez Silveira was born in Arévalo, Spain, to a New Christian family. As a young man, he moved to Amsterdam and formally adopted Judaism. At the age of twenty, he published his first book, consisting of seven sermons in Portuguese, which was greatly admired by the Amsterdam rabbinic establishment. For reasons that remain unclear, in the last quarter of the seventeenth century Silveira settled in Antwerp and there wrote a series of polemical works against Christianity.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

Primary Source

Dissertaciones sobre el Mesías (Dissertations on the Messiah)

Public Access
Text
One must not close one’s ears to the heretic, as the orthodox can easily open his eyes. For this reason, pressure and punishment should never be used against any religion. Debates are useful. But…

Primary Source

Like a wooer and a husband

Public Access
Text
Like a wooer and a husbandI devote myself to your faithsince being a husband does not implya courtly surrender.Like a wooer I pursue your lovebecause I wish to meritthe privileges of a husbandthough I…