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Gemeinde (Address to my Community), published in Breslau in 1842.36 He was, however, in agreement with Geiger on the value of Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah; the latter dedicated an essay to its author in 1853 entitled Isaak Troki. Ein Apologet des Judenthums am Ende des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts (Isaac Troki. An Apologist of Judaism at the End of the Sixteenth Century).37 Geiger was probably the first scholar to deal extensively with Isaac ben Abraham from a scholarly point of view. In his work, the anti-Christian polemics of Isaac ben Abraham was com- pared with the work of the German philosopher David Friedrich Strauss (1808– 1874),38 who in 1835 had written his most famous theological and critical book, Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet (The Life of Jesus Critically Edited), on the life of Jesus.39 THE NAZARENE ACCORDING TO JEWISH POLEMICAL DISCOURSE What could Reimarus and others read about Jesus in Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah? What image of Jesus does this text give and what does it hide? Understanda- bly, Isaac ben Abraham Troki did not present Jesus through a critical approach based on historical reconstruction; rather, he tried to retrace the figure of Jesus by deconstructing the theological and Christological narratives. The historical figure of Jesus is hidden by his polemical perspective, with Isaac ben Abraham focusing his discussion on what the Nazarene was not or did not do. For exam- ple, according to his interpretation, the Nazarene was not God, nor was he the Messiah and the promoter of a new religious law. Here in following Isaac ben Abraham’s arguments, we will focus on evidence related to New Testament ac- counts, leaving aside Hebrew Bible proofs and unfulfilled prophecies. Isaac ben Abraham proposed that the New Testament provides several proofs against Jesus’ divinity, and consequently also against the theological concept of the Trinity.40 For his exploration of this point, the author carefully studied the writings of Nicholas Paruta (c. 1530–1581), Martin Chechowiz (c. 1532–1613) and Simon Budny (c. 1530–1593), the leaders of Unitarianism in Poland.41 The Unitarian Church grew out of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and had taken shape in Poland and Transylvania in the 1560s. The 36 Brocke/Carlebach 2004, 247; Norden 1902. 37 On this topic see Heschel 1998. 38 Geiger 1853; Heschel 1998, 131. 39 On Geiger’s interest in Jewish polemical literature, in particular by Rabbi Leone Modena, see Facchini 2018. 40 On this point the author was influenced also by contemporary antitrinitarian intellectuals. See Dán 1988, 69–82. 41 Firpo 1977; Cantimori 2009. The Hidden Jesus | 19www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1