A Fascinating Unpublished Spanish Manuscript on the Messianic Redemption. 1723.

"Confiansa de Ysrael en la firme constancia, con que aguardan, el cumplimiento de la promesa Diuina, para redemirlos de el esparcimiento, y juntar los empujados: y algunas reprobaciones de las contraries opiniones."

Manuscript in Spanish with Hebrew passages. Anonymous author recorded as “M. G. S.”

An apologetic treatise on Jewish redemption. Written in Spanish with several biblical quotations in Hebrew, this anonymous work has two distinctive parts. The first develops the theological implications of Israel’s different stages of salvation. Through an exposition of Psalms chaps. 113-118, the author expounds verse by verse how Israel is guided through the stages of history it has to surpass toward its final redemption. Overall, the theological exposition has intense messianic notes and its final goal is to provide reliable points of argument for Jews against Christian proselytism.

The second part of this manuscript is a critique and strong refutation of an anti-Jewish, Christian apologetic work by the Spanish Capuchin friar Fr. Mateo de Anguiano, “La Nueva Jerusalen,” published in Madrid in 1709. Anguiano’s work is critically examined chapter by chapter, with the approach being a denouncement of Christianity as a false religion rooted upon idolatrous superstition, by way of corrupt interpretations of the Bible. Christianity’s fundamental tenets are attacked here, with extensive quotations of the Gospel and Christian authors, such as popes, Conciliar fathers, Luther and Calvin.

A dedication on the opening page provides the first name only of the author, one, “Mordexai G. S.” A disciple and friend of the author, Hezequiel Lopes Martos, signs the dedication. The title-page depicts Moses parting the Red Sea, along with a smaller pen-and-ink drawing of a Jewish martyr burning at the stake, while reciting the Shema. Both drawings relate to the the two main themes of this text: Redemption of Israel and its perseverance and martyrdom in its struggles against Christianity.

As a final note, the text mentions several times the Jews in Portugal and in the Spanish Netherlands, notably Flanders. At the same time, the author displays an advanced knowledge of the Spanish nobility and its internal affairs, mentioning the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14). The prose incorporates several Portuguese words and expressions. Even though the place of publication remains unknown, it can be speculated it might have been published in the former Spanish Netherlands, which in 1723 were already the Austrian Netherlands.