Adam Boreel (2 November 1602 in

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

– 20 June 1665 in

Sloterdijk, Amsterdam Sloterdijk () was a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It now is a part of the municipality of Amsterdam, and lies about 3 km northwest of the city centre.''ANWB Topografische Atlas Nederland'', Topografische Dienst and ANWB, 20 ...

) was a Dutch

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

Hebraist A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...

. He was one of the founders of the Amsterdam College; the

Collegiants In Christian history, the Collegiants (; ), also called Collegians, were an association, founded in 1619 among the Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland. They were so called because of their colleges (meetings) held the first Sunday of each month ...

were also often called Boreelists. Others involved in the Collegiants were

William Ames William Ames (; Latin: ''Guilielmus Amesius''; 157614 November 1633) was an English Puritan minister, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Ca ...

, Daniel van Breen, Michiel Coomans, Jacob Otto van Halmael and the

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

Galenus Abrahamsz de Haan.

Biography

Boreel was ordained into the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

, but broke away. In ''Ad legem et testimonium'' (1645), he argued the

sola scriptura (Latin for 'by scripture alone') is a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for ...

position that no religious authority other than the Bible should be acknowledged. He was attacked by Johann Hornbeek (''Apologia pro ecclesia Christiana non apostatica'' 1647), and by Samuel Maresius. Boreel's associates included Peter Serrarius, a fellow

millenarian Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious organization, religious, social, or political party, political group or Social movement, movement in a coming fundamental Social transformation, transformation of society, after which ...

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

, who moved with the Collegiants after exclusion from the Amsterdam Jewish community, and

Henry Oldenburg Henry Oldenburg (also Henry Oldenbourg) (c. 1618 as Heinrich Oldenburg – 5 September 1677) was a German theologian, diplomat, and natural philosopher, known as one of the creators of modern scientific peer review. He was one of the foremos ...

, a correspondent. Boreel was close also to

John Dury John Dury (1596 in Edinburgh – 1680 in Kassel) was a Scottish Calvinist minister and an intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he move ...

. They were a fringe group, but are considered important as representative of the 'Third Force', trying to reconcile religious orthodoxy with scientific

scepticism Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

. In the early 1660s the Collegiants became harder to distinguish from other movements, of

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

anti-Trinitarian Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the orthodox Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence ( ...

s, and

Socinian Socinianism ( ) is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively. I ...

s. Adam Boreel is reputed to be the author of ''Lucerna Super Candelabrum'' (''

The Light upon the Candlestick ''The Light upon the Candlestick'' is an anonymous mystical Tract (literature), tract published in Holland in 1662. Translated into English language, English in 1663, it became a popular text among English people, English Quakers. The tract prom ...

'', 1663), a mystical text accepted by both the Collegiants and the Quakers.

Interest in Judaism

Boreel took a close interest in

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, working with

Menasseh Ben Israel Manoel Dias Soeiro (; 1604 – 20 November 1657), better known by his Hebrew language, Hebrew name Menasseh or Menashe ben Israel (), was a Jewish scholar, rabbi, Kabbalah, kabbalist, writer, diplomat, printer (publisher), printer, publishe ...

and Judah Leon Templo. Among his projects with the latter were a reconstruction of

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (), was a biblical Temple in Jerusalem believed to have existed between the 10th and 6th centuries Common Era, BCE. Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it ...

and editions of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

.J. T. Young (1998), ''Faith, Alchemy and Natural Philosophy: Johann Moriaen, Reformed Intelligencer, and the Hartlib Circle'', p.47.

References

Sources

*Ernestine G.E. van der Wall, Without Partilitie Towards All Men': John Durie on the Dutch Hebraist Adam Boreel'', pp. 145–150 in J. van den Berg and E.G.E. van den der Wall, eds., Jewish-Christian Relations in the Seventeenth Century, Leiden: Kluwer, 1988 *Ernestine van der Wall, ''The Dutch Hebraist Adam Boreel and the Mishnah Project'', LIAS 16. (1989) 239–63
online scan
*Robert Iliffe, ''Jesus Nazarenus Legislator: Adam Boreel's defence of Christianity'', in Heterodoxy, Spinozism and Free Thought in Early Eighteenth Century Europe, S. Berti, F. Charles-Daubert and R. Popkin, eds., (Kluwer: Amsterdam) 1996, 375–96 {{DEFAULTSORT:Boreel, Adam 1602 births 1665 deaths 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 17th-century Dutch theologians Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians People from Middelburg, Zeeland Christian Hebraists