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Presented by the Translator"

חזוק אמונה

OR

FAITH STRENGTHENED.

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Know, therefore, this day, and reflect in thy heart, that the
Lord he is God, in heaven above, and on the earth beneath, there
is none else."-DEUTERONOMY, Chap. iv. ver. 39.

TRANSLATED BY

MOSES MOCATTA.

PRINTED BUT NOT PUBLISHED.

1851.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. WERTHEIMER AND CO.,

FINSBURY CIRCUS.

·4 JAN

AR

THE TRANSLATOR'S

ADDRESS TO HIS CO-RELIGIONISTS.

As we Israelites do not seek to impose our faith on others a practice altogether repugnant to Judaism— it is necessary to premise that the following work is intended exclusively for distribution among our Hebrew community.

Having made this declaration, the Translator informs his Readers, that the ensuing work will be found to be a faithful version of a valuable theological treatise, entitled ; or, FAITH STRENGTHENED. It was originally composed in Hebrew by Isaac ben Abraham, an Israelite, a native of Lithuania. The work was published A.M. 5393; and in De Rossi's "Dizionario

Istorico," the author is designated as the most powerful opponent and refutant of the doctrines and dogmas of Christianity, that had ever appeared among the Jews. Indeed, an attentive perusal of the little volume cannot fail to convince us, that he was not only an able and a skilful controversialist, but an eminent biblical scholar, a man of deep and extensive research; and earnest in his investigation of truth. The grand design of his polemics, as he himself tells us, is to establish and make manifest the sublime truths of Israel's Faith, and expose and refute the erroneous views on which Christianity is founded. For this purpose his arguments are essentially based on Scripture authority, inasmuch as he derives his entire chain of proofs from apposite biblical texts, with which authorities every page of his work abounds. Arguments and opinions founded on sanctions so high and authoritative, demand our highest respect and most serious meditation. The sound and critical knowledge of the sacred language of our forefathers, for which our author was distinguished, and his perfect familiarity with Bible phraseology, obviously and emphatically enabled him to produce a more exact and accurate version of the original text, than it is possible to find in any authorised English version of the Bible. The result of this superior and decisive advantage was, that he was enabled to obtain

a clearer and more definite conception of the real meaning and purport of those obscure and difficult passages which we find dispersed throughout the Law and the Prophets, and which are so arrogantly and so constantly cited by Christian theologians in support of their creed and doctrine. Of those intricate texts, our Author has given most ample and lucid explanations, and by a train of the most logical, and conclusive reasoning, he ably and forcibly refutes the erroneous and fallacious interpretations put upon them by the opponents of Judaism. And, more forcibly to disprove the arguments of his adversaries, and demonstrate the false and untenable foundation upon which they stand, he has, in a cursory view of each book of the so-called New Testament, shown the glaring inconsistences apparent in them, and detected and exposed the manifold discrepancies subsisting among their several authors, and the endless and contradictory misquotations from the Hebrew Scriptures which appear in those writings. Thus has our Author presented his people with a wellselected compendium of religious instruction, containing those grand fundamental principles of Judaism, namely, the belief in ONE INDIVISIBLE GOD, and THE ADVENT OF A FUTURE MESSIAH. To this mass of Scriptural knowledge let the biblical student resort, and therein he will find a most valuable aid, with an

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