Background
He was born at Oporto, Portugal, in 1590 and died in Amsterdam in 1647. He was the son of a crypto-Jewish ecclesiastic and upon his father's death, the family went to Amsterdam and openly professed Judaism.
He was born at Oporto, Portugal, in 1590 and died in Amsterdam in 1647. He was the son of a crypto-Jewish ecclesiastic and upon his father's death, the family went to Amsterdam and openly professed Judaism.
Hoping to return to the pristine faith of the Bible, Acosta denied the traditions of rabbinic law. He is the author of a book in Portuguese that denies the immortality of the soul. His heresy caused him to be arrested and fined by the city magistrates, who considered his doctrine neither Christian nor Jewish, and his book was publicly burned. Later he offered to submit to the synagogue but was unable to conform to accepted doctrine and was excommunicated. He lived in social isolation for seven years. He then capitulated to the synagogue again, but was banished for his heterodoxy. He committed suicide, leaving behind him the story of his life, Exemplar humanae vitae (1687; "A Specimen of Human Existence").