Da Costa Isaac

Da Costa Isaac (a descendant of Uriel Acosta, q.v.), was born Jan. 14, 1798, at Amsterdam, where he also pursued his studies until 1817, when he went to Layden to devote his time to the study of law and belles-lettres. In 1822, after the death of his father, he abandoned Judaism and embraced Christianity, and became one of the most active opponents of the new rationalistic opinions. A circle of religiously-inclined persons gathered about him, and to these he expounded the Bible until after the Revolution of 1830, when he visited different cities of Holland and delivered a series of lectures. In 1839 he became a member of the Netherlands Institute, and renewed his efforts as a poet, while he still carried on a controversy with theologians of other schools and against all ecclesiastical innovations. He died April 28, 1860. Besides numerous poems and works in general literature, he wrote, Israel en de Volken (1849); Over de eenheid en overeenstimming de evangelien (1840, 2 vols.); Over de waarheid en wardij van het Oude Testament (1843); Paulus (1846); Beschoulw'ng over het evangelie van Lukas (1856); De apostel Johannes en zijne schriften. — Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 19:831.