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As we have noted, the image of Jesus is not allowed to negate the polemi- cal discourse that guides the author in his analysis of the New Testament. Thus Isaac ben Abraham can note that Jesus acknowledged the validity of the Law of Moses but elsewhere emphasize that Jesus denied the eternal validity of the Torah. Indeed, Isaac ben Abraham also points out an episode in which Jesus declared the Law and Prophets superseded by the arrival of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:13; Luke 16:16).61 CLOSING REMARKS In this article I have offered a reading of the image of Jesus as it emerges from the writings of a Jewish/Karaite thinker who was primarily moved by a wish to deconstruct the Christological figure. Despite some contradictions in Jesus’ self-understanding and his relation with the Law, the image of the Nazarene hidden under the polemical discourse was, Isaac ben Abraham proposed, that of a Jewish man who followed Jewish religious prescriptions and asked his fol- lowers to do the same, which they did. Jesus did not believe he was God or the Messiah described in the Hebrew Bible. For Isaac ben Abraham Jesus was a Jew, but not a good Jew.62 These polemical themes and needs created a particular historical perspective and presented an opportunity for a thorough reading of the Christian texts.63 In deconstructing the figure of Christ, the polemicist un- earthed Jesus and his world, thereby highlighting his historical being. Precisely this image has attracted scholars of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Such polemical literature may have unintentionally created historical im- ages of Jesus that would become influential among Christian scholars. In the Christian world Sefer Ḥizzuq Emunah was well known largely as a result of its translation into Latin by Wagenseil, but manuscript versions also contributed significantly to its diffusion. For example, Spanish manuscript translations of the text circulated among eminent European intellectuals,64 including English freethinker Anthony Collins (1676–1729) and Voltaire (1669–1778).65 Collins was 61 Deutsch 1873, 296. Matthew 11:13: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John came”; Luke 16:16: “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force”. 62 This characterization is not unusual in Jewish polemical literature. For example, in the Kelimat ha-Goyim (The Shame of the Gentiles), the work of Jewish polemicist Profiat Duran (c. 1350–1415), we can read that Jesus, like John the Baptist, was described as “fool pious” (הטוש דיסח). See Talmage 1981, 40. 63 On the value of Jewish polemical literature on this theme, see Gutwirth 1984; Cohen 1993; Berger 1998; Del Valle Rodríguez 2010; Le Donne 2012; Wilke 2016; Facchini 2018. 64 The first Spanish translation that we know of bears the title Fortificacion de la Fè and was prepared by Sephardic rabbi Isaac Athias (?–after 1626/7) in 1621. Copies of this translation can be found at the Tal- mud Torah Library in Livorno (Ms. 57) and in the Russian National Library in Moscow (Ms. Guenzburg 823). 65 Tarantino 2007, 257; Havens/Torrey 1959, 256. 24 | Miriam Benfatto www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1