Aaron Bernstein’s Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ argues that Jewish converts to Christianity have been neglected in Jewish historiography and presents them as legitimate witnesses to Jesus. The deck covers Bernstein’s stated aims, sources, Talmudic and early Christian references, Joseph of Tiberius, Julian of Toledo, and his claims about historians’ judgments.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What is the stated aim of Bernstein's book?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The author aims to show that God had at all times in Christian Church history a considerable number of believing Israelites who, after conversion, rendered good service to fellowmen and the Church. He admits only a few of this 'remnant according to the election of grace' have names recorded in history; most are in the Book of Life alone.
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Section 12 cards
What is the stated aim of Bernstein's book?
The author aims to show that God had at all times in Christian Church history a considerable number of believing Israelites who, after conversion, rendered good service to fellowmen and the Church. He admits only a few of this 'remnant according to the election of grace' have names recorded in history; most are in the Book of Life alone.
Chapter 1
What sources does Bernstein list for his information?
He names the Jewish Encyclopædia, Pastor de le Roi's Juden Mission, Rev. A. Fürst's Christen und Juden, Rev. Ridley Herschell's Jewish Witnesses, Schahiro's The People, the Land and the Book, Dr. Moses Margoliouth's Hebrew Christian Witness, Gidney's Sites and Scenes, and the Talmud, whose testimony he calls very reliable on Jewish Christians.
Chapter 1
Section 23 cards
What does Hegesippus's surviving list of Jerusalem bishops show, and why are the episcopates short?
Hegesippus, a Palestinian Hebrew Christian in Rome about 150 A.D., is called the father of Church history. His most valuable surviving relic is the list of Hebrew Christian bishops in succession at Jerusalem, from James the Lord's brother through Symeon, Justus I, Zacchaeus, and others to Jude in 133. The author suggests the shortness of their episcopates indicates a time of great tribulation.
Chapter 2
Which two first-century converts appear in the Talmud, and what testimonial do they receive?
Nicodemus, identified by the Jewish Encyclopaedia writer with Nicodemus ben Gorian, is said to have been a great saint. Jacob of Kefar Sakanya (Simai) discussed a ritual question on Deut. xxiii. 8 with R. Eliezer, who was pleased with his interpretation of Micah i. 7 and was consequently suspected of Christian leanings. Jacob also offered to heal R. Eleasar ben Dama in Jesus's name, but R. Ishmael refused.
Chapter 2
What does the chapter say about the 'Blessing against the heretics' and its consequences?
The Jewish Liturgy bears witness to opposition to the Gospel in the so-called 'Blessing against the heretics,' composed by Samuel the Little in the Synagogue of Yabne in the presence of Gamaliel the Elder. Justin Martyr, Origen, and Jerome complained of it, and the author says it has alas been a source of trouble to Jews at various times throughout the Christian ages.
Chapter 2
Section 34 cards
How did Joseph of Tiberias become acquainted with the New Testament?
Joseph, a physician of Tiberias and member of the Sanhedrin, was sent as a delegate to the Jews in Cilicia, where he met a Christian bishop who gave him a New Testament. According to Milman he was detected reading it, scourged in the synagogue, and later thrown into the river Cydnus, barely escaping with his life, after which he was baptized. Constantine elevated him to Comes of the Empire.
Chapter 3
What did Joseph reportedly find in Hillel's sealed house after Hillel's death?
Epiphanius reports that Hillel, who succeeded his father Judah II as patriarch of Tiberias, embraced Christianity and was secretly baptized on his death-bed by a bishop. Joseph, his physician, had witnessed the scene. After Hillel died his suspicious countrymen kept the house shut, but Joseph gained entrance and found there the Gospels of John and Matthew and the Acts in Hebrew translation. Gräetz denies this account.
Chapter 3
What does the Talmud's story of R. Joshua ben Levi and the cock teach?
A heretic annoyed R. Joshua ben Levi while he read Scripture. Believing God is angry for a moment each day, indicated when a cock's comb turns red, he tied a cock to his bed and watched for the sign so he could curse the heretic then. He fell asleep, awoke to a white comb, and concluded it was not right to curse anyone, citing that the Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works.
Chapter 3
How does the chapter explain Talmudic sayings that resemble New Testament passages?
The author argues that rabbis and Jewish Christians commonly met in a public library called bi avidan or an assembly place called bi netzrafi, so some Talmudic sayings resembling New Testament passages may be due to Hebrew Christian influence during the Gemara's formation. He cites R. Gamaliel quoting Matt. v. 17, slightly altered, against a Christian's inheritance argument (Shabbath 116b).
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
What did the completed Babylonian Talmud do to relations between Judaeo-Christians and Jews?
The chapter states the finished Babylonian Talmud, completed in the fifth century, formed an iron partition between Judaeo-Christians and their brethren. Once the oral law was written, codified, and taught in synagogues and schools, the poor and unenlightened people clung to it ardently and refused contact with the Gospel or Christianity.
Chapter 4
Who was Julian of Toledo and what offices did he hold?
Julian of Toledo was a seventh-century Jewish convert, baptized in his native cathedral, made archdeacon in 656 and bishop in 680, dying in 690. He was Primate of Spain, called 'a rose among thorns,' and presided over the Twelfth Council of Toledo, where he urged King Erwig to pass severe laws against his former co-religionists.
Chapter 4
What does the author argue about Jewish historians' judgments of Hebrew Christians?
The author argues that the severe opinion Jews generally held about Hebrew Christians came largely from unfair, indiscriminate judgments by Jewish historians, and says even the modern Gräetz was unfair in this respect. He distinguishes anti-Talmudists from anti-Semites and claims most converts defended their brethren against false accusations.
Chapter 4
What was Nicolas I's policy toward young Jewish boys, and how did Aleksyeyev fit it?
Nicolas I's political and missionary policy took young Jewish boys from their parents and trained them in military schools, so that after twenty-five years' service they might return home as missionaries to their parents. Aleksyeyev, impressed at age ten, long resisted, but about 1845 converted and helped convert roughly five hundred Jewish Cantonists.
Chapter 4
Section 54 cards
Who was Gregory Bar-Hebræus and what offices did he hold?
Gregory Bar-Hebræus (Abu Ab-Foraj Ibu Harun) was a Jacobite Syrian historian, physician, philosopher and theologian, born at Malatia in 1226 and died at Moragha in 1286. He studied medicine under his father Aaron, who embraced Christianity. He became Bishop of Guba (1246), Lakaba (1247) and Aleppo (1253), and in 1264 was named Mafriana, or Primate of the Eastern Jacobites, seated at Tekrit on the Tigris.
Chapter 5
What does Bar-Hebræus say about the Samaritan Pentateuch?
In a scholium to 2 Kings xvii. 28, Bar-Hebræus states: "The Law (i.e. text of the Pentateuch) of the Samaritans does not agree with that of the Jews, but with the Septuagint." He occasionally cites Samaritan readings in his scholia on the Old and New Testament (Auzar Raze), and also cites opinions of the Jews, such as on Ps. viii. 2 and on the Shem Hamephorash.
Chapter 5
How does the chapter characterize pre-Reformation Roman Catholic missionary methods among Jews?
The author argues the pre-Reformation Roman Church showed great zeal "though not according to knowledge," running a missionary seminary in Spain where men studied Hebrew literature for controversy with Jews. Disputations with learned rabbis occurred before bishops and princes, but the author argues the methods were often force and intrigue, un-Christian in the extreme, producing converts only in appearance and leading to the Inquisition and expulsion from Spain.
Chapter 5
What does the chapter say about the Mortara and Coen cases?
The author argues that after the Reformation the Roman Church slackened its zeal for converting Jews, having no distinct missionary organization. He states we hear only now and then of clandestine abductions, generally through domestic servants, citing the famous Mortara case and the Coen case in the time of Pius IX., and the case of a Jewish girl of Prague enticed into a nunnery reported by the Jewish Chronicle.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
What did Alexanderson Daniel write after converting at Rouen in 1621?
After embracing Christianity at Rouen, France, in 1621, he wrote an open letter in Syriac or rabbinic giving the reasons for his conversion and calling on his former co-religionists to follow his example. The letter was translated into several European languages and went through two English editions, London 1688 and 1703.
Chapter 6
Who was Anacletus II and what evidence supports his Jewish origin?
Anacletus II, Pietro Pierleoni, was antipope to Innocent II from 1130 to 1138. The chapter says it is maintained he was a very near descendant of Baruch, a rich Jew who joined the Roman Church, and that there can be no doubt he was of Jewish origin. Bernard of Clairvaux, supporting Innocent, wrote to Lothair that to the shame of Christ a man of Jewish origin occupied the chair of St. Peter. He was friendly to the Jews.
Chapter 6
What legend arose around Anacletus II among the Jews?
The chapter says the affair gave rise to a legend of a Jewish Pope named Andreas, found among penitential liturgies issued by Eliezer Ashkenazi at Frankfurt on Maine in 1854. In it Andreas became Cardinal and Pope, and in answer to a Jewish appeal for protection against imminent persecution he subdued popular passion by a speech and sent the Jews a penitential prayer composed in Hebrew, signed with his name Andreas.
Chapter 6
What did Baptista, born in Safed in 1588, produce after converting in Poland in 1625?
Born in Safed in 1588 and died in 1668, his Jewish name was Judah Jonah ben Isaac. After travels and serving as assistant rabbi in Hamburg, he embraced Christianity in Poland in 1625, then went to Italy, becoming professor at the University of Pisa and later a Vatican librarian. His works include a Hebrew and Latin sermon on the Messiah, a Hebrew translation of Bellarmin's catechism, a Hebrew translation of the New Testament with a preface by Clement IX, a Hebrew Chaldaic lexicon, and a treatise on the name of Jesus.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
Why did Baptista Eliano travel to Venice, and what happened instead?
He went to Venice to win back his baptized brother to Judaism, but instead became a Christian himself in 1551. He later wrote a Hebrew and Arabic catechism and became notorious as an anti-Talmudist, using influence at the Papal Court to have the Talmud and rabbinic literature destroyed. In 1561, sent by Pope Pius IV to Egypt, he was bitterly persecuted by the Jews of Alexandria at his own mother's instigation.
Chapter 7
What did Pablo Christiani argue with Nachmanides, and what was Nachmanides' reply?
Pablo Christiani, a thirteenth-century Dominican convert, is described as an over-zealous missionary with more of a Boanergian spirit than the spirit of Christ. At the palace of King James he tried to prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud. Rabbi Nachmanides replied that he did not believe in the Haggadic stories of the Talmud.
Chapter 7
How did the denunciation by Canta Joshua Dei and Baptista Vittorio Eliano end?
According to Wolf, Canta Joshua Dei was a convert to Christianity. In 1559 he and Baptista Vittorio Eliano denounced the Talmud as containing blasphemies against the Christian faith. The result was the burning of Hebrew books, and Canta's own assassination in the streets of Cremona.
Chapter 7
What did Cardinal Ximenes commission Paul Nunez Coronel to do, and where did it appear?
Coronel, born at Segovia and died in 1534, was a rabbinical scholar who after his conversion became Professor at the University of Salamanca. Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros commissioned him to translate the Bible into Latin. That translation is contained in the Complutensian Polyglot. He also wrote unprinted additions to Nicholas of Lyra on differences of translation.
Chapter 7
Section 83 cards
What did Dominico Irosolimitano do after embracing Christianity?
Born in Safed about 1550, he studied Talmud and medicine, lectured on Talmudic law, and became a famed physician summoned as Court Physician by the Sultan of Turkey. After converting he went to Rome, taught Hebrew at the college of the Neophytes, and worked as expurgator of Hebrew books. He wrote 'Ma'ayan Gannim,' translated the New Testament into Hebrew, and compiled 'Sefer ha Zikuk.'
Chapter 8
What does Ferretti's Hebrew prayer reveal about his inner struggle?
The prayer describes years of restless spirit, with the thought of forsaking his fathers' faith and accepting Christianity occurring even during synagogue prayer and festivals. He asks God to deliver him from these vexations or, if determined, to let him walk in peace. He sets a condition: if the emotions do not cease after a month, he will acknowledge God wrought this restlessness for his salvation.
Chapter 8
What were Drach's background and principal literary works?
David Paul Drach, born at Strasburg in 1791, was the son of a rabbi and received a good education from his father. In 1823 he embraced Christianity with his two daughters and son Paul, later a priest and Biblical scholar. He became librarian of the Propaganda in Rome. Works include an annotated 'Bible de Venice' (27 volumes, Paris, 1827-33), 'De l'Harmonie Entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue' (1844), and a Hebrew-Chaldee lexicon (1848).
Chapter 8
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How did Joshua Halorki come to convert, and what name did he take?
Joshua Halorki, born in Murcia, was a strict Talmudist and physician who sought arguments against Christianity but instead became convinced it was founded on the Rock of Ages. While trying to convict the Hebrew Christian Solomon Halevi of heresy, he concluded he himself was ignorant of the spirit of Moses and the Prophets. He asked to be baptized and took the name Geronymo à Santa Fé.
Chapter 9
What did Heydeck write to the rabbis who flattered Napoleon as Messiah-like?
Heydeck, formerly a rabbi in Germany and later professor of Oriental languages at Madrid, wrote to the rabbis who praised Napoleon in Messianic terms: "If the Son of Man shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John viii. 36). The chapter notes delegates at Napoleon's 1807 Sanhedrin applied Daniel vii. 13 and Isaiah xlii to him, and that Heydeck's three-volume defense of Christianity had convinced Dr. Cappadose and Da Costa.
Chapter 9
What was Henekstein's military career and its outcome?
Alfred Freiherr Von Henekstein, born at Ober Dobling in 1810 and died in Vienna in 1882, converted to Christianity in 1828 and joined the army that same year. Promoted gradually, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1869. In the Austro-Prussian war he served under Benedek; the Austrian army was defeated through blunders of commanding officers, and both were arrested for court-martial, though the court was eventually dismissed without judgment. He retired to Vienna.
Chapter 9
Section 104 cards
What was debated at the 1413 Tortosa conference, and who presided?
The conference convened at Tortosa in Aragon on February 7, 1413, with the Pope-Pretender Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna) presiding. It discussed whether Jesus of Nazareth, born at Bethlehem in Herod's latter days, crucified and died at Jerusalem, is the true Messiah foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Geronymo à Santa Fé and Andreas Baltram argued the Christian side against the most renowned Rabbis of the time.
Chapter 10
How long did the Tortosa discussion last, and what was its reported outcome?
The discussion lasted from February 7, 1413, until November 12, 1414, occupying sixty-nine sessions and attended by grandees of Church and Synagogue. According to the chapter, all Jewish disputants except two admitted they were fairly and utterly vanquished and signed a declaration; upwards of five thousand Jews publicly confessed faith in Christ and were baptized.
Chapter 10
What method did John of Valladolid use that undercut his debates?
John of Valladolid, born 1335, persuaded King Henry of Castile to compel Jews to attend his synagogue lectures. He traveled Castilian provinces with another Jewish convert but lacked success, debating at Avilla before Christian and Moslem audiences and summoning Moses ha Cohen at Burgos. The chapter says he made no impression because, imitating rabbinical method, he based doctrine on letter forms—claiming the final closed mem in Isaiah 9:6 alludes to the immaculate conception.
Chapter 10
Who was Morasini Giulio, and what post did Clement IX give him?
Morasini Giulio, born at Venice in 1612 and died 1687, was descended from a wealthy family tracing ancestry to Nehemiah. Present at a 1649 Venice disputation on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, he and his brother Joseph decided to embrace Christianity; he was baptized November 22, 1649, taking the name of his godfather Angelo Morasini. Clement IX appointed him Hebrew scrittore of the Vatican library, and he taught Hebrew in the Propaganda, authoring 'Derek Emunah' (Rome, 1683).
Chapter 10
Section 114 cards
What does the chapter say about Henrique Nunez's death and reputation?
Nunez was a Portuguese convert born in Borba who died in 1524. It is asserted that he acted as a spy against his people and was therefore stabbed by two Maranos disguised as monks. He received the appellation Firme Fé, was revered as a saint, and people ascribed marvellous healing power to his tomb.
Chapter 11
Why did Paul de Burgos convert, and what does his testament suggest about his motives?
Paul de Burgos, born Solomon ha Levi in 1350, was Rabbi of Burgos until about his fortieth year and converted in 1370 after studying the Old Testament, New Testament, and Aquinas. He said 'Paulus me ad fidem convertit.' Jewish writers assert ambition and vanity motivated him, but the chapter quotes his testament to let readers judge whether that charge is justified.
Chapter 11
What did Mark Raphael advise Henry VIII about his levirate marriage, and how did he later revise it?
Raphael, an Italian Jewish convert said to have been a rabbi, was consulted by Henry VIII on the Jewish-law legality of his levirate marriage to Catharine. He arrived in London on January 28, 1531, decided the marriage was legal, but suggested the King might take another wife conjointly. He later reviewed his opinion, arguing that since no children resulted, the King must have married without intent to continue his brother's line, making the marriage invalid.
Chapter 11
What is notable about Vettinger's Moniteur des Dates and his literary output?
Edward Maria Vettinger, born at Breslau in 1808 and died at Blaseritz near Dresden in 1872, embraced Christianity in 1828. He wrote novels, poems, satires, and historical and biographical works, a complete list appearing in the Moniteur des Dates. That work gives short biographical notes of important men, over 1,000,000 in number, from the dawn of history to its completion, including living persons.
Chapter 11
Section 124 cards
Why did Marie Thédor Ratisbonne found the Order of Notre Dame de Sion?
Marie Thédor Ratisbonne, born at Strassburg in 1802 and a lawyer before his conversion, founded the Order of Notre Dame de Sion in thanksgiving for the conversion of his brother Alphonsi Marie. He later served as Professor in the Petit Seminaire, Assistant Rector of the Cathedral of Strassburg, and Superior-General of the Order.
Chapter 12
What did Emperor Maximilian order Paulo Riccio to prepare, and what survives?
Riccio relates that Emperor Maximilian ordered him to prepare a Latin translation of the Talmud. All that has come down are translations of the tractates Berakhoth, Sanhedrin, and Makkoth (Augsburg, 1519), which are the earliest Latin renderings of the Mishnah known to bibliographers.
Chapter 12
What did Rittangel's posthumous Biblia Veritatis attempt to prove?
Rittangel's posthumous work Biblia Veritatis was written to substantiate the claim that the Targums prove the doctrine of the Trinity. The same subject is treated in his Veritatis Religionis Christianæ. Earlier he had become a Roman Catholic, then a Protestant, and was professor of Oriental languages at Königsberg.
Chapter 12
What did Luis de Santangel's grandson contribute to the discovery of America?
Luis de Santangel, a convert and learned jurist of Calatayad, Spain, who died before 1459, was converted by the sermons of Vincent Ferrer, probably in 1412, and was made magistrate of the capital of Aragon. One of his grandsons lent 17,000 ducats toward the expenses of the discovery of America without interest.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
Why did Johann Emanuel Veit say he converted to Christianity?
Veit reportedly explained his conversion by saying he had gone through the Old Testament and now must look into the New. To Döllinger he said Judaism is the vestibule to the Hall of Christianity, and he wanted to pass from one to the other. The author argues Veit found in Christ the peace with God that neither Judaism nor philosophical systems could give him.
Chapter 13
What public act did Veit take during the 1840 Damascus blood accusation?
When the Damascus blood accusation affair occurred in 1840, Veit stood in the pulpit before the whole congregation, lifted up a crucifix, and swore solemnly that the oft-repeated accusation had no foundation whatever in fact. The chapter presents this as a notable public defense against the charge.
Chapter 13
What was the Domus Conversorum and how were its inmates supported?
The Domus Conversorum was a home for converts in Chancery Lane, London, established by order of Henry III in 1232, with a chapel attached; a private one began in 1213. A chaplain instructed converts and a warden handled temporal affairs. Each male inmate received 1-1/2d. and each female 1d. Expenses came from the royal treasury, bishops' bequests, and a poll-tax called the chevage on Jews over twelve.
Chapter 13
How does Wolken of Ratisbon differ from Veit in the chapter?
Wolken of Ratisbon was a convert to Roman Catholicism in the second half of the fifteenth century. In contrast to Veit, he was an accuser of his former co-religionists. The chapter says whether this arose from personal spite or superstition does not matter, and preserves his memory only as a warning to others.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
What did the Reformation remove that made it easier for Jews to enter Christian churches?
The author argues the Reformation purged much of the Western Church from image worship, superstition, false doctrine, and papal supremacy, thereby removing some obstacles in Jews' way of entering a Christian Church. In Reformed Churches they found no images, heard their own Scriptures and Psalms read, and listened to edifying sermons. The author concludes that Jewish voluntary conversions since the Reformation are more numerous than in all previous Christian ages since the Apostles.
Chapter 14
How did Rabbi Abraham's Sabbath hospitality to a stranger later save his life?
Abraham told Count Zinzendorf he never tired of giving and that an apple never tasted as good as when he shared half with someone poorer. Once, not daring to touch money on the Sabbath, he invited a rough man to dine; later robbers seized him in a forest, and one robber who had received that meal recognized him, gave him gold, and drew the others away.
Chapter 14
What did Rabbi Abraham say about baptism on his deathbed, and how did Dober answer?
Abraham, though a believer who attended Moravian services, remained unbaptized. Dying, he asked whether the Lord would accept one who approaches His Throne without the sacrament of baptism. Leonard Dober said yes, citing 'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.' Abraham blessed his son Zadok, and the last word heard was 'Hallelujah!'
Chapter 14
Who was Philip Ferdinandus and what distinguished his residence in the Domus?
Philip Ferdinandus was a learned Polish Jew who had taught Hebrew at Oxford, Cambridge, and Leyden. He resided and died in the 'Domus' in 1600. His entry stands out in the list of converts associated with the house because of his academic posts at three universities and because he both lived and died there.
Chapter 14
Section 154 cards
How did Agoshe aid the imprisoned missionaries in Abyssinia?
Agoshe, a Falasha convert of the L.J.S. in Abyssinia, was baptized with 21 others in 1862 after being won to the Saviour through Mr. Flad and Mr. Bronkhorst. During the missionaries' imprisonment he ministered to their wants by secretly supplying them with food at night. After their release he studied at St. Chrischona in Basel, but the climate did not agree with him, so he returned to Abyssinia in 1873.
Chapter 15
How did Michael Solomon Alexander first encounter the New Testament?
Born in Schönlanke in 1799 and trained in strict rabbinical Judaism, Alexander became a Talmud teacher at sixteen and came to England in 1820, knowing nothing of Christianity or even that the New Testament existed. Disappointed of a London situation, he settled as a tutor at Colchester, where a handbill for the London Jews' Society's Annual Meeting aroused his curiosity and he obtained and read the New Testament.
Chapter 15
What happened when Alexander visited his brother in Posen?
Alexander wrote to his brother, a rabbi to a large congregation twelve miles from Posen, requesting a meeting, though he had faint hopes since his brother had been bitter against him since baptism. The brother wished to meet halfway; they embraced with brotherly affection, and Alexander stated the Gospel to him. The brother admitted he had not given the subject due consideration but promised he would, and remarked that Jews generally expected the coming generation to embrace Christianity and that Judaism was fast dying away.
Chapter 15
What positions did Michael Solomon Alexander hold after his baptism?
Alexander was baptized on June 22, 1825, in St. Andrew's Church, Plymouth, before 1,000 people; his wife, a secret enquirer unknown to him, was baptized six months later in Exeter. He was ordained deacon in Dublin in 1827 by Archbishop Magee, then ordained priest by the Bishop of Kildare and joined the London Jews' Society, serving as missionary in Danzig from 1827 to 1830 and in London from 1830 to 1841. He became the first Protestant Bishop in Jerusalem.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
What post did Alexander hold at King's College, London, from 1832 to 1841?
Alexander served as Professor of Hebrew and Rabbinical Literature at King's College, London, from 1832 to 1841. The chapter also notes he frequently preached to Jews in London and took an active part in revising the New Testament in Hebrew and translating the Liturgy into that language.
Chapter 16
Why did Dr. McCaul decline the Jerusalem Bishopric, and who was consecrated instead?
Dr. McCaul declined the Bishopric on the ground that a Hebrew Christian ought to occupy the position. Consequently Alexander was selected and consecrated as first Bishop of the new See on Sunday, November 7, 1841, in Lambeth Palace, by Archbishop Howley, assisted by the Bishops of London, Rochester, and New Zealand.
Chapter 16
What was the 1840 protest of Christian Jews in England against?
In 1840 Professor Alexander's name headed some sixty names of leading converts from Judaism who subscribed to a formal "protest of Christian Jews in England" against the Blood Accusation, the charge that Jews used Christian blood in their Passover rites. The chapter calls it remarkable because it came from so many who were by nationality Jews and had lived to maturity in modern Judaism.
Chapter 16
How does the chapter describe Alexander's entry into Jerusalem and his episcopate?
The chapter calls his entry a unique event in the Holy City's history, with consuls, officers, missionaries, and a troop of soldiers with Arab music escorting him through the Jaffa gate under salutes. His episcopate was brief, about four years, ending in sudden death on November 26, 1845, at Ras-el-Wady en route to Egypt, yet described as "years of plenty."
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
What hymns did the Alexanders chant while riding ahead of the caravan?
Mrs. Alexander recalled that each day she and her husband rode their own horses ahead of the caravan, chanting Hebrew chants and singing hymns from their own hymn-book, including 'Children of the Heavenly King,' 'Long has the Harp of Judah hung,' Psalm cxi., and 'Glorious things of thee are spoken.' She said his heart never overflowed so fully as when he spoke of Israel's future restoration.
Chapter 17
What did Mrs. Leider identify as the immediate and accelerating causes of the Bishop's death?
Mrs. Leider wrote that the immediate cause was rupture of one of the largest bloodvessels near the heart, but that the lungs, liver, and heart were all found exceedingly diseased and had been so for a long time. The accelerating cause was doubtless great and continued anxiety, such as the Bishopric of Jerusalem and its cares can best account for.
Chapter 17
How did Jerusalem's Jewish converts describe their loss in their condolence letter?
Thirty-one Jewish converts at Jerusalem signed a letter calling themselves, next to Mrs. Alexander and her family, the chief mourners. They said they had lost not only a true Father in Christ but a loving brother and kind friend, praising his suavity, his love for Israel, and his piety, and wrote that with him 'captive Judah's brightest earthly star has set.'
Chapter 17
What testimonial was raised to the Bishop's memory, and who contributed?
Friends raised a testimonial to the Bishop's memory amounting to over £3,000, which was handed to his widow and family. The contributor list showed he was esteemed by rich and poor alike; among the wealthy were Dowager Queen Adelaide, the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh, and the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ripon, Lichfield, Lincoln, Peterborough, Llandaff, Sodor and Man, and Madras.
Chapter 17
Section 184 cards
How did Anton (Carl) come to think seriously about his soul?
According to the chapter, Anton was born in Mitau in 1722 and studied seven years at Prague under Jonathan Eibenschütz. While travelling in the East he became very ill at Constantinople, and there, reading Daniel ix., he began to think seriously about the state of his soul. He was baptized at Wolfenbüttel by Pastor Meyers in 1748, and the Duke of Brunswick appointed him Professor of Hebrew at Helmstadt.
Chapter 18
What event led Augusti to discuss Isaiah liii with Pastor Reinhardt?
The chapter says a member of the Schwarzburg princely family died, and Court Jew Wallich used the phrase 'der hochselige Prinz.' The prince charged him with flattery, doubting Jews believed a Christian could be saved. Wallich brought Augusti, who proved from the 'Sefer Hasidim' that a pious Christian keeping the seven Noachian Commandments has a share in the world to come. Pastor Reinhardt was present; their later discussions on Isaiah liii convinced Augusti.
Chapter 18
What does the chapter say about the rumour that Anton relapsed into Judaism?
Pastor de le Roi mentions a rumour that Anton at last relapsed into Judaism, but the chapter says this must have arisen because Anton defended Jacob Emden and his former teacher Eibenschütz in their dispute with Waggenseil. It adds that Dr. S. A. Hirsch, who wrote the article in the 'Jewish Encyclopædia' and referred to Grätz, does not give a syllable about Anton's relapse.
Chapter 18
How was the young Augusti enslaved, and how was he freed?
The chapter relates that Augusti, longing to go to Jerusalem, travelled with a Jerusalem delegate, Aron Bar Jekutiel. In the Crimea robbers seized Augusti while his companion escaped, and sold him as a slave for three and a half dollars. A slave dealer sold him to a Mohammedan Jew, Ismael Bathmag, who brought him to Smyrna, where the Jewish community purchased his freedom for 100 dollars and sent him home after six months.
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
What did Bachert found in Hamburg as head of the mission from 1874?
Bachert founded a home for enquirers, with a workshop and an attached chapel where inmates studied, worked, lodged, and worshipped under organized Christian training. Many found eternal peace there, and a considerable number became ministers and evangelists. He was later promoted to head the Missionary Training College in London, and after it closed was sent to lead the mission in the north of England.
Chapter 19
How did Henry Barnett describe coming to faith, and when?
Barnett spent twenty years in Konin, Poland, studying tradition and religion, never seeing the New Testament. After leaving to avoid military conscription he reached London, learned a trade, and drifted into Sabbath-breaking. Through a professing Christian Jew he met, he attended Gospel meetings, read the New Testament, and says faith came by hearing before two years (1873) expired. From 1882 he asked, like Saul, what the Lord would have him do.
Chapter 19
What is notable about Bartholdy's influence and career?
Jacob Levi Salomo Bartholdy, born in Berlin in 1779 and died in Rome in 1826, was Felix Mendelssohn's uncle on his mother's side. He joined the Protestant Church in 1805, and through his influence the whole Mendelssohn family became Christians. He served as an officer in the Prussian army, was appointed consul-general in Rome in 1815, wrote on modern Greek and other subjects, and his antiquities collection is in the Berlin Museum.
Chapter 19
What does the chapter say about Basevi's departure from the synagogue and his death?
George Joshua Basevi, an architect, followed his brother-in-law Isaac Disraeli in leaving the synagogue in 1817. The chapter cautions that no writer expressly asserts either man was received into the Church by baptism. Basevi died when he fell while inspecting the bell-tower of Ely Cathedral, and then received Christian burial in the chapel at the east end of the Cathedral.
Chapter 19
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How did Benjamin the Dutch convert defend Pauli from the mob on the bridge?
On a stormy night, after Pauli and Bloch visited a Kabbalistic Jew, neighbors followed them and, at a bridge, called out to throw Pauli into the water. Benjamin, accompanying them, cried 'Away with you!' and pushed the assailants aside, saying Pauli was a good man who helped him keep the Sabbath properly. They went away abashed.
Chapter 20
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How did Ben Zion's childhood cross-drawing affect his father?
Ben Zion, as a boy in the Heder, made a cross with his stick instead of spitting at a Russian church's images like his companions. The teacher locked him up and punished him severely. The local fanaticism was so great that his father lost his position as Talmud teacher because the boy had read Mendelssohn's German Bible translation.
Chapter 21
What did Ben Zion study and where did he serve as missionary?
Ben Zion was baptized in Berlin in 1863, studied medicine, and graduated from the University of Würzburg in 1867. He joined the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews and was sent to Roumania in 1874 as medical missionary, transferred to Odessa in 1876 for ten years, then Constantinople, and from about 1888 lived in the United States helping missionary work.
Chapter 21
What was Bergheim's role in Jerusalem and what did Frankel report?
Bergheim, a noble Jewish convert, was sent by the L.J.S. in 1837 to assist Rev. Nicolayson in Jerusalem. He later became a banker and died in 1896 as churchwarden of Christ Church, Mount Zion. The traveler Dr. Ludwig August Frankel, publishing on his 1860 visit, found 131 Jewish Christians in the Holy City, nine of them of the Bergheim family.
Chapter 21
How did Bergmann describe his early life and move to England?
Bergmann was born in Wieruszow in 1846; his father, a Chassid and Talmudist, died when he was about one, and his mother when he was six. Raised by his uncle Woolf Bergmann, he studied Talmud, was sent to Breslau at fourteen, then to a rabbi uncle in Frankenstein. In 1866 he left for England, where he ran a small synagogue gratis for nearly two years.
Chapter 21
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What scripture in Daniel ix. deeply impressed the narrator during his illness?
During six weeks in a German hospital he read Daniel ix. He notes that Jews repeat Daniel's confession on Mondays and Thursdays, but the later part prophesying Messiah's suffering is never read; the Rabbis even curse those who investigate the seventy weeks. Verse 26, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself," struck him so deeply that he threw the Hebrew Bible from his hand, thinking it a missionary Bible.
Chapter 22
How did Isaiah liii. 8 answer the narrator's question about Daniel's prophecy?
He kept asking, "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself" — for whom then? Opening the Bible again, his eyes fell on Isaiah liii. 8, a chapter he says Jews never read: "For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken." He took this as the plain answer: Messiah was cut off for his people, and he belonged to them.
Chapter 22
What happened when the narrator's congregation discovered he was with Dr. Ewald?
On the first day of Passover, members of his congregation came to Dr. Ewald's Home for enquirers and urged him to return. When he refused, they returned with a policeman and charged him with theft. In the police cell visitors offered to drop the charge if he promised to return; he refused, quoting David's words about falling into the Lord's hands, and spent the night joyfully praying in Jesus' name.
Chapter 22
What happened before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House?
The narrator was taken from the police cell to the Mansion House before the Lord Mayor of London, with the hall filled with Jews. His chief accuser swore he had been robbed, and three others testified on oath. Asked through an interpreter for his defence, he said he stood there because of his faith in Jesus Christ, was not guilty, and had left his valuables at his lodgings. The Lord Mayor then asked the accuser whether he knew the narrator intended to become a Christian; his angry expression answered before he spoke.
Chapter 22
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Why was the author released after his cross-examination?
The author states that on cross-examination his accusers so contradicted each other that they themselves proved his innocence, and he was at once set at liberty. He clarifies that the persecution was not personal enmity but friendship and mistaken zeal—they wished to save him at any cost from becoming a Christian.
Chapter 23
What did Rev. Aaron Bernstein write and edit?
Bernstein wrote "Sefer Roshey Hatayvoth," "Anglo-Israel Theory," "The City of David," and "The Book and the People." He translated Professor Cassel's "Commentary on the Book of Esther" with the "Targum Sheni" (1888), contributed to several periodicals, wrote about a dozen tracts in English, Hebrew and Yiddish, revised a Hebrew Bible edition in 1895, and edited "Kol M'Bhasser" from 1907.
Chapter 23
How did Rev. Aaron Bernstein first encounter Christian literature?
At seventeen he was an assistant teacher in Moldavia when Rev. W. Mayer, a missionary at Jassy, appeared in the synagogue and debated the Jews, giving Bernstein a German tract, "The Righteous shall live by his Faith." It made some impression but passed, as he was too young to understand it all. Later in Jassy, Mayer gave him a Hebrew New Testament and "Old Paths."
Chapter 23
Why did Biesenthal's father insist he study Scripture alongside Talmud?
Biesenthal's father was moved by the Talmudical principle, "Know well what to answer an infidel," to insist his son join Scripture and Jewish poetry to Talmud study. But Biesenthal found his Bible study left to his own diligence, since his teachers knew nothing of it and, holding the warning "Keep your children from the study of Holy Scripture," deemed it useless and a danger to piety.
Chapter 23
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Why did Baron de Rothschild refuse to help Raphael go to Berlin?
Rothschild declined assistance because he considered Berlin a dangerous city where, he claimed, all young Jewish students were being converted to Christianity. He warned Raphael to keep away from a city where thousands become apostates. Instead of money, he gave Raphael a letter of recommendation to Baron de Hägemann, which proved useless for obtaining financial aid.
Chapter 24
What positions did Biesenthal hold in the London Jews' Society mission?
Biesenthal began on April 1st, 1844, as an assistant missionary at the Society's Berlin mission under Rev. C. W. H. Pauli, later working under Rev. R. Bellson until 1868. He also edited the monthly periodical 'Records of Israel's State and Prospects.' In 1868 he was appointed to charge of a new mission station at Leipzig, serving there until 1881.
Chapter 24
What did Biesenthal say his biblical studies led him to do?
Biesenthal wrote that his biblical studies led him, after much searching and wandering, to find Him of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote. He deemed it his unrelenting duty to communicate this light to others still in darkness, citing the Lord's command not to put light under a bushel, and considered becoming a missionary the surest way to fulfill Christ's commands.
Chapter 24
What evidence does the chapter give for Rothschild's claim about Jewish baptisms in Berlin?
The chapter reports that Dr. Kuntze baptized eighty Jews in eight years (1829-36), and Rev. W. Ayerst baptized forty-two adult Jews in three years (1834-37). Altogether 326 Jewish baptisms were registered in the Berlin Consistory during 1830-37. Later, Rev. C. W. H. Pauli reported over 1,000 converts resident in Berlin in 1844, and as many as 2,500 in 1850.
Chapter 24
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Why did the mission field become less fruitful, according to the chapter?
The chapter states the mission field grew less promising as Jews became infected with socialism and rationalism taught in German universities, churches, and schools. Zeal for missions nearly died out, and Jews faced virulent Anti-Semitism, including Leipzig petitions urging withdrawal of their political rights. The chapter adds that Jews paid back hatred with hatred.
Chapter 25
What was Dr. Biesenthal's gloomy assessment in his report?
In his last report but one, Dr. Biesenthal said hurricanes of trouble were blowing from the four quarters of the earth against the Church and against the Gospel. He added that under such circumstances his report could not be a joyous one. The chapter links this gloom to the general position of Jews and missions in Germany at the time.
Chapter 25
What did Dr. Jost and Dr. Fürst say about Biesenthal's commentaries?
Dr. Isaac Jost called the Commentary on Hebrews masterly, praising Biesenthal's Hebrew command and saying it excelled all prior attempts to show Christianity in the prophets and rabbinic agreement on the Messiah's character, though rabbis deny Jesus was that Messiah. Dr. Julius Fürst rated the commentaries still higher, exceeding earlier New Testament translations through Talmud, Midrash, and Sohar material and clear doctrinal exposition.
Chapter 25
What pseudonymous work did Biesenthal publish in 1840, and why?
In 1840 Biesenthal published under the pseudonym Karl Ignaz Corvé a work titled Ueber den Ursprung die Juden Erhobenen Beschuldigung bei der Feier Ihrer Ostern sich des Blutes zu bedienen, etc. In it he defended Jews against the Blood Accusation at Damascus. The chapter calls this an interesting circumstance, noting the pseudonym and the work's defensive purpose.
Chapter 25
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What did Moritz Bloch petition the Hungarian Parliament for in 1841?
Moritz Bloch, born in Timova in 1816, received a Talmudic education, studied at the University of Pesth and Orientalia at Paris. In 1841 he sent a petition to the Hungarian Parliament asking for the emancipation of the Jews. He translated the Pentateuch and Joshua into Hungarian with exegetical notes, was baptized in a Lutheran Church in Germany in 1843, and the next year was appointed Professor at the Lyceum in Syarvas, Hungary.
Chapter 26
What turned Börling away from rabbinic and Kabbalistic lore?
Börling devoted himself to rabbinic and Kabbalistic study until the whole system disgusted him, because he found its votaries were far from the saints they pretended to be. After missionaries visited Berditscheff, a tract from Saltet and Betzner was torn up by his mother, but the born-Jew missionary Moritz impressed him; he searched the Scriptures and was baptized by Saltet in 1823.
Chapter 26
What did Brühl accomplish as Principal of the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution?
Brühl became Principal of the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution in 1875 and remained twelve years before retiring from active work. During that time 160 Jews passed through the Institution, 70 of whom he baptized. He died in 1893, and the chapter says the Church and world lost a great linguist, historian and mathematician, but above all a thorough and devoted Christian missionary.
Chapter 26
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Who baptized Brunner, and what did Brunner later do?
Brunner was born in Brody, Galicia, in 1822. After his father died at age 90, he came to England, where he was converted and baptized by Rev. Dr. Bailey, Principal of St. Aidan's College. The British Society then prepared him for missionary work, and he laboured at Marseilles and in Switzerland. He had the privilege of bringing two brothers to the Saviour and died in 1890.
Chapter 27
What did Erasmus Scott Calman do with his inherited legacy?
Calman, born in Lithuania, converted early in the nineteenth century. In 1839 he assisted Nicolayson in Jerusalem, travelling all over Palestine and being well received by the Jews. Later in London, a friend left him a large legacy to work independently; he used only enough to meet the wants of the poorest pauper. He left the rest, probably increased by savings, to trustees for aged poor Hebrew Christians.
Chapter 27
How did Capadose describe his early religious upbringing and prayer habit?
Capadose, born at Amsterdam in 1795 of a Portuguese family, wrote that his education was rather moral than religious. Though not zealous for his fathers' religion, from about age nine he never omitted nightly prayer, using a book whose prayer ended, 'I wait for Thy salvation, O Lord!' He later saw this as God granting at maturity what the child had asked.
Chapter 27
Why did Capadose stop attending the synagogue regularly?
Capadose wrote that at the synagogue, which he still attended for decorum, nothing interested him. He was disgusted by unmeaning ceremonies that appealed not to the heart, the want of reverence, the bawling noise, the discordant singing, and the use of a language three-fourths of the congregation did not understand. Having a great aversion to hypocrisy, he ceased attending regularly.
Chapter 27
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Why did Bernstein and his friend resolve to become rigidly observant Israelites?
The author says they disliked half measures and could not endure a modern Judaism that dispensed with Mosaic law at pleasure. They resolved to observe all the law's prescriptions rigidly, hoping thereby to compel Christians to hold the Jewish religion in higher respect. National pride was their ruling motive. They began reading the Bible assiduously but could not get beyond Genesis, finding ridicule and blasphemy on their lips instead of prayer.
Chapter 28
What did the professor's verses conclude with, and how did Bernstein react?
The verses described with power and feeling the glorious hopes of Israel and concluded, "Friend, be a Christian, and I die content." Bernstein's indignation was roused; he thought his friend was less shocked than he ought to be, warned that a plan was laid to seduce them, and left immediately. Yet the words occupied his thoughts all day, and from that day both men began attentively examining the Word of God.
Chapter 28
What convinced Bernstein that Jesus is the promised Messiah?
One night, reading Isaiah 53, he was struck by its resemblance to the Gospel accounts of Christ's sufferings, almost believing he had another Bible. He wondered how any Jew could doubt after reading it. He had read the chapter often before, but now read it with the light of the Spirit of God. From that moment he recognized Christ as the promised Messiah, which gave a new character to their meditations.
Chapter 28
How did the two men conduct their inquiry, and what book aided them?
They believed it was by divine direction that they disclosed nothing to anyone, confining themselves to God's Word and laying aside all other books except Heydeck's "Defence of the Christian Faith." Heydeck had been a Rabbi in Germany, embraced the Romish religion, and became Professor of Oriental languages at Madrid. His book defended Christianity against Rationalism. They noted his logic against Voltaire and Rousseau deserted him when defending Popery against Reformation doctrines.
Chapter 28
Section 294 cards
What did the uncle say the Rabbis teach on Isaiah 7:14?
When a Jewish physician asked what the Rabbis say about the virgin-conceiving passage, the uncle, considered an authority on rabbinical writings, replied, "Alas! only a mass of nonsense." The narrator, who had just been meditating on that same verse, took this admission as guidance and inwardly thanked God for it.
Chapter 29
What did the uncle say about the baptized Hamburg Rabbi?
Reading a newspaper report of a Rabbi who was baptized after studying the prophecies, the uncle said that if the man acted from self-interest he is worthy of contempt, but if from conviction he ought to be respected. The narrator seized on this as a sign and immediately confessed that he was in the same case as the Rabbi.
Chapter 29
Why did the narrator hesitate to declare his Christian faith openly?
He says the certainty of losing considerable property never entered his scruples. What he dreaded was the effect on the kind relative who treated him as a son, fearing the disclosure might be fatal to the old man's choleric temperament. He admits that stronger faith would have broken through every obstacle, but he could only suffer in silence and pray.
Chapter 29
Where and when was the narrator baptized, and why there?
His family wanted him to go to Germany or elsewhere for baptism, but he objected, lest it appear he was ashamed of the step. He and his friend decided on Leyden, and on 20 October 1822 they were admitted as members of the Church of Christ, kneeling before the congregation and confessing the name of the Saviour.
Chapter 29
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How did Carl Paul Caspari come to read the New Testament?
Caspari's former schoolmate Granel, later Superintendent of the Saxon Foreign Missions, persuaded him to read the New Testament carefully. He opened at the Acts of the Apostles, was impressed by the truthfulness of the account of Paul's persecution by the Jews, and continued until the Gospels, where Christ's words and miracles deeply affected him. He was baptized at Pentecost 1838 by Pastor Zehme in Leipsig.
Chapter 30
What did Caspari conclude about the Apostles' Creed?
After investigating the Creed in 1858 amid the controversy stirred by Grundtvig, Caspari decided it was undoubtedly formed in the times of the Apostles and had become part of the Church's life. But he held that Holy Scriptures alone are the standard of belief, that the Creed is not the direct word of Jesus Christ, and that one who disputes its truth should not be considered a Christian.
Chapter 30
What four points did Caspari give on Jewish mission work?
At the Students' Missionary Association in Christiania, Caspari asked and answered: Jewish mission work is necessary, since without it most Jews would never be reached by the Gospel; converts should be made through church societies of earnest Christians supporting proselytes as missionaries to their own people; missionaries should work by proclaiming salvation rather than by dispute and argument; and converts might first be organized into circles to serve as leaven, depending on their former environments.
Chapter 30
How did Caspari's career and honors develop in Norway?
Caspari declined a call to Königsberg because he wished to work only in a Lutheran institution, then accepted a call in 1847 to the Norwegian university at Christiania, where he displayed great theological powers. He wrote expositions of many Old Testament books and edited the newly revised Norwegian Bible used in that country's churches. Erlangen made him Doctor of Theology, societies elected him, and Swedish and Norwegian Orders honored him; he died in 1892.
Chapter 30
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What did Cassel say about statistics of his baptisms?
Cassel baptized 262 Jews in Christ Church, including doctors, authors, merchants, and nearly all educated persons. Yet he said, "I am not fond of statistics. I sow the seed, but do not stop to ask how much may be the fruit." He thus downplayed numerical measures of his missionary results.
Chapter 31
What led Cassel to embrace Christianity, and when was he baptized?
According to his own statement, his Christian friends and especially his study of the history of Israel led him to Christianity, which he embraced in 1855. He was baptized at Büssleben, near Erfurt, on May 28, receiving the names "Paulus Stephanus." He afterward celebrated this "second birthday" yearly with friends and congregation.
Chapter 31
When did Cassel become the Society's Berlin missionary, and what post came with it?
In 1868 the third and most famous portion of Cassel's life began when the Society appointed him its missionary in Berlin and minister of Christ Church, a stately Gothic building with over a thousand sittings, erected by the Society in the Wilhelmstrasse in 1864. He served there for twenty-three years.
Chapter 31
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What did Dr. Cassel do after retiring from his duties in spring 1891?
He did not cease to preach wherever an occasion offered and continued to write. His zeal was so great that he kept instructing and baptizing Jews who wished to join the Church of Christ through his instrumentality. The chapter says the number of his converts must exceed some hundreds, many of them in high positions and residing in various parts of the world.
Chapter 32
How does the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums judge Cassel's conversion?
It says that when anti-Semites appeared, Cassel remembered his origin and opposed leaders like Stöcker and Wagner with decision and manliness, which gives some satisfaction for his desertion of the parental religion. It judges his apostasy differently from others because he did not forsake his creed for worldly reasons or honours, but followed a mystical line of thought, leaving judgment to God.
Chapter 32
What did Cassel's convert baptized in 1870 say in tribute?
The convert said there was no way of his life in which he failed to shine, that study and knowledge sealed the great truths of religion in his heart, and that his faith was an armed angel. He praised Cassel's benevolence and gentleness, and said Cassel taught the world that the despised Jew must be despised no more, conquering a place in the highest intellectual society by intellectual powers and integrity rather than clamour.
Chapter 32
What writings against anti-Semitism did Dr. Cassel produce?
The chapter lists 'Wider Heinrich von Treitschke für die Juden' (1880), 'Die Antisemiten und die Evangelische Kirche' (1881), 'Ahasverus' (1885), and 'Der Judengott und Richard Wagner.' It also notes he composed many poems under the title 'Hallelujah,' containing 188 hymns, plus dramas, and edited the weekly paper 'Sunem' from 1875 to 1891.
Chapter 32
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What position did Friedrich Albrecht Christiani hold before his 1674 baptism?
He had formerly been the Chazzan (Precentor) at Bruchsal before being baptized at Strassburg in 1674. He later occupied the chair of Semitics at the University of Leipzig for twenty years, then retired to Prostnitz. His published works, all issued at Leipzig, include studies of Jewish festivals and a Hebrew translation of Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews.
Chapter 33
What did Christfels say influenced his conversion before his 1701 baptism?
Philipp Ernst Christfels, born 1671, was advised by the rabbi Hirsch Froman to read the New Testament, and the Kabbalist Abraham Reviga intimated that under the attribute Binah is to be understood the Son of God. This made him restless but enquiring, and after nine months' instruction he was baptized in 1701. Before baptism he wrote the Hebrew book 'Rephuah Hanephesh' (Soul-Medicine).
Chapter 33
How did Joseph Philipp Cohen describe the course of his conversion?
Born in Prussia, Cohen was converted at Swansea and published a tract, 'The Sweetness of Christianity,' London, 1845. He attributed it chiefly to a serious turn of mind that made him feel the need of redemption from sins and study the Old Testament diligently. A lady then gave him a New Testament, and the first passage he saw was 'Come unto Me all ye that labour.' He later served as a missionary of the British Society until 1873.
Chapter 33
What does the chapter say about Christhold's early career and reputation?
Christian Albert Christhold, born 1687, was baptized when young along with his mother. He had such great talents that at age 23, in 1700, he was appointed Rector of the Gymnasium in Oettingen, where he wrote a Latin treatise advocating toleration and liberty to the Jews. He remained a faithful minister of the Gospel until his death in 1772, and Schulze said of him, 'I have hitherto not found anyone like him.'
Chapter 33
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How does the author trace his descent from the da Costa family?
The author descends by direct male line from Joseph da Costa, one of the younger brothers of Gabriel (Uriel) da Costa, who was circumcised with his brothers at Amsterdam and later fell into infidelity and ended his life unhappily. His family belonged for two centuries to the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam, enjoying privileges Holland offered Jews in exile.
Chapter 34
What did the author's father believe and how did he educate his son?
The father was devoted to the house of Orange and hostile to the revolution, and educated his son in the same principles. He was upright and sensible, and took affectionate care over his son's education. His religious principles were not those of a strict Jew, though he maintained decorous respect for outward ordinances; the mother was more inclined to modern Judaism's observances.
Chapter 34
What effect did the Professor of Antiquities and Literature have on the author?
From ages thirteen to fifteen (1811–1813) the author attended Latin classes and took lessons with the Professor of Antiquities and Literature. The professor's historical lectures asserted the truth and authority of Moses' writings and defended them against Voltaire and other sceptics. This awakened in the author the idea of a positive revelation and belief in the divinity of the Old Testament.
Chapter 34
How did Bilderdyk influence the author's path to Christianity?
The author became Bilderdyk's disciple and intimate friend for eighteen years until his death in 1831. The author credits Bilderdyk, under God, with leading him to Christian faith, yet Bilderdyk never sought to make a proselyte: he avoided swaying the young disciple's mind, instead pointing him to the Old Testament, the prophecies, and the promises to the fathers.
Chapter 34
Section 354 cards
What did Bilderdyk tell Da Costa about the ancient Jews and God's unity?
Bilderdyk said the ancient Jews themselves acknowledged a plurality of persons in the ineffable unity of God: God, seeing, contemplating and reflecting Himself, begot His Son from all eternity, and that Son is He whom Christians adore as Jesus Christ crucified. The author presents this conversation as the turning point that first opened Da Costa's eyes to new light.
Chapter 35
How did Da Costa describe the effect of reading the New Testament?
He said he began to read the New Testament, including John i. 6-14 on the Word made flesh, felt abhorrence of sin, perceived fulfilment of Isaiah xi., liii., lxi. and Psalms xxii., cx., and adored and believed. Faith by degrees worked on his conscience and practice; religion ceased to be mere speculation or national interest, and he found he must become Christ's property, living to and by Him.
Chapter 35
Who in Da Costa's family was baptized with him at Leyden in 1822?
Da Costa, his friend Capadose, and his cousin and betrothed Hannah Belmonte were baptized on 20 October 1822 at Leyden. Hannah had been raised in a school of Christian young ladies, learned the Heidelberg catechism, and heard Jesus' name before Da Costa did; once he shared his convictions she became a beloved sister in Christ and faithful companion.
Chapter 35
What became of Da Costa's mother-in-law and her daughter Esther after baptism?
The mother, aged sixty-eight, survived her baptism two years, devoting herself to prayer and Scripture, especially the New Testament, having previously read only frivolous publications; her last words were 'Come, Lord Jesus!' Esther married J. Chevalier, son of the Walloon pastor, and died in her confinement in June 1840, her soul at peace.
Chapter 35
Section 364 cards
What troubled Solomon Deutsch about the blind man's torch in Megillah 24b?
Deutsch read the Talmud passage where R. Jose describes a blind man carrying a burning torch so others could see and keep him from pits and thorns. Deutsch felt he was not even like the blind man, because he had neglected the Old Testament Word of God and, living in a Roman Catholic country, had never heard of the New Testament. This awakened serious thoughts in him.
Chapter 36
How did Solomon Deutsch's path to baptism unfold between 1760 and 1767?
After his first wife died in 1760 he remarried, then was forced by the rabbi to divorce his second wife over his leanings toward Christianity. He refused three Roman priests who urged him to join their Church, left home in 1762, studied Scripture through Prague, Saxony, Leipzig, Berlin, Amsterdam and London, and was baptized at Amsterdam on June 25, 1767 after submitting a 175-page written confession.
Chapter 36
What did the rabbi in Saxony secretly reveal to Deutsch about Isaiah 53?
On October 24 Deutsch read Isaiah 53 for the first time and asked the rabbi whom the prophet meant. The rabbi set a private hour and then astonished Deutsch by revealing, as a secret, his own belief that the chapter was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Deutsch then continued on to Leipzig, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.
Chapter 36
What were Benjamin Davidson's main literary and missionary achievements?
Davidson, a native of Posen who embraced Christianity in London, became Principal of the Missionary Training College of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews in 1847. He authored an Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, Syriac and Chaldee Reading Lessons, an English edition of Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, and a posthumous Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures. He laboured in Vienna in 1866 and Bordeaux, and in 1871 became Superintendent of the Home for Aged Converts and Orphans, dying the same year.
Chapter 36
Section 374 cards
What event led to Siegmund Herman Deutsch's conversion to Christianity?
Deutsch was born in Perskretscham, Silesia, in 1791, received an early Talmudical education, studied mathematics and astronomy at Breslau, served in the Prussian army in 1815, and became an officer and military school teacher in 1817. After a duel he was imprisoned in a fort, and there he was converted to Christianity. He later served as an artillery officer in the Greek liberation war.
Chapter 37
Where did Deutsch serve as an L.J.S. missionary after training at the Hebrew College?
After returning to Berlin in 1824, Deutsch attended Gossner's ministry, associated with the convert Lachs, and studied under Neander. Called by Dr. McCaul and prepared at the Hebrew College in Palestine Place, he was sent by the L.J.S. as a missionary to Warsaw in 1828, laboring there with a short interval at Breslau until 1833. He was then stationed in Bavaria and died in 1864.
Chapter 37
How does the chapter describe Disraeli's religious position and his view of Christianity?
The chapter calls Benjamin Disraeli a thorough Protestant Churchman with liberal tendencies and a true believer in Christianity, which he regarded as completed Judaism. It also describes him as an ardent lover of his nation, a genuine English patriot, and a friend of his Queen, and notes that his mother, sister Sarah, and brothers Ralph and James were all Hebrew Christians.
Chapter 37
What did the Reformed rabbi advise Dushaw, and how did Dushaw respond?
The rabbi, impressed by Dushaw's insight into the Ghetto's condition, advised him to return to the Hebrew ranks, saying Israel would appreciate his ability while the Church would cast him out. He gave Dushaw his lecture 'Moses and Jesus.' Dushaw then wrote his own article on the same subject from his own point of view, later quoted in the chapter.
Chapter 37
Section 384 cards
What did Bernstein write about Israel's future mission and its end?
The author argues that Israel, the "martyr nation" of Isaiah, will one day awaken and recognize Jesus Christ, "the best son of Israel," as a fountain of life flowing for nineteen hundred years. Then a spiritual revolution will occur: Israel will conquer the earth for the Lord, setting up social, political and spiritual freedom, until all barriers between Jew and Gentile vanish and Israel's mission ends.
Chapter 38
What was Edersheim's education and path to ordination?
Born in Vienna in 1825, Edersheim was raised luxuriously and was a fashionable, highly educated youth fluent in Latin, Greek, German, French, Hebrew, Hungarian and Italian. At Buda-Pest in 1847 he came under the Holy Spirit's teaching, trusted Christ's sacrifice, and taught English to students using the Bible as the only textbook. He was baptized, studied theology at Edinburgh under Professor Duncan, and was ordained.
Chapter 38
What positions and writings made Edersheim a notable scholar?
After ordination Edersheim was a missionary in Jassy, Roumania, then minister at Old Aberdeen and Torquay, later joining the Church of England as Vicar of Loders, Dorset. Resigning in 1883, he settled at Oxford as Grinfield Lecturer, Warburton Lecturer of Lincoln's Inn, and Select Preacher. His works include "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," "The Temple," and "Sketches of Jewish Social Life."
Chapter 38
What did Ebers accomplish and what was his chief work?
George Moritz Ebers, born in Berlin in 1837, became Professor of Egyptology at Jena in 1868 and at Leipzig in 1870. He travelled eighteen months through Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Nubia and Arabia Petrea, publishing archaeological and scientific works including the novel "Eine ägyptische Königstochter" and "Aegypten und die Bucher Mosis." His chief work, the "Papyrus Ebers," is held at the University of Leipzig.
Chapter 38
Section 393 cards
How did Rabbi Paulus Elkana of Prague come to the Christian faith?
According to Superintendent Olarius, who wrote a preface to a Hebrew translation of the Augsburg confession prepared by Philipp Gallus in 1888, Elkana had been his teacher and was converted through reading a Hebrew translation of the Gospel of Matthew and of the Epistle to the Romans.
Chapter 39
What did Eppstein say were the results of his Bagdad mission?
Eppstein summed up the work in his own words: 'The mission was a great success, not from the number of baptisms, but from the large numbers to whom we preached Christ.' He had been appointed a missionary of the Society at Bagdad in 1857.
Chapter 39
What is known about Emin Pasha's baptism and religious standing?
Emin Pasha, born Edward Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer at Oppeln in Prussian Silesia in 1840 and killed at Kinena Station, Congo Free State, on October 23, 1892, was baptized in the Protestant Church at Neisse when only six, at his parents' arrangement. Whether this famous explorer remained a Christian is uncertain, though his parents must have embraced Christianity before or at his baptism.
Chapter 39
Section 402 cards
Why did Ewald's Algiers mission fail to take root?
Ewald opened a mission at Algiers in September 1832, but his reception was chilling. Custom House officials told him nothing could be done there, and the French Governor-General sent a letter forbidding him to preach, which virtually suspended missionary operations. Ewald then left Algiers, though he sold Hebrew Bibles and people would not take the New Testament.
Chapter 40
How does the chapter describe Eppstein's final words and legacy?
Shortly before his death in May 1903, though suffering greatly, Eppstein said he was "the happiest man in the world" and thanked God for enabling him to lay hold of the Pearl with both hands. The author states the Society suffered a great loss and praises him as an able and faithful missionary whose dedicated life will be remembered with gratitude.
Chapter 40
Section 414 cards
What did Ewald accomplish during his first three months in Tunis?
Within three months Ewald had sold 398 Bibles, New Testaments, and portions in Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, Greek, Spanish, and French. He also instituted a Sunday service and had much intercourse with Jews, including several rabbis, one of whom was excommunicated for visiting him. He used to visit the Jewish quarter with his pockets full of tracts.
Chapter 41
What did Ewald report in his 1838 summary of the effects of his labours?
Ewald wrote that most Jews now knew Christianity was not idolatry but a revelation built on Scripture, and acknowledged the Gospel's precepts were good. He said most recognized the only difference was whether Jesus is the Messiah, and that true Christians were well-wishers, not enemies. Most now knew the written Word, so missionaries could appeal to Scripture without hearing passages were fabricated.
Chapter 41
Which rabbis were baptized in Jerusalem, and who was absent and why?
Eliezer and Benjamin, known afterward as Christian Lazarus Lauria and John Benjamin Goldberg, were baptized with Isaac Paul Hirsch and Simon Peter Fränkel. The third rabbi, Abraham, was absent. Ewald said Abraham had the same convictions for years but could not leave his wife; the struggle between natural affection and spiritual blessings was too hard, and he returned.
Chapter 41
Why did Ewald leave Africa in 1841, and what did he do next?
After some eight years in the Barbary States, repeated attacks of ophthalmia forced Ewald to return to England in 1841. Within a few months he was appointed to assist the Society's Mission in Jerusalem. He and his wife accompanied Dr. Alexander, the first Anglican Bishop, sailing from Portsmouth on December 7th, 1841, and reaching Jerusalem on January 21st after six weeks.
Chapter 41
Section 423 cards
What was Jerusalem's Jewish population in 1909 compared to earlier times?
The chapter notes that at an earlier time Jerusalem's Jewish population was only 6,000 out of a total of 18,000. By 1909, the Jewish population had grown to 60,000 out of a total of 80,000, a striking increase the author highlights.
Chapter 42
What did Ewald report in 1858 about changes among Jews in England?
Ewald wrote that Bibles including the New Testament appeared in Jewish homes and even the synagogue, that Jews knew Christian doctrines, and that animosity toward converts had lessened. He estimated 3,000 converts among 50,000 Jews in England and eleven converted Jewish ministers in London.
Chapter 42
How did Ewald earn his Doctor of Philosophy and Bachelor of Divinity degrees?
Ewald published a German translation of Abodah Zarah in 1856, for which his University conferred the Doctor of Philosophy degree. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Society's Patron, awarded him a Bachelor of Divinity for proficiency in divinity, Hebrew and Oriental languages, and his missionary labours.
Chapter 42
Section 434 cards
How did Wilhelm Fortunatus become a convert to Christianity?
The chapter states that Fortunatus, a physician, became a convert to Christianity through the simple reading of the New Testament and was baptized in Baden in 1639. The source cited is Wolff, Bibliotheca Hebraica.
Chapter 43
What did Frey do that gave the first impulse to the London Jews Society?
Frey, born in 1771, was converted in 1798 at Prenzlan. After training in Berlin and going to London, he held meetings with Jews in Bury Street, Spitalfields, and in 1801 wrote a touching appeal to Christian men who later formed a committee. The chapter says this gave the first impulse to the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1809.
Chapter 43
How do the Jewish Encyclopaedia and de le Roi differ on Achille Fould?
The Jewish Encyclopaedia says Fould married into a Protestant family and was buried with Protestant rites but never formally abjured Judaism. De le Roi says he joined the Reformed Church in ripe age with full convictions. The chapter says the two accounts are easily reconciled: he attended regularly for years but was baptized only in old age.
Chapter 43
What does the chapter say about Ferdinand Philip's career and scholarship?
Ferdinand Philip, a Hebrew teacher born in Poland about 1555, became first a Roman Catholic and then a Protestant. He was matriculated at Cambridge in 1596, claimed a pension from the Domus Conversorum, and was drawn to Leyden by Joseph Scaliger, who obtained a professorship for him and acknowledged learning much from him. His only publication was a translation of the 613 commandments (Cambridge, 1597).
Chapter 43
Section 444 cards
What did Erasmus H. Simon do after his baptism, and where did he labor in 1820?
Erasmus H. Simon, described as an excellent convert of Frey, studied theology at Edinburgh after his baptism. In 1820 he went with Thelwall to Amsterdam to work among the Jews there, since he knew the Dutch language.
Chapter 44
How did Frey's work in America develop after he arrived in 1816?
Frey went to America in 1816, where he assisted in reconstructing the already existing American Society for Evangelizing the Jews. It was reorganized under the title 'The Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews in New York,' and Frey labored under it for some time.
Chapter 44
What did Rev. Zebi Herman Friedlander do in Jerusalem, and why were the Jews said to revere him?
Friedlander was transferred to Jerusalem in 1873 and ordained by Bishop Gobat. The Jerusalem Jews revered him more than any missionary before him because he showed practical love by being very charitable to poor refugees from Russia in 1885. He was chiefly instrumental in founding the Jewish agricultural colony at Artouf and edited 'Tidings from Zion.'
Chapter 44
How did Dr. Heinrich Christian Immanuel Fromman come to read the New Testament?
While studying under Rabbi David Fränkel in Dessau, Fromman visited a tailor who wept that such a fine young man should be lost, and offered him a New Testament. Fromman rebuked him, later returned for the book, but threw it down because it was in German. The tailor's tears troubled him until he bought a German Old Testament and learned to read it, then received the New Testament. He was baptized about 1722 or 1723.
Chapter 44
Section 454 cards
How did Eduard Gans come to embrace Christianity and what academic post followed?
Gans was born in Berlin in 1798 and embraced Christianity in 1825 through the influence of the philosopher Hegel. In 1828 he became a professor at the Berlin University. He wrote works including 'Das Erbrecht in Weltgeschichtlicher Entwickelung' in four volumes, translated into French by Leoménie, and edited Hegel's 'Geschichte der Philosophie.' He died as professor in 1839.
Chapter 45
What led Christian Gerson to read the New Testament and eventually be baptized?
Gerson, born in 1567, received a Talmudical education and taught in several places. A Christian woman borrowed ten pence from him, leaving a Lutheran New Testament as security. He and his two brothers-in-law read it with amusement, but finding Old Testament quotations, he read more earnestly, comparing Scripture with Scripture, until his conscience was awakened. He was baptized by Pastor Silberschlag at Halberstadt on October 19, 1600.
Chapter 45
How did Isidor Gelbflaum first encounter the Hebrew New Testament?
Gelbflaum, born in Warsaw in 1865 to orthodox Jewish parents, writes in his autobiography that in 1877, in his thirteenth year, he came into contact with a colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who sold him a copy of the Hebrew New Testament. He read it longing to learn whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. His father later discovered him reading the Acts of the Apostles and demanded the book.
Chapter 45
What does the chapter say about conflicting accounts of Christian Gerson's death?
The chapter states Gerson died on October 22, 1642, only 47 years old, as a preacher of the Gospel in poverty, having been pastor of two parishes with a stipend of six gulden and working as a farm labourer. It then notes that the Jewish Encyclopædia states Gerson was drowned at Roelheim on September 25, 1627, and calls this a specimen of the contradictory statements of historians.
Chapter 45
Section 464 cards
How did Goldberg describe the start of his conversion on New Year's eve 1803?
Goldberg recalled going out of curiosity with several Jews to a Moravian brethren meeting, where he first heard of Christ's birth, destiny, suffering, death, and resurrection. He left deeply touched, resolving to return often, but the impression faded due to ingrained prejudice against Christianity and unbelief. He then felt growing emptiness until he later submitted to the Word of God.
Chapter 46
What did Christian David Ginsburg contribute to Hebrew and Massoretic scholarship?
Ginsburg is especially remembered for his massoretic studies: his 1867 translation of Elias Levita's "Massoreth-ha-Massorah" and of Jacob ben Hayim's "Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible." He edited the Massoretic Critical Text of the Hebrew Bible for the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1894 and Salkinson's Hebrew New Testament translation in 1886. He also wrote on the Karaites, Essenes, and Kabbalah, and served on the Old Testament Revision Committee.
Chapter 46
What happened to Goldberg's passport and travel plans on his 1811 journey?
Though warned by the Austrian ambassador at Frankfort that he was liable to punishment for failing to report for military service, Goldberg traveled with his wife. At Regensburg the police superintendent initially refused a visa because the ambassador had not signed the passport, but they prevailed. In Vienna police threatened to send him home as a lawbreaker, but a banker cousin and a bribe let him stay unmolested for a time.
Chapter 46
How was Goldberg's life spared during a storm on his return journey?
Caught in torrential rain, thunder, and lightning in a thick forest, Goldberg stopped at an open space with a few tree stumps. He chose to sit on the stump on the right; scarcely had he sat down when the stump on the left was struck by lightning and shattered. He was deeply impressed by the wonderful protecting care of God's providence.
Chapter 46
Section 473 cards
What Jewish custom does the chapter describe involving parents and children after Sabbath services?
The chapter describes the custom that after the service on the Sabbath and on feast days, children approach their parents, who lay their hands on them and bless them. A footnote states this custom is very seldom seen nowadays. The author argues that when God's Spirit revives the Jewish people, many such forms now performed as empty ceremony will be exercised in spirit and bring a blessing.
Chapter 47
What happened to Goldberg at Regensburg on his journey home?
Awaking early at Regensburg, Goldberg saw near his bed the form of a friendly woman dressed in white, whom he recognized as his mother-in-law. It was four o'clock. Later, at Frankfort, a Jew from Neuwied told him his family was well but that his mother-in-law had died. Goldberg, who said he did not believe in ghost stories, claimed he was convinced spirits can communicate with one another.
Chapter 47
How did Goldberg first come into contact with Mr. Keetman?
In August 1817 a learned Jew recently from London warned Goldberg that a gentleman was seeking Jews to read the New Testament in Hebrew, supplied gratis by a London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, and told him to beware. The warning had the opposite effect. Goldberg, curious about this 'dangerous man,' visited the merchant Keetman on a Saturday, offering to copy Hebrew books. The chapter calls this acquaintanceship his awakening.
Chapter 47
Section 484 cards
What led D. Goldenberg to obtain a New Testament and become convinced of the Gospel?
Goldenberg, born in Piatka, Volhynia, in 1805, was restless about his sins despite advice to study the Talmud. In 1821 cholera visited the place and he dreaded to die. Hearing Christian children pronounce the name Jehovah, he bought a catechism, then received tracts and a New Testament from Myerson, originally from missionary Moritz. He was soon convinced, visited Moritz, went to Berlin, and was baptized by Pastor Schultz.
Chapter 48
How did Israel Goldstern's path lead from Lemberg to becoming a missionary?
Goldstern, a native of Lemberg educated in strict orthodoxy, became President of a Talmud Union in early manhood. Failing health took him to the Bath Heines, where a Christian merchant convinced him the Talmud has no Divine authority. After two years of unrest, family conflict over his views, and a move to Constantinople, he was baptized by Pastor Bonnet in Cologne in 1875. He later studied theology at Barmen and became a missionary of the Westphalian Rhenish Society.
Chapter 48
How did Philip Selig Gottfried come to be convinced that the Christians were right?
Born in 1722 near Halle, Gottfried studied Talmud diligently at Fürth and could recite 500 pages by heart at 13. A theological student taught him Latin and German on condition of avoiding religion, but they soon disputed. A Hebrew scholar debated Isaiah liii. with him, refuting rabbinical interpretations. Gottfried reflected, bought a New Testament for 12 groschen, studied it critically, and after inward struggle was baptized in 1738.
Chapter 48
Why did Johann Adam Gottfried not become a preacher despite his theological studies?
Gottfried, born at Altona in 1726, heard the name of Jesus in London and later, at 21, was moved by worship at an evangelical church at Sulzberg. He studied Scripture, especially Isaiah liii., and was baptized by Pastor Pfeiffer at Erlangen in 1750. He studied theology but, the chapter states, was too humble and timid to ascend the pulpit, so he supported himself by teaching Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and French, and by writing.
Chapter 48
Section 494 cards
What did Paul Eduard Gottheil do throughout his career after 1848?
Gottheil, born at Franstadt in 1818 and brother of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emmanuel, New York, studied theology at Basel and in 1848 entered the service of the British Society, in which he continued all his life. He served as minister of the English Church at Canstadt and then at the Diakonessenhaus at Stuttgart, and published several missionary works.
Chapter 49
How did K. J. Gottlieb first learn that his brother was a baptized Christian?
Gottlieb, raised strictly orthodox in Sadagora, visited his brother in Pesth at age 16 and read a Hebrew Bible with German translation there. A Jewish tract assigning 1864 for the Messiah's advent but repudiating Jesus's Messiahship prompted him to ask his brother for light, and he discovered his brother had long been baptized. He was baptized in 1876 at Prague.
Chapter 49
What condition did Gurland set when agreeing to read the Hebrew Bible with Pastor Faltin?
Gurland, born in Wilna in 1836 and president of the seminary at Berditscheff, agreed to read the Bible with Faltin on condition that the main issue between Judaism and Christianity not be introduced. After reading Isaiah liii. twice, he was inwardly moved and concluded the chapter referred to Jesus. He and his wife were baptized on Easter Sunday, 1864.
Chapter 49
What did Gurland confess when rabbis asked whether Faltin intended to become a proselyte to Judaism?
The rabbis, like the Protestant questioner before them, asked Gurland whether Faltin wished to become a Ger to Judaism. This brought matters to a climax: Gurland confessed before them all that Jesus was the Messiah and proved his convictions from the Bible. When they cried 'You have a false Bible,' he told them to compare it with their own.
Chapter 49
Section 504 cards
Who baptized Gutenhauer, and what academic post did he later hold?
Gutenhauer was won for Christ and baptized by the Rev. W. Ayerst in Berlin in 1836. He then studied philosophy and became Professor at the University of Breslau in 1841, where he published a work about Leibnitz and another about Lessing in 1842 and 1852.
Chapter 50
What did Händler contribute to Delitzsch and to Dalman's Chaldaic Dictionary?
Händler assisted Professor Delitzsch in his translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, and he furnished the abbreviations to Professor Dalman's Chaldaic Dictionary. He also revised Biesenthal's rabbinic commentary on Romans, wrote several tracts, and revised the Judæo-German translation of the Bible for the Trinitarian Bible Society.
Chapter 50
Why was Hefter sent to Berlin to be baptized rather than baptized in Galicia?
Hefter came to know the Saviour after the L.J.S. missionary Hoff gave him Fränkel's 'Confession of a Proselyte' and the New Testament. But it was not thought safe to baptize him in Galicia, so he was sent to Bellson in Berlin, who baptized him in 1846.
Chapter 50
How does the chapter distinguish Hellmuth's career from Alexander's and Schereschewsky's?
The chapter names Hellmuth as one of three Hebrew Christian Bishops of the last century, alongside Bishops Alexander and Schereschewsky. It says Alexander spent his life seeking 'the lost sheep of the house of Israel' in various lands, Schereschewsky served 'the other sheep' in China, while Hellmuth's career was mainly associated with the spiritual and intellectual interests of the Greater Britain beyond the seas.
Chapter 50
Section 514 cards
Who influenced young Hellmuth toward Christianity at Breslau?
Dr. S. Neumann, a Hebrew Christian and missionary of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, was stationed at Breslau and also served as a professor at the University. His contact with learned Jews and students gave him great influence, and it was through Neumann that Hellmuth's attention was drawn to Christianity. Hellmuth later came to England and was baptized in 1841 at All Saints' Church, Liverpool.
Chapter 51
How did Hellmuth's family respond to his baptism?
His father cut him out of his will altogether upon his baptism. However, after the father's death, Hellmuth's two brothers—who themselves remained Jews—generously restored to their Christian brother his share of their father's property. The chapter presents this as an act of generosity by the brothers despite the religious divide within the family.
Chapter 51
Why was Huron College founded, and who led it?
The Bishop of Huron, Dr. Cronyn, was troubled about Provost Whitaker of Trinity College, Toronto, whose teaching he considered unsound, though other bishops upheld it. Not satisfied, Cronyn decided to establish a college more under his own control at London, Ontario. This resulted in Huron College, opened in 1863 under Dr. Hellmuth as president, who was also made archdeacon of Huron.
Chapter 51
What growth in diocesan work occurred during Hellmuth's episcopate?
During his episcopate from 1871 to 1883, the chapter states great progress was made in every department of diocesan work. Livings increased from 34 to 65, churches from 149 to 207, and clergy from 92 to 135. Sunday schools rose from 110 to 166, and communicants from 4,390 to 8,910. Dr. Langtrey's Colonial Church Histories says Hellmuth devoted himself earnestly and became very popular.
Chapter 51
Section 524 cards
Why could Dr. Hellmuth not become Bishop Suffragan of Hull?
Crown law officers discovered, nearly two months after Hellmuth resigned the see of Huron, that the Act of Henry VIII did not apply to anyone already in Episcopal orders. He therefore could not take the post. He appealed through Governor-General Lord Lorne to Prime Minister Gladstone, and the Bishop of Ripon still took him on as Assistant Bishop or Bishop Coadjutor.
Chapter 52
What happened to Hellmuth's position after Bishop Bickersteth died in 1884?
His commission as Bishop Coadjutor ceased, making his position still more trying. He appealed again to Mr. Gladstone for suitable preferment but without success. He then served as rector and rural dean of Bridlington from 1885 to 1891, perpetual curate of Bessingby from 1888 to 1891, and later held the chaplaincy of Holy Trinity, Pau, and a Somerset rectory.
Chapter 52
What writings did Bishop Hellmuth produce, according to the chapter?
He authored "The Biblical Thesaurus" (1884), a literal translation and critical analysis of every word in the original languages of the Old Testament with explanatory notes and appendices, and "The Divine Dispensation," a critical commentary on the Hebrew Scriptures. He also wrote two articles in "The Everlasting Nation": one on the authenticity and genuineness of the Pentateuch (1867) and one on "The Spirit of Prophecy."
Chapter 52
How did Hellmuth relate to the London Jews' Society late in life?
The chapter says he showed hearty and unbounded interest in the spiritual welfare of his brethren according to the flesh, advocating their claims to the Gospel from pulpit and platform. He was especially interested in the London Jews' Society, frequently presided over its Committee meetings, and was a persona grata among them, valued for learning, common sense, prudent counsel, and courtesy.
Chapter 52
Section 533 cards
What advice did the Polish Jew give the author, and what did the author do?
The Polish Jew had studied several years at the University of Berlin and knew Gentile literature. He strongly advised the author to give up Talmud study and devote himself to German and secular literature. After a hard struggle of mind, the author resolved to follow this advice and went to a place where his studies, habits, and mode of life changed entirely. He conformed to his fellow-students, who considered former religious essentials old-fashioned.
Chapter 53
What was the author's view of Jewish converts to Christianity before his own change?
The author says that when he first heard of a Jewish convert, he understood conversion as renouncing national privileges and obligations, separating from the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and joining ungodly Gentiles. Though he had already laid aside many outward observances, he still held strongly to the fundamental doctrines of the Jewish faith as Divine in origin. He therefore saw the convert as a dreadful apostate, regarding him with mingled pity and contempt.
Chapter 53
What crisis followed his mother's death, and how did his extempore prayer end?
After his beloved mother died, the author was plunged into grief and then sickness, and his conscience became disturbed. He vowed to become very religious, fasting weekly, repeating many prayers, and giving charity, but this did not pacify him, since German literature had weakened his confidence in observances. He prayed extempore for the first time, appealing to Abraham's merit, but says there was no answer from God and no peace to his spirit.
Chapter 53
Section 544 cards
How did Ridley Herschell first encounter the Sermon on the Mount?
He bought an article in a shop that was wrapped in a leaf of the Bible containing part of the Sermon on the Mount. Walking home, he noticed the words "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," which arrested his attention and led him to read the whole passage with deep interest. The author suggests the shopkeeper was probably an infidel who thought the Bible waste paper, but God overruled the evil for good.
Chapter 54
What was Herschell's initial reaction to reading the New Testament?
He felt bewildered and was so shocked by the constant recurrence of the name of Jesus that he repeatedly cast the book away. He determined to read it through. At Matthew 23 he was astonished at the disclosure of the nature of Pharisaism, and Christ's lamentation over Jerusalem moved him to tears. The crucifixion account stirred compassion for Jesus and indignation against His murderers, though he did not yet see the connection between Jesus' sufferings and his own sins.
Chapter 54
What institutions and roles marked Herschell's later ministry?
In 1828 he entered the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution under Erasmus Simon and was baptized April 14, 1830, taking the name of his godfather, Rev. Henry Calbone Ridley. Owing to scruples he preferred the nonconformist ministry. He was a founder of the British Society, edited the periodical "Voice of Israel," wrote "A Visit to my Fatherland" and "Reasons why I am not a Roman Catholic," and with Sir Culling Eardley built Trinity Chapel, Regent Street.
Chapter 54
What does the chapter say about William Herschel's baptism and scientific work?
The chapter states he was born at Hanover in 1738 and died at Slough in 1822. His father Abraham raised him as a musician, and he went to England in 1755 in the Hanoverian guards band, later becoming organist at Bath in 1760. The author reasons that he was probably baptized either during those five years in England or in Germany, since as a professing Jew he would scarcely have applied for an organist post, nor would his services have been accepted. He is known as founder of Sidereal Science, for views on the Solar System's relation to the Milky Way, and for discovering infra-red solar rays.
Chapter 54
Section 554 cards
How did Rev. David Jacoby Hirsch come to be baptized and ordained?
Born in 1820 at Sandersleben to strict Jewish parents, Hirsch came to England as a young man. In 1844 Dr. Marsh first spoke to him of Christ, leading him to study Scripture. Dr. Baylee of Birkenhead, whose boys he taught languages, instructed him in the Christian faith; Baylee baptized him at the end of 1845, and Hirsch married his daughter. Bishop Sumner later ordained him for the German pastorhood at Liverpool.
Chapter 55
What did Paul Wilhelm Hirsch's 1717 pamphlet 'Entdeckung der Tekuphath' expose?
Baptized in 1692, Paul Wilhelm Hirsch taught Hebrew and issued the pamphlet in Berlin in 1717. In it he exposes the superstition held by rabbinic Jews, and published in the calendar, that at the entrance of each of the four seasons the fluid in vessels containing water turns to blood. The chapter notes this superstition probably did them much harm.
Chapter 55
What did the rabbi complain about after Iliewitz preached Christ to him?
The chapter records that a rabbi celebrated for knowledge of the Cabbala complained Iliewitz had dared to preach Christ to him, saying he had not sent for him to be told the Messiah has come, but to prescribe for his bad feet. Iliewitz was no Talmudical scholar, but was especially the friend and helper of the poor and unlearned.
Chapter 55
What innovations did Siegmund Immanuel introduce as Principal at Minden?
Born in Hamburg in 1792 and baptized in 1809, Immanuel became Principal of the Gymnasium at Minden in 1821, holding the post until his death in 1847. He was the first principal to introduce gymnastics into the school curriculum in 1831, and to divide the Gymnasium into departments of arts and sciences in 1840.
Chapter 55
Section 564 cards
Where was Albert Isaacs born, and what was his father's occupation there?
Albert Isaacs was born on January 24th, 1826, on the island of Jamaica, at Berry Hill, a coffee plantation owned by his father, Isaac Isaacs. Jamaica was then one of the most prosperous British colonies. His father had converted to Christianity some years earlier, though the chapter says no authentic particulars of his father's life are available.
Chapter 56
What religious decision did Isaacs make at age fourteen, and what influenced it?
The chapter states that the religious instruction at his school, Maze Hill, Greenwich, under Dr. Smithers, and preparation for confirmation, though slight in themselves, led him to serious reflection and decided him to give his heart to Christ at the age of fourteen, influencing his future career.
Chapter 56
What offices and activities marked Isaacs' time at Cambridge?
At Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Isaacs was a contemporary of Dr. Perowne and Bishop Moule. He began his studies daily at five in the morning, taught in the Jesus Lane Sunday School, founded the Cambridge University Prayer Union, and organized successful efforts in his college for the Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society. He ardently desired to become a missionary, especially to East Africa, but the door was not open.
Chapter 56
How did Isaacs' ministry at Christ Church, Leicester, develop after 1866?
Appointed vicar by Lord Berners in 1866, Isaacs laboured there over 25 years on staunch Protestant and evangelical lines. The parish was reorganized, agencies started, the church restored and enlarged, and schools built. Known as 'the Jew of Leicester,' he raised as much as £25,000 despite parish poverty, and was chaplain of the Leicester gaol.
Chapter 56
Section 574 cards
What position did Mr. Isaacs hold from 1891 to 1899?
Mr. Isaacs was appointed in 1891 to the incumbency of St. Augustine's, Bath, also long known as Portland Chapel, and he held that position until 1899. The chapter describes it as a post after his own heart, with associations and traditions handed down from a long succession of faithful Protestant ministers.
Chapter 57
How did Isaacs' Düsseldorf ministry grow the congregation?
When Mr. Isaacs went to the Consulate Chapel at Düsseldorf, the congregation numbered only about thirteen persons. He soon gathered an attached people and increased Sunday attendance until an excellent congregation was built up. On Thursday afternoons at his own residence he held Bible readings and social gatherings, warmly appreciated by many young men and women, easing the loneliness of British residents abroad.
Chapter 57
What publications did Mr. Isaacs write and edit?
Mr. Isaacs wrote "The Dead Sea" (1857) and "A Pictorial Tour in the Holy Land" (1858), plus the well-known "Biography of the Rev. Henry Aaron Stern, D.D." (1886). He edited four volumes of "The Everlasting Nation" (1889-92). Other works include "Emma Herdman, Missionary Labours in the Empire of Morocco" (1900), "The Fountain of Siena" (1900), "In the Lord" (1901), "The Tabernacle and the Temple" (1902), "The Protestants of the Bible" (1903), and "The New Vicar" (1903, posthumous).
Chapter 57
What did Isaacs attribute his health to, and what offices did he hold?
Mr. Isaacs was blessed with wonderful strength and health, which he attributed greatly to total abstinence from alcohol and smoking. He was a Life Member of the L.J.S. and frequently attended Committee meetings, where his long and varied experience and prudent counsels were fully appreciated. He enjoyed the friendship of prominent people, including Prince Münster.
Chapter 57
Section 584 cards
How did Jacob Jacobson describe his path from Judaism to Christian baptism?
Jacobson says his parents raised him strictly in Judaism under a Talmudical tutor, but he came to doubt that formal synagogue worship could influence the heart. Led by providence to London, he twice resisted a British Society missionary, then visited for information, read the New Testament against the Old, and became convinced Jesus is the Messiah. He was publicly baptized and served as a missionary for fifteen years in Newcastle.
Chapter 58
What was Philipp Jaffe the historian's major scholarly work and its result?
Jaffe published the "Monumenta Germaniae Historica" (1854-63), the "Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum" (1864), and the "Regesta pontificum Romanorum," in which some 11,000 papal documents and letters were investigated, drawing the attention of Pius IX. The chapter states that these ecclesiastical studies finally led him to embrace Christianity in 1868.
Chapter 58
How did the younger Philipp Jaffe, son of Rabbi Baer, come to read the New Testament?
Raised in strict orthodoxy, he early absorbed prejudices against Christianity and once refused to utter the name of Jesus while reading a book at school. His father later sent him to Wales to learn commerce at a relative's house, where a Christian lady gave him a New Testament that he read secretly; the chapter says this became the means of his conversion. He studied in London and was ordained at twenty-six.
Chapter 58
What did Adolf Janasz do after embracing Christianity and marrying Rosenthal's daughter?
Janasz, proprietor of an estate at Ploch near Warsaw, embraced Christianity together with his father and married the daughter of the L.J.S. missionary Rosenthal. He then devoted himself to good works and to promoting Christianity among Jews by word and deed. After the 1863 Polish revolution he founded an orphanage on his estate, maintained it at his own expense, appointed a Bible-woman in Warsaw, and published "Die Zukunft des Volkes Israel" (Berlin, 1882).
Chapter 58
Section 594 cards
What did Jany do after embracing Christianity, and until what age?
Jany was a Jewish officer who served in the Prussian army from 1806 to 1815, then embraced Christianity. He devoted himself especially to the care of the deaf and dumb until the age of 90, and was one of the presidents of the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Königsberg.
Chapter 59
Who was Jedida, and how did he come to faith?
Hirsch Leib Jedida (born Gragewo, Russia, 1847) was strictly raised and became Bar Mitzvah at 13, then studied at rabbinic schools for five years. At Plotzk he befriended Samuel Nasielsky. In Warsaw they met missionary Ifland, read the New Testament, and were convinced Jesus was their Saviour. Jedida was baptized in the Reformed Church at Warsaw in 1864.
Chapter 59
What happened to Jedida and Nasielsky after Warsaw?
They traveled to Bromberg, welcomed by missionary Koppel at Salem. Jedida fell ill and was sent to Hospital Bethany in Berlin, where Nasielsky followed and was baptized in 1866 as Luria. Jedida died in September 1867 after composing a Hebrew prayer; his friend followed three years later and was buried at his side.
Chapter 59
What did Madam Jolberg accomplish, and how did her institution grow?
Born Regine Julie Zimmerman in 1801, she was baptized in 1826 with her children and later married S. Jolberg. From 1841 at Leutsheim she taught children knitting; the school became an asylum for poor children, then added teacher training. By 1851 she had eighty nurses under instruction, and after 25 years there were 300 Nonnenwier sisters and 260 nurses. She was known as Mutter Jolberg.
Chapter 59
Section 604 cards
Who was Cornelius Josephson's companion in the Gospel in Abyssinia?
The chapter states that Cornelius Josephson was Flad's companion in the Gospel in Abyssinia. It gives no further detail about his background, conversion, or later work, identifying him only through this missionary partnership.
Chapter 60
What caused David Isaac Kahn and his family to embrace Christianity in 1739?
Kahn, a physician at Uhlefeld later called "Christfreund," received Christian literature from the Mission at Halle. The chapter says this alone was the cause of him and his whole family embracing Christianity at Cadolzburg in 1739. His eldest son, who still hesitated, was baptized afterwards.
Chapter 60
How did Nathanael Kameras describe his childhood education in the Cheder?
In his autobiography, Kameras compares the Cheder to a prison and the teacher, the Melamed, to a jailer. He says he felt like a caged bird watching free children outside while he pored over marriage contracts and divorces late into the night. He welcomed news of being sent to a Yeschiva like a convict welcomes acquittal.
Chapter 60
What positions did Rev. J. Kahn hold after graduating at Cambridge?
The chapter states that Rev. J. Kahn, an L.J.S. convert, graduated at Cambridge. After serving as curate in various parishes, he became Vicar of Bishopstone, Sussex, and then in 1884 became Vicar of St. Stephen's, Holloway.
Chapter 60
Section 614 cards
How did Rabbi Schimele Wolf receive the narrator upon his arrival at the Talmud school?
The narrator visited Rabbi Schimele Wolf at his private lodgings and begged to be accepted as a pupil. Wolf initially received him coldly, with dignity pointing to his important position. After the narrator delivered recommendations from Wolf's father-in-law and mentioned that Wolf's family doctor was his uncle, the Rabbi's stern look relaxed and he waived the usual entrance examination, ordering a servant to lead the boy to the Yeshiva and assign him a place.
Chapter 61
What was the daily 'Schir' lecture like at the Yeshiva?
The Schir took place daily from two to four in the afternoon. Scholars stood in a semi-circle at the feet of the Rabbi, who sat on an elevated chair at a desk. The Rabbi charged one pupil to read a certain passage from the Talmud, another to read the commentaries on it, and a third to read and explain the marginal notes to those commentaries. Beforehand, the boys prepared amid a terrific din of screaming and swaying.
Chapter 61
What troubled the narrator about Rabbi Todresch's midnight prayers, and what answer did he receive?
The narrator was moved by Rabbi Todresch's fervent midnight prayers, barefoot on the floor, begging God to redeem Israel and bring the Messiah. But he was troubled: why does God not answer such real, fervent prayers? A visiting Talmudist told him such prayers can never be answered because the Messiah has already come. He refused to explain further, saying the narrator would have to go abroad to seek the truth freely.
Chapter 61
Why did the narrator decide to leave Russia?
A visiting Talmudist told him that the Messiah had already come, but refused to explain, saying he owned a book on the subject he could not entrust to the narrator for fear of consequences. He advised that to know the full truth the narrator must go abroad, since only there could he search after truth freely, whereas at home one must sell one's freedom for one's bread. Tortured by restlessness and fearing his parents' opposition, the narrator decided to leave Russia at once.
Chapter 61
Section 624 cards
How did the narrator first find food and lodging while wandering through Russia?
He relied on the ever-open Jewish house of God, the Beth-Hamedrash. There he would enter into a Talmudic dispute (a 'Kasche') with those present, immediately feel at home, receive board and lodging, and the pious prayer-men who came daily openly and secretly pressed charitable gifts into his hand.
Chapter 62
Why did the narrator have to smuggle himself across the Russian frontier into Germany?
He had no passport, so he could not legally cross the frontier. He was therefore forced to pay a man a rouble to conduct him through a wood that led into Germany, effectively smuggling himself across the border.
Chapter 62
What first drew the narrator to the New Testament in Vienna?
A Jewish shoemaker gave him a New Testament in Hebrew. The very first sentence drew him like a magnet, because it stated clearly and in full what the Talmud-scholar had only briefly told him: that the Messiah, until then the object of his prayers, desires and hopes, had actually been born.
Chapter 62
What did the narrator do after his baptism in 1881, and when was he ordained?
After baptism on 14 August 1881 in the Dreikönigskirche at Frankfort, he first learned bookbinding, then at Rev. Hefter's wish attended the missionary-house at Barmen: one year in the preparatory school and four in the seminary. He passed final examinations at the end of 1887, began duty in Vienna in 1888, and was ordained in 1891 by Dr. Burk in Stuttgart.
Chapter 62
Section 634 cards
What academic prize and writings are attributed to Rev. Moritz Kaufmann?
Dr. Kaufmann won the prize for Hebrew, Chaldaic and Syriac. He authored works on socialism: "Socialism, its Nature, its Dangers, and its Remedies Considered" (1874), "Utopias, or Schemes for Social Improvement from Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx" (1879), "Christian Socialism" (1888), "Charles Kingsley, Christian Socialist and Reformer" (1892), and "Socialism and Modern Thought" (1895).
Chapter 63
How did Dr. J. Koppel come to found his Home or Ragged School?
After baptism by Jaffe and joining the British Society in 1860, Koppel returned to Bromberg. When a pair of boots was stolen and a poor beggar boy was suspected, compassion for neglected boys moved him to request municipal permission for a Home or Ragged School with Christian training. Permission was granted after hesitation, and the Home opened in 1864 as a refuge for gutter children, orphans, Jewish enquirers and converts.
Chapter 63
What did Kiel the Roumanian physician seek in Jerusalem and what did he find?
Kiel, a physician from Roumania, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem as a pious Jew, expecting to find spiritual satisfaction and peace in the Holy City. He did not find it in the Judaism he encountered there, but in the Gospel preached by the missionaries. He and his wife were baptized by Bishop Alexander in 1844, and he afterward laboured as a medical missionary in Safed.
Chapter 63
How did Joseph Nathaniel Kronheim become an agent of the Belfast Auxiliary Society?
Kronheim, a Magdeburg native, served as a soldier under Napoleon I in the Russian campaign, then taught school until the rabbi dissolved it for his New Testament use. After meeting Bishop Alexander and Rev. Wyndham Madden, he was baptized in 1832 and settled as an optician in Belfast in 1835. A year later, friends of the Jews there asked him to give up his business and become an agent, which he did at age sixty, labouring seventeen years until his death in 1852.
Chapter 63
Section 644 cards
What conversation first made a deep impression on the young Kropveld?
Kropveld was raised in strict Jewish orthodoxy and worked carelessly in a merchant's office. A conversation with a Christian peasant, who assured him he was certain of entering the heavenly Canaan, made a deep impression. Kropveld then began living in stricter conformity with Judaism, and at seventeen heard the missionary Pauli preach and was baptized.
Chapter 64
What did Kuh's baptism in Breslau in 1805 lead to?
Christian Daniel Kuh, a merchant in Breslau, was convinced of the truth of Christianity and was baptized in the Evangelical Church at Breslau in 1805. As a result, his wife and three children, his brother-in-law Hans August Fisher, and his fiancée followed his example.
Chapter 64
Why did Kunert develop a strong antipathy to Christ as a youth?
Kunert attended a Catholic college in Breslau while also attending Jewish school. He saw what he described as thoughtless worship of Popish idols, and fellow pupils educated in the Catholic faith laughed at religious exercises and read immoral books. He also found the sacristan who sold Christian books seemed motivated only by money.
Chapter 64
How did Kunert describe his conversion and baptism?
Kunert entered the Altona mission house on December 1st, 1898, after inner restlessness and despair. There he said he first met his Saviour in all His glory, saw his sins, and was baptized on April 23rd by Pastor Aston. He later applied to the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews and was accepted on June 9th.
Chapter 64
Section 653 cards
What did Dr. Laseron do after losing his eldest child at Edmonton?
The bereaved parents noticed poor, half-starved children in the street, resorted to prayer, and resolved to establish an asylum where poor children could receive a good education. An Irish lady sent £3; with this he hired a house, appointed a teacher, and opened the school in 1856 with sixteen scholars the first morning. He also built a chapel, and the work grew into the Deaconesses' Training Institution at Tottenham.
Chapter 65
What happened to Rabbi Elieser Lauria's wife after his baptism in 1843?
Baptized by Bishop Alexander in 1843, Lauria was forced by the Jewish authorities to divorce his wife, who was sent by them back to Russia. She returned to him in 1846, and the next year she too made a public confession of faith in the Saviour. She then assisted him in winning souls, and they laboured together at Cairo until her death of cholera in 1849.
Chapter 65
Where did Rev. David Laseron serve as a missionary and what did he establish?
After his baptism in 1844, Laseron was sent as a missionary to Cochin, where he established schools for heathen and Jewish children. In 1852 these schools were attended by 16 white Jewish boys, 112 black Jewish boys and 24 girls. He baptized one Jew named Jehil Benjamin in 1849. He was recalled home in 1855 owing to some disagreement with his colleague.
Chapter 65
Section 664 cards
How did Herman Lebert (Levy) gain recognition as a Christian doctor?
Herman Lebert, M.D. (Levy), born 1813 and died 1878, was a very distinguished Christian doctor. Friedrich Wilhelm IV bestowed on him the gold medal for Art and Science. He became Professor of Medicine in Breslau in 1859. His literary works include 'Anatomie Pathologique générale et speciale' (2 vols., 1854-62), which won a prize from the Parisian Academy, and 'Handbuch der Practischen Medicin' (2 vols., 1859).
Chapter 66
How was Abraham Lebrecht enslaved and what led to his baptism?
Born at Gross-Glogau in 1706, Lebrecht was teaching at Belgrade in 1739 when the Turks captured the city and sold him as a slave alongside Newman, a Lutheran pastor's son. Newman resisted temptation and was beaten, telling Herz he would rather die than sin. Newman died of his stripes; Herz was sold to Hadshi Mustapha, brought to Smyrna in 1741, ransomed by the Jewish community, and baptized at Whitsunday 1744 as Lebrecht.
Chapter 66
What did Jacob Levi of Smyrna intend when he translated the New Testament?
According to Dr. Buchanan's report, Jacob Levi of Smyrna heard the Gospel from a C.M.S. missionary. He bought a New Testament and studied it intending to refute the missionary's arguments, and for that purpose translated it into Hebrew. The result was that he became a believer and preached Christ to Jews, Mohammedans and Christians.
Chapter 66
What posts and works marked Dr. Leone Levi's career in England?
Dr. Leone Levi, born in Ancona in 1802, settled in England. His 1849 article in the 'Liverpool Album' occasioned the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he became secretary. He joined the Presbyterian Church and wrote 'Commercial Laws' (1850-52), 'Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes' (1867), and 'History of British Commerce' (1863-70). He became professor of political economy at King's College in 1862 and died in 1888.
Chapter 66
Section 674 cards
How did Hessel Levinsohn come to faith in Jesus?
Hessel Levinsohn first softened his harsh judgment of his brother Isaac through correspondence. After coming to England, he was gradually won by Isaac and other Hebrew Christians to read the New Testament and search the Scriptures, until he could publicly confess Jesus as his Redeemer. He later became a missionary of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Jews.
Chapter 67
How did Isaac Levinson first encounter the L.J.S. Chapel?
After being robbed of his baggage on landing in London in 1871, Levinson passed the L.J.S. Chapel at Palestine Place and saw a Hebrew inscription on the front. Thinking it was a synagogue, he entered and was surprised to find a Christian place of worship with prayers in Hebrew. After the service a Hebrew Christian told him he had found peace in believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
Chapter 67
What led Rabbi J. Lichtenstein to examine the New Testament?
Finding a New Testament in the school under his charge, he removed and hid it in his library. During an anti-Semitic agitation in Hungary, he reasoned there must be something in the New Testament that excited enmity against Jews, so he examined it carefully, was convinced of the contrary, and began to admire and love Jesus, even quoting the New Testament in his synagogue sermons.
Chapter 67
What happened after Rabbi Lichtenstein was accused of heterodoxy?
Some of his congregation accused him to the chief rabbi of Budapest of heterodoxy. Lichtenstein then confessed his faith in Jesus Christ crucified. As a result he had to resign his office, and to the end of his life he lived as a Christian, constantly preaching the Gospel in Pesth, though not baptized. He died in the Lord in 1908.
Chapter 67
Section 684 cards
What did Benjamin Lipschitz leave to his birthplace, Kriegshaber?
Benjamin Lipschitz, a convert to Christianity who died in Vienna in 1876, left 70,000 gulden to the inhabitants of his birthplace, Kriegshaber, near Augsburg, to be divided equally between Jews and Christians. He also bequeathed 35,000 gulden to the Jewish Congregation of Augsburg and 100,000 gulden each for the Jewish Homes at Munich and Vienna.
Chapter 68
What prompted Christlieb Lipshytz to seek Christian instruction?
Lipshytz was raised in strict Judaism in Warsaw. When he was five, his eldest sister became a Christian and endured severe persecution; her testimony deeply impressed him and awakened a desire to learn what Christianity taught. He listened to religious instruction given to Gentile pupils at his secular high school, was chastised by his father, but soon surrendered to the Lord.
Chapter 68
How did the Barbican Mission's Gordon Calthrop Memorial come about?
After Prebendary Gordon Calthrop, the mission's first President, died, Lipshytz raised a memorial with his council's cooperation. The result was the Barbican Mission headquarters on Whitechapel's main thoroughfare, called 'The Gordon Calthrop Memorial,' dedicated and opened in spring 1901. The scheme cost £13,000, all of which was soon raised. A Home at Mitcham costing £3,500 was also provided and freed from debt.
Chapter 68
What did Sir Manasseh Massey Lopes achieve after converting?
Lopes was born in Jamaica in 1755, died in 1838, and belonged to the Sephardim Jews. He and his father Mordecai Rodriguez Lopes embraced Christianity in 1802. That year Manasseh was returned to Parliament for New Romney and was created a baronet in 1805. He later sat for Barnstaple and then Westbury, where he was also Recorder and a magistrate for two counties.
Chapter 68
Section 693 cards
How did Moses Gotthold Löwen come to faith and what literary work did he produce?
Löwen was raised orthodox, studied Talmud and Shulchan Aruch, and after meeting missionary J. Lotka and a ten-year inward struggle encouraged by Professor Franz Delitzsch, he was baptized by Rev. P. E. Gottheil in Stuttgart in 1886. He wrote the Yiddish booklet 'Siach l'Elohim,' co-edited 'Eduth l'Israel,' and won a prize for his Yiddish life of Christ, 'Podeh Umazil.'
Chapter 69
What did Rev. Isidor Löwenthal accomplish in Afghanistan and how did he die?
Sent by the Board of Foreign Missions in 1856, Löwenthal learned Pushtu within a year, preached fluently, and during seven years translated and printed the entire New Testament in Pushtu and compiled a Pushtu dictionary left in manuscript. He preached in five languages and was consulted by Sir John Lawrence during the mutiny. In 1864, aged thirty-eight, he was shot dead by his own servant, reportedly mistaken for a thief.
Chapter 69
What was distinctive about Rev. C. Theophilus Lucky's practice as a Hebrew Christian?
Lucky, a native of Tisminitz in Galicia, was a noted Hebrew scholar who published the Hebrew periodical 'Eduth le Israel' in 1887 and later lived in Stanislau. Though orthodox on the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, he believed he should observe the Jewish Sabbath, festivals, and dietary laws—not to be justified by works of the law, but to satisfy his conscience and be more useful as an evangelist among his brethren in Galicia.
Chapter 69
Section 703 cards
What did Dr. M. Maas advocate in his writings?
Dr. M. Maas, a nineteenth-century teacher at Breslau, wrote works advocating the amalgamation of Jews with Christians. His writings included "Die Sociale Stellung der Juden in Deutschland und das Ceremonial Gesetz" (Löbau, 1876) and a work arguing that intermarriage was the only effective means of lasting union between the Jewish and Christian populations of Germany.
Chapter 70
How did Bishop Alexander influence Rabbi Mordecai Maimuny?
Maimuny, born at Bona in 1817, was a strict rabbinical scholar who opposed Dr. Ewald at Tunis and blasphemed Jesus. In Jerusalem his fanaticism was excited by Bishop Alexander's activity, but the bishop's calm, gentle disposition impressed him greatly. He received a Hebrew New Testament, studied it diligently, and became a changed man, later baptized in 1853 by Rev. Benjamin Weiss.
Chapter 70
What did Moses Marcus write and translate in defense of Christianity?
Moses Marcus, born in London in 1701, was educated at Hamburg, read the New Testament, and came to faith. His father threatened to disinherit him and once threw a long knife at him, but Marcus was baptized in 1723. In 1724 he wrote "Principal Motives to leave the Jewish Faith," and in 1729 translated part two of Carpzov's "Critica Sacra" into English with his own notes.
Chapter 70
Section 714 cards
How did Moses Margoliouth come to be baptized, and what was his later scholarly role?
Born at Suwalki in 1820, he came to Liverpool in 1837, met L.J.S. missionaries Lazarus and Rev. H. S. Joseph, and was baptized in 1838. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin from 1840, became curate of St. Augustine, Liverpool in 1844, earned a Ph.D. at Erlangen in 1857, and was one of the revisers of the English Old Testament. He died in London in 1881.
Chapter 71
Why did Adolf Bernard Marx turn from law to music?
Born in Halle in 1779, Marx was fond of music from youth, and Handel's 'Messiah' led him to become a Christian. His father, though indifferent to religion, was very angry, so he studied law and music under great deprivations. He became a judge at Wittemberg but preferred music, resigned, went to Berlin, published a work on harmony in 1837, and is said to have founded modern musical literature. He died in 1866.
Chapter 71
What did Maria request of her father on her deathbed, and how did he respond?
As a permanent invalid from a childhood fall, Maria read the Bible and came to faith. On her deathbed she asked her father to consent to her baptism. He refused, saying she was born a Jewess and must die one. She replied that this was impossible since she was a Christian, explaining that being a Christian did not mean ceasing to be a Jewess. She was then permitted to receive both sacraments.
Chapter 71
What led Adam Rudolf George Christoph Mathai to embrace Christianity?
Born at Fürth in 1715, Mathai was taught Talmud by his father Jaidel and became a Talmudic teacher himself. In his preface to 'Description of the Jewish Sabbath' he narrates that considering the corruption among his people, doubts arose about the rabbinic system, and he found its doctrines, rites and ceremonies did not agree with the Word of God. The mysterious name Jeshua sar happanim in the New Year service prompted enquiry, and he was baptized in 1748 at Nürnberg.
Chapter 71
Section 723 cards
Why did Samuel Morum Mayer refuse government offices, and when was he baptized?
Mayer refused government offices that were offered on the condition that he embrace Christianity, and he held a professorship unconditionally instead. He later investigated Christian doctrines himself and was baptized in 1834. Afterward his relations persecuted him, but he rendered them good for evil. He had earlier petitioned the King for permission to enter the Gymnasium, granted in 1815, and became a celebrated lawyer.
Chapter 72
What circumstances led Rev. W. Mayer to sever from the London Jews' Society?
Mayer was affected by Bishop Colenso's criticism of the Bible and also held the opinion that the Jews ought to have their own Christian Church. This led to his severance from the Society. He had succeeded his brother-in-law Rev. A. I. Behrens at Jassy in 1855, where he ran a flourishing school of about 300 scholars. He remained in Jassy all his life and revised the Roumanian Bible for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Chapter 72
What events marked Felix Mendelssohn's early musical career and his death?
Felix Mendelssohn was born at Hamburg on February 3, 1809, and died in 1857. He first appeared at a public concert at age nine, studied church music under Zelter, and at fourteen was a guest at Goethe's house. By twenty he had written an overture on Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" and played before Queen Victoria in 1841. The death of his sister Fanny in spring 1847 affected him seriously; after a brief illness he died on November 4, 1857, aged thirty-six, and was buried beside her in Trinity Cemetery, Berlin.
Chapter 72
Section 733 cards
How did Nathan Mendelssohn's baptism and later life reflect his Christian commitment?
Born in 1782 as Moses Mendelssohn's third son, he was baptized in 1809 by Reformed Pastor Petiscus, taking the name Carl Theodor Nathanael Mendelssohn. He became a mechanic and headed a large industry in Silesia. The chapter calls him a sincere Christian interested in missionary work among Jews; in 1826 he asked L.J.S. missionaries for Bibles to distribute among his workmen. He died in Berlin in 1852.
Chapter 73
What was Meyer's later missionary and academic career after leaving Berlin in 1848?
He studied theology at the Free Church College in Aberdeen, then assisted Dr. Duncan as Professor of Hebrew at New College, Edinburgh. Ordained in 1857 for ministry among Germans in Edinburgh, he was sent in 1858 as a missionary to Jews in Galatz, Romania, transferred to Ancona in 1862, and to Amsterdam in 1867 succeeding Dr. Schwarz. In 1871 English Presbyterians asked him to lead their London mission, where he labored until retiring in 1894. He died in New Jersey in 1896.
Chapter 73
How did Rev. M. L. Mollis describe his first encounters with the New Testament?
Born in Russia to Jewish parents amid Talmudical study and orthodoxy, Mollis says he had not read the New Testament or even heard of it, and was forbidden to inquire into Christianity. Hearing a missionary expound Isaiah, he felt indignant at the claim that Jesus was the true Messiah. He argued with the missionary repeatedly; given the New Testament, he disliked its ascription of Deity to Christ and admits he often threw the book away or dropped it on the ground.
Chapter 73
Section 744 cards
What did the convert say melted his heart and absorbed his thoughts?
He describes the view of Jesus Christ upon the Cross as what melted his heart, a reality he says he cannot explain in words but which held him fast and absorbed all his thoughts, until he could almost realize Zechariah's words, "And they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced and mourn." He calls this the most remarkable incident in his conversion.
Chapter 74
How did the convert's family respond to news of his baptism and conversion?
He wrote home after baptism telling them of his conversion and faith in Jesus Christ. No answer came for some time; when it did, the terms were rather mild, expressing hope that he knew best what he had done and had acted after full conviction. He read between the lines that they were grieved, since in their view he had become "a Meshumed."
Chapter 74
How did Lydia Montefiore first react when Cohen revealed he was a Christian?
She angrily asked the introducing lady why she had said they were Israelites, and with quivering lips and flushed cheeks said it was most insulting to call on people and try to convert them from the faith of their fathers. She declared she was born a Jewess, had lived eighty-three years as one, and hoped to die a Jewess.
Chapter 74
What scripture did Cohen show Montefiore when she said the new covenant was not in her Bible?
She interrupted to ask where the new covenant was to be found, saying it was not in her Bible. Cohen replied, "Pardon me, it is in your Bible," and showed her Jeremiah 31:31-33, which she read with evident surprise. Earlier he had read Isaiah 53 and given his opinion that it referred to the Messiah.
Chapter 74
Section 754 cards
How did the narrator answer Miss Montefiore's claim that a believing Jew cannot remain an Israelite?
The narrator told her not to think he ceased to be a Jew by believing in Jesus, since He was a Jew Himself, all His first disciples were Jews, He preached personally only to Jews, and only after the Jews refused to listen were His apostles sent to the Gentiles. She was pleased with this Scriptural truth and invited them to call again.
Chapter 75
What objection did Miss Montefiore raise about sacrifice, and how did the narrator respond?
She said Jews have no priest or temple, the appointed place of sacrifice is inaccessible, and God will surely accept prayers, fastings, Sabbath observance, and law-reading as substitutes. The narrator urged her not to rely on such bruised reeds or sinking sand, calling these vain excuses that may quiet the conscience and lull into false security discovered too late.
Chapter 75
What did Miss Montefiore say she wanted before accepting any teaching?
She said all she wanted to know was the truth and that she would receive nothing unless she saw it plainly revealed in her Bible. She expressed a wish to read the New Testament and asked where to procure one. The narrator promised to supply one from Bibles and Testaments expected from London.
Chapter 75
What did Miss Montefiore request regarding baptism, and how did the narrator counsel her?
In early October 1854 she wished to be baptized, provided it could be done very secretly because of her position, saying she would not even like her servant of four years to know. The narrator cited "the fear of man bringeth a snare" and Jesus' warning that whoever denies Him before men will be denied before the Father, advised reading Matthew 10 and prayer, and deferred further conversation.
Chapter 75
Section 763 cards
What did Lydia Montefiore say in her 1854 letter that surprised her niece?
She declared her belief that Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, was ordained to be crucified to take away all sins, and that believers would be saved. She wrote that she had read the New Testament closely for the first time, though she almost knew the Old Testament by heart, and asked that the letter be kept very secret.
Chapter 76
How did the niece in England contribute to Miss Montefiore's conversion?
The niece had already embraced Christianity and desired her aunt's salvation. Every letter she sent contained an exhortation to search the Scriptures, and she forwarded religious books. The author says the letters' contents were soon forgotten, but he believes the niece's persevering prayers were the first link in the chain of human agency in the conversion.
Chapter 76
What was Johann Christian Moritz's early life and path to missionary service?
Moritz was born at Bernstein in Pomerania in 1786 and received a Talmudic education, but modern literature drew him and he doubted the Talmud's divine origin. He left home at 16, went to London in 1807, read the New Testament, and was baptized by Dr. Steinkopf. He later served the L.J.S. for 42 years, dying in 1868.
Chapter 76
Section 774 cards
What education and medical career did Nathaniel Immanuel Mossa describe?
Mossa was born in 1833 at Friedland, studied at the Werder Gymnasium in Berlin, then medicine at university, graduating in 1858 and passing the State Examination the next year. He served as a volunteer army doctor, learned Hahnemann's method at Dr. Gross's house, settled in Bromberg, served in the 1864, 1866 and 1870 campaigns, was decorated with the Iron Cross, and moved to Stuttgart in 1883.
Chapter 77
How did Mossa's spiritual life begin, according to his own account?
Mossa says the Lord favoured him early: as a schoolboy he learned the Gospel because the Bible was the reading book in his first Christian school. He was attracted by Jesus's works and utterances and deeply touched by His death. He adds that instruction and earnest converse with two fellow-workers of the British Society, Dr. Koppel and Dr. Fürst, helped him.
Chapter 77
What incident does Pastor de le Roi report as the turning point in Mossa's life?
De le Roi reports that a Jewish Rabbi of his town asked Mossa to address Jewish prisoners. He took as his text 'Seek ye the Lord while He is to be found, call ye upon Him while He is near,' and illustrated it with the prodigal son. This was the turning point: he began to seek until he found or was found. He later heard Koppel expound Isaiah liii and was recommended for baptism.
Chapter 77
How did Nachim first encounter the New Testament, and what followed?
Born in Odessa in 1836 and named Reuben, Nachim studied the Talmud from before age eight. On a journey to Palestine in 1854 he met Solomon, a Hebrew Christian colporteur in Constantinople, who offered him a New Testament; he had never heard such a book existed. Solomon induced him to visit Dr. Stern, and after two years of struggle he was baptized on September 16, 1856.
Chapter 77
Section 784 cards
How did Auguste Neander get his new surname and Christian names?
Born David Mendel, he converted in 1806 through the influence of two fellow-students, Chamisso the poet and Neumann. At baptism he took the Christian names Johann Auguste Wilhelm after his two friends, and added the surname Neander, meaning "the new man." He wrote to his baptizing pastor that his reception into the covenant was the greatest thing he had to thank him for.
Chapter 78
What did Neander's funeral in Berlin in 1850 demonstrate about his standing?
His funeral procession through Berlin drew a Royal carriage, government officials, clergymen, professors and students from Berlin and Halle, with immense crowds along the two-mile route. His Bible and Greek Testament were carried before the hearse. The author presents this as a tribute to a Church historian who for thirty-eight years exercised wide influence in theology throughout Europe.
Chapter 78
How did Navorsky, son of Moses bar Hayim, come to be baptized and later join the Lutheran Church?
His father, a tenant farmer in Posen, died; the Polish nobleman demanded false debts from the widow, drove her off the farm, seized her son, and had him forcibly baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. When the Saxons invaded Poland, an officer exchanged a dog for him, treated him kindly, and instructed him in the Gospel. He later joined the Lutheran Church and died in 1750.
Chapter 78
What did Naphthali, an early British Society missionary, report about his work?
Appointed in 1842 and labouring mostly in Manchester, he could report twenty-three converts in 1851; by 1870 fifty Jews were recorded as acknowledging Jesus through his instrumentality, including Aaron Sternberg, who became a missionary of the same Society. The author describes Naphthali as earnest and spiritually-minded; he reached 86 and died in 1886 in the Home for Aged Israelites.
Chapter 78
Section 794 cards
How did Neander's biographer respond to the charge that university life breeds self-indulgence?
The author concedes such an atmosphere may easily degenerate into self-indulgence, but argues that many university dons lead saintly, scholarly lives of long teaching hours and midnight oil, giving the lie to the sweeping assertion. He then offers Neander's own character and labours as abundant demonstration that the charge did not apply to him.
Chapter 79
How did Neander use his income and the proceeds from his writings?
His wants were few, so he gave the bulk of his income to others. Proceeds from the sale of his numerous works went to philanthropic and missionary purposes. He could never keep loose cash in his pocket or turn away from a poor man, and preferred bestowing a new coat from his wardrobe rather than parting with the worn one on his back.
Chapter 79
What did Neander state as the supreme object of his life and labours?
In the preface to the first edition of his magnum opus, the General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Neander states it was to exhibit the history of the Church of Christ as a living witness of the Divine power of Christianity, a school of Christian experience, and a voice through the ages of instruction, doctrine and reproof for all disposed to listen.
Chapter 79
How did Neander oppose Strauss's Life of Christ, according to the chapter?
The author says Neander's teaching was directed of set purpose against the new-fangled doctrines of Schleiermacher and especially Strauss, who sought to eliminate all that is Divine from Christianity. When others would have suppressed Strauss's work by force, Neander discountenanced such carnal weapons and met the heresies by issuing his own Life of Christ.
Chapter 79
Section 804 cards
Why did the narrator originally devote himself to Talmud study?
He studied at Talmudical schools in Posen until age twenty-three, qualifying for the rabbi's office, then returned to his father's house to study the Talmud fully. He says he did so because it was his parents' warmest wish, and he hoped to attain a high position among his nation and be qualified for the community of the Chassidim and thus reach the presence of God.
Chapter 80
What did the narrator conclude about rabbinical writings around age twenty-five?
He describes plunging into rabbinical subtleties and sophistry, becoming entangled in trivialities and finding no light. The work grew disagreeable, and his youthful blind zeal cooled as it became clearer to him that the words of the earlier and later rabbis are not agreeable to God's Holy Word. He concluded that the persuasion their ways lead to truth is vain.
Chapter 80
What conflict did the narrator face as a teacher in Germany?
Around age twenty-five, teaching over twenty pupils and delivering Saturday lectures on Old Testament portions, he felt he had to preach up and defend what his heart revolted against. He says he would not and could not dissemble. Earlier zealous for rabbinical Judaism, he found no peace through works of the law despite his childhood conviction that God abhors sin.
Chapter 80
How did Christian acquaintances and rationalism affect the narrator's beliefs?
He sought out self-identified Christians — theology students and teachers — to discuss science and study the Old Testament. Through them he met the criticisms of de Wette, Eichhorn, Dinter and others, and became a zealous defender of modern Judaism and a rationalist, telling his community the Talmud and Psakim were a tissue of errors. Yet the storm in his heart did not subside; he exchanged chains of superstition for chains of unbelief.
Chapter 80
Section 814 cards
What inner conflict did Isaiah 53 and other Old Testament passages create for the narrator?
The narrator says the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and other Old Testament passages to which his attention was drawn were "too strong for me." Doubt raged in him, and the questions "What if it be really true? What if the Christians are right?" left him no peace. He resolved to seek enlightenment through Holy Writ alone, then began reading the New Testament and comparing it with the Old.
Chapter 81
How did the narrator's family react to news of his conversion?
The community wrote to his father, who sent a letter pleading, "Come to us, and remain a Jew." His mother suffered a severe blow and was laid on a bed of sickness; sisters, brothers, and relatives mourned in secret. The narrator calls it a hard struggle on which life and death depended, yet he felt constrained to obey Christ's words over family ties.
Chapter 81
When and by whom was the narrator publicly baptized?
After being duly instructed in the saving truth of the Gospel, the narrator was publicly baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost on December 9th, 1839, by the Rev. Mr. Müller. He describes this as the point at which he could finally rejoice and, with David, exclaim, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits."
Chapter 81
Who was Dr. R. Neuman of Brody and how did he come to faith?
Dr. R. Neuman was born at Brody in 1788, son of a rabbi, and received a Talmudical education. In 1807 he came to Dessau, wrote a commentary on Amos, Nahum, and Malachi, and directed a free school for poor children at Breslau. Through two Christian professors and especially L.J.S. missionaries McCaul and Becker in 1823, he learned to know Jesus and was baptized with his wife and three sons by Professor Scheibel in the Elizabeth Church.
Chapter 81
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How did Rev. Nahum Nurnberg come to be baptized, and what missionary posts followed?
Nurnberg was raised a strict Jew in Russia, educated in Breslau and Berlin, and came to England in 1851 to report on the Great Exhibition, staying in Hull as a correspondent. There he came under the influence of Rev. John Deck, who eventually baptized him. After finishing at the L.J.S. college he became a missionary, serving first in England, then Roumania, returning home after a year owing to his wife's death.
Chapter 82
What did Rev. Leo Oczeret accomplish at Safed, and how did the Jews there respond?
In 1884 Oczeret was sent to reopen the mission at Safed, where he initially faced the fanaticism long present among the Jews there. Gradually, through patience and love, he won many hearts, so that when he fell ill people came to visit and console him; one old man said he had recited fifty Psalms over a fortnight for his recovery. Oczeret later went to a hospital in Vienna, where he died.
Chapter 82
What was Sir Francis Palgrave's background and chief contribution to English history?
Born in London in 1788, son of Mayer Cohen, a Stock Exchange member, Palgrave was an infant prodigy who at eight translated Homer's 'Battle of the Frogs' into French, published by his father in 1796. He embraced Christianity, was called to the bar in 1827, and in 1832 published 'The Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth,' generally regarded as the earliest important study of English constitutional history founded on records. He was knighted that year and became deputy-keeper of the records.
Chapter 82
How did Rev. C. W. H. Pauli move from rabbinic teaching to Hebrew lecturer at Oxford?
Born in Breslau in 1800 as Zebi Nasi Hirsch Prince, son of a rabbi, Pauli published 'Sermons for Pious Israelites' at 21, stressing Bible over Talmud. Through the L.J.S. missionary C. G. Petri of Detmold he received a New Testament and used it in teaching; the Jews declared him crazy, so he resigned and went to Detmold, then Minden, where he was baptized on December 21st, 1823. He later studied at Cambridge and was called to lecture in Hebrew at Oxford for thirteen years.
Chapter 82
Section 834 cards
What works did Aaron Pick publish on the Hebrew Bible and its accents?
Aaron Pick, born in Prague and later living in England, produced a literal translation from the Hebrew of the twelve Minor Prophets (1833), of Obadiah (1834), and of Amos chapter seven with commentary. In 1837 he issued a treatise on the Hebrew accents, and in 1845 "The Bible Student's Concordance." He also wrote "The Gathering of Israel," on Genesis 49 and the tribes' restoration.
Chapter 83
How did Israel Pick's plan for a Hebrew Christian National Church fare?
Israel Pick, strictly trained in Talmud, wavered between rabbinic orthodoxy and freethought, then felt called to do something great for his brethren. He corresponded with missionaries and proposed a Hebrew Christian National Church, even writing to the Jews of Amsterdam in 1853, but received no encouragement anywhere. He was baptized by Daniel Edward at Breslau in 1854 and later went to Jerusalem in 1859, after which nothing more was heard of him.
Chapter 83
What led Mark Polan from opposition to Christianity to serious inquiry?
Polan came to London aiming at opposition, not enquiry. His attitude gradually changed: the absence of images in English churches impressed him, his first Christian book was "Pilgrim's Progress" in Hebrew, and he eagerly read Dr. Biesenthal's commentaries on Luke, Acts, Romans and Hebrews, leading to careful New Testament study. Rev. Theodore Meyer became his wise and loving instructor and friend.
Chapter 83
How did Abraham Pick's family come to baptism across Europe?
Abraham Pick of Senftenberg was influenced by his brother Israel to examine Christianity, met Rev. Daniel Edward in 1866, and was baptized by Rev. Abraham Herschell at Stuttgart in 1869 with his wife. His daughter Catharine was baptized through Edward at Breslau in 1857; other children were baptized at Kaiserswerth, Kornthal in 1878, Switzerland, and Cologne. He later served as British and Foreign Bible Society agent at Lemberg.
Chapter 83
Section 844 cards
Why did Mark Polan postpone his baptism the night before it was scheduled?
Polan dreamed that his mother stood in Paradise behind the dark veil that, according to rabbinic teaching believed by Jews, hangs before a parent whose child has become an apostate. The dream caused severe mental struggle, and he could not face baptism until nearly a year later, after further prayerful searching of Scripture.
Chapter 84
What word of Scripture brought Polan into the light, and when was he finally baptized?
The word that reached his heart was "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Under its power he emerged into the light and was openly baptized in 1878 by Mr. Meyer in Park Church, Highbury, after his earlier decision had rested mainly on mental conviction.
Chapter 84
How did Polan answer his siblings when they said his name was expunged from the family register?
He wrote to a friend that it caused him great pain, but though his name was no longer in the family tree, it could be found in the Lamb's Book of Life. His father had not entirely cast him off, which mitigated the ostracism and persecution that followed his baptism.
Chapter 84
What thought on the Mount of Olives became the basis of Rabinowitz's future work?
Reviewing his people's sad history in Jerusalem, Rabinowitz concluded: "The key to the Holy Land is in the hands of our brother Jesus." Returning to Kischineff, he drew up thirteen theses holding Jesus to be the only Saviour of Israel and the world, and propagated this by word and pen, gaining many adherents.
Chapter 84
Section 854 cards
What Talmudic tradition prompted Ragstatt to investigate the Messiah?
At Jewish school Ragstatt learned from the Talmud the old tradition that the Messiah was to come after 4,000 years had elapsed since the Creation. This led him to enquire, and he was eventually instructed by Dr. J. Alex. Neuspitzer, pastor of the Reformed Church at Cleves, in 1671. He later studied at Leyden and became a pastor in Holland.
Chapter 85
Why did David Ricardo's father forsake him?
Ricardo was born in London in 1772 of a Portuguese family and embraced Christianity in his youth, as Brockhaus records. Because of this his father forsook him. He then entered the Stock Exchange with little means, amassed a fortune, authored "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation" in 1817, and entered the House of Commons for Portarlington in 1819.
Chapter 85
What belief about burial did Jerusalem Jews hold, according to Rohold?
Rohold reports that Jerusalem Jews believed that when Messiah comes there will be the resurrection, and the bodies of those buried beyond Jerusalem will have to suffer much rolling until they reach the city. To prevent this, they kept their burying place in the ancient city, being zealous for their religion without enquiring whether they were really right in doing so.
Chapter 85
Which scripture convinced Rohold that Jesus is the Messiah?
Rohold says that as the two Christians reasoned with him, one passage he could not get over was "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." He also came to see that the promises told of the Messiah's suffering and death, citing Isaiah liii. and Psalm xxii.
Chapter 85
Section 864 cards
Why did the convert leave Jerusalem for England despite family opposition?
The author describes obeying what seemed the only right thing, though leaving dear relations and friends was hard. He carried the Lord's promises, such as Matthew xxviii. 20 and John xvi. 23, trusted God alone, and came to England a stranger without the language or an earthly friend. Letters from Jerusalem, including his father's plea, urged him to return, but he felt the Redeemer had called him.
Chapter 86
How did Nathaniel Romann move from rabbinic education to Christian mission work?
Romann was born at Kobylin, Posen, in 1819 and educated in rabbinic schools at Lissa and Breslau, also attending university lectures there. From the reformed rabbi Dr. Geiger he learned to reject the Talmud, and from missionaries Teichler, Caro, and Cerf he learned to accept the Gospel. He taught at a Christian school in Zieginhals, was accepted by the L.J.S. in 1851, prepared in their college, and laboured in Breslau and Berlin until his death there in 1871.
Chapter 86
What incident with a sick woman turned Ronkel toward baptism?
A Christian pastor visited a poor sick woman who refused his services. Ronkel succeeded in gaining her attention with stories of good women of the Old Testament. She asked him to read the Bible, but he had none and she had torn hers up; she then asked him to pray, though he had never prayed extempore. He repeated the Lord's Prayer in Dutch, learned in Greek, with such fervour that she wept. He was baptized on Christmas Day, 1856, with Da Costa as a witness.
Chapter 86
What convinced Rosenberg to leave hunting and be baptized?
Rosenberg, born April 5th, 1828, was raised with secular and religious education but was ignorant of and prejudiced against Christianity. Around 1841 in Constantinople a friend persuaded him to hear Rev. Dr. Schwartz preach, awakening his desire to know more. Later, while hunting on Mount Olympus for a naturalist's collection, the scenery and the power of God's Word created a voice within him ordering him to leave all things; he returned to Constantinople and was baptized by Mr. Allen.
Chapter 86
Section 874 cards
How long did Max Rosenstrauch receive Christian instruction after reading a New Testament?
Max Rosenstrauch received a New Testament from Rev. W. Mayer, an L.J.S. missionary, and read it eagerly. This led him to take Christian instruction for eighteen months. He was later baptized on Easter Day, 1868, after a period of unbelief, and eventually joined the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, remaining there until his death on November 3, 1900.
Chapter 87
What argument about false Messiahs influenced Michael Rosenthal toward Christianity?
A supposed Jesuit argued that Jews had acknowledged twenty-four Messiahs over nineteen hundred years, all false—impostors or self-deluded fanatics. He asked whether a nation making that gigantic mistake could claim infallibility in rejecting a twenty-fifth. All these false Messiahs appeared after Christ except Judas of Galilee, a contemporary of Jesus. The author presents this argument as influential in Rosenthal's conversion.
Chapter 87
What did Rosenthal say about the number of Jews he personally baptized?
Rosenthal said he had himself baptized over six hundred Jews and Jewesses. He served as Vicar of St. Mark's, Whitechapel, a parish almost entirely inhabited by Jews, and for thirty years carried on missionary work among East London Jews. He met hostility in his first years, but the opposition gradually died down. He was baptized by Ewald and ordained deacon by Bishop Jackson in 1877.
Chapter 87
How did the engine breakdown on the steamer affect Max Rosenstrauch?
When the engine broke down and danger threatened, the captain called on all passengers to pray. Rosenstrauch felt he could not pray in the name of Jesus Christ and could only say, "Lord, teach us to pray." The captain then gave an address on John iii. 14, 15, which Rosenstrauch did not fully understand but which made a lasting impression on him.
Chapter 87
Section 883 cards
Who were the firstfruits of the L.J.S. mission in Jerusalem?
Rosenthal, Wildan Charles (Simeon), a learned Jew in Jerusalem, was baptized with his wife, son and daughter by Nicolayson in 1839. This family were the firstfruits of the L.J.S. mission in the Holy City. His daughter became the wife of Mr. Bergheim, the banker, a Jewish convert.
Chapter 88
Why was Maurice Ruben confined to an insane asylum?
After his conversion, Jews were disturbed and tried to make him forsake his 'change of life.' He was arrested without a warrant, examined by insanity experts, and taken to an asylum, where the superintendent pronounced him sane but could not release him. He endured five weeks' confinement until Mr. Corey instituted habeas corpus proceedings before Judge White.
Chapter 88
What led Marcus Sachs to accept Christianity?
Sachs lost his faith in Judaism and became a follower of Voltaire. In 1842 he went to Edinburgh, where Dr. John Brown gave him Guenée's 'Lettres de quelques Juifs... à M. Voltaire' and Limbroch's 'Amica Collatio cum erudito Judæo.' These removed his prejudices; he read the New Testament and was baptized by Dr. Brown on April 5th, 1843.
Chapter 88
Section 894 cards
What did Salkinson translate into Hebrew, and under what titles?
Salkinson translated works including "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation" as "Sod ha-Jeshu'ah" (Altona, 1858), Milton's "Paradise Lost" as "Wa Yegaresh et haadam" (Vienna, 1871), Shakespeare's "Othello" and "Romeo and Juliet" (1874), Tiedge's "Urania" as "Ben Koheleth" (1876), and the New Testament as "Haberith Hahadasha," published posthumously in 1886 under Dr. C. D. Ginsburg's supervision.
Chapter 89
How was Lewis Paul Samson converted, and what was his reputation?
At forty, Samson heard his children recite Isaiah liii., which became the turning point; he was eventually baptized by a Hebrew Christian missionary. His profession of faith made him abhorrent to his siblings, though some later respected him and are believed to have become Christians. He was a man of one book, the Bible, known almost by heart, and was called "an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile."
Chapter 89
What did Samany endure after converting, and how did he die?
Samany, a native of Assesso in Abyssinia and one of Flad's early converts, suffered bitter reproaches from his mother and relations. He told his mother he loved her more than before and would care for her, and spoke to his two sisters of the "pearl of great price," and they too became Christians. He later preached to the Falashas even from his sick bed, and died saying, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."
Chapter 89
What was the turning point in Samson's life, and how did his family react?
When Samson was forty, his children asked him to hear them repeat Scripture learned at school; it happened to be Isaiah liii., which proved the turning point. Like many Jews, he at first could not believe it was part of the Old Testament, but it led eventually to his baptism by a Hebrew Christian who was one of the Society's missionaries. His public profession made him abhorrent to his brothers and sisters.
Chapter 89
Section 903 cards
How did Philipp Saphir come to faith and what did he do before dying in 1849?
Philipp, an elder brother of Adolph, became serious after an inundation in Pesth where he tried to save life. Impressed by Dr. Schwartz's addresses in 1842, he was baptized in 1843 by Superintendent Paul Török in the Calvinistic Church of Pesth. Aged nineteen, he trained as a teacher at Carlsruhe, returned in 1845, organized a Y.M.C.A., and taught poor children gratis from his sick bed until his death on September 27, 1849.
Chapter 90
What was Michael Sargon's role as the first L.J.S. missionary to India?
Michael Sargon was born of Jewish parents at Cochin in 1795 and converted in 1818 through J. Jarrett of Madras, becoming the first L.J.S. missionary to the Jews in India. In 1820 he visited his parents at Cochin, who received him kindly. A local committee formed in Madras with Sargon as representative, making Madras the Society's centre in India. In 1822 he had 116 Jewish children at Cochin; in 1824 he was transferred to Bombay and opened a Jews-only school.
Chapter 90
How did Schapiro first learn English at the New York mission, and what happened after he left?
In 1890 Benjamin Aaron Moses Alexander Schapiro, a nineteen-year-old Polish-born Hebrew, joined the English class at the Hebrew Christian Mission, 17 St. Mark's Place, New York. Teacher and pupil shared no language, so they communicated by pantomime and an interpreter; by forenoon's end he knew furniture names, days, numerals and could write his name. He soon left to earn his living, worked for butcher Benjamin Clayton at Jamaica, L.I., and a Christian customer arranged tutors for him.
Chapter 90
Section 914 cards
How did Schapiro answer the charge of proving Christianity from the Talmud?
A Jew accused him of cunningly using the Talmud, which he professed to disbelieve, because he could not prove his claims from the Old Testament. The missionary replied instantly with Psalm 33:6, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens established," silencing his assailant, who afterward crossed the street to avoid him.
Chapter 91
How did Schapiro reply to the claim that deserting one's fathers' religion is wrong?
He argued that Abraham himself departed from his fathers' faith, and that this apostasy was imputed to him for righteousness. He then cited Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Jesus as witnesses that the fathers were rebellious and hard-hearted, and noted that Jesus, Paul, Luther and converted Jews like Neander and Edersheim also broke with ancestral faith.
Chapter 91
What practical aid did Schapiro give during the tailors' strike in Brownsville?
A protracted strike among tailors, cloak-makers and clothing operators reduced the settlement to dire poverty, with hundreds near starvation. Schapiro opened a soup-kitchen in his own rooms at his own expense, serving the tables himself for over two weeks and feeding scores. To avoid offending prejudices, the meat was Kosher, from a Jewish butcher and prepared by a Jewish cook.
Chapter 91
How did Samuel, leader of the boys who stoned the missionaries, end up?
Jewish boys stoned the missionary and those distributing notices and tracts, while older people sneered and cursed. Samuel led and instigated these attacks, then entered the mission intending to disrupt the services. Instead he was convinced and converted, and for two years was a consistent church member—the chapter's example of one who came to mock and remained to pray.
Chapter 91
Section 924 cards
Why did Schapiro give up mission work after seven years?
His health broke down from the combined labour of carrying on the service and collecting funds for the maintenance of the mission. After seven years of mission work, this double burden proved too much, and he gave up the work.
Chapter 92
How did Schapiro's family treat him after his conversion?
Having become an "apostate," he was worse than dead to them. For eleven years he had no home and no intercourse with his own family, and all his overtures for reconciliation were scornfully rejected. Reconciliation came only later, after a fellow-townsman told him of a cousin in New York.
Chapter 92
What was the purpose of Schapiro's magazine, "The People, the Land and the Book"?
He published its first number in June, 1900. He held a theory that much of the variance between Jews and Christians rested on mutual ignorance and misapprehension of their different religious beliefs. He designed the paper to reach both parties in a spirit of love.
Chapter 92
How did Schereschewsky come to Christianity and what translation work did he do?
Born in Russian Lithuania in 1831 and raised in Jewish religion and learning, he was convinced of Christianity by reading a Hebrew translation of the New Testament, likely the Society's version. He later produced a colloquial Psalms, much of the first Mandarin Prayer Book, and a Mandarin Old Testament finished in eight years, which with the Mandarin New Testament forms the ordinary Chinese Bible.
Chapter 92
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Why did Schereschewsky initially decline the Bishopric of Shanghai?
He was elected Bishop of Shanghai in 1875 after Bishop Williams was assigned to Japan alone, but with great modesty and self-distrust he declined the office. Chosen again in 1877, he was persuaded it was his duty to accept, and returned as Bishop to Shanghai in autumn 1878.
Chapter 93
Section 944 cards
How did Karl Schwartz first become interested in examining Christianity?
Schwartz was sent to Berlin in 1832 to study at the rabbinic Seminary, where professors occasionally compared Judaism with Christianity to the disadvantage of the latter. This excited in him a desire to examine Christianity for himself, so he exchanged the Seminary for the Gymnasium. He was instructed in Christianity and baptized on October 18, 1837, then studied theology at Halle under Tholuck and at Berlin under Neander, Hengstenberg, and Twesten.
Chapter 94
What happened to Schwartz while preaching in Amsterdam in 1858?
On Sunday, August 1, 1858, Schwartz ascended the pulpit to preach to a congregation of 1,200 on St. John xii. 26. While bowing down to pray, a young Jew crept up the steps and stabbed him with a dagger in the left shoulder, leaving him saturated with blood and carried home fainting. After recovery Schwartz visited the imprisoned assassin but did not succeed in bringing him to a better mind.
Chapter 94
How did Rabbi Abraham Schwarzenberg come to be baptized, and what did he say about dress?
Schwarzenberg, rabbi at Lublin, was given a New Testament left by missionaries, read it, persuaded others to read it, and faced persecution. A Roman Catholic priest told him to lay aside the New Testament first, and an Evangelical minister received him coldly, so he dipped himself three times in a river in the name of the Holy Trinity. Dr. McCaul instructed and baptized him at Warsaw in 1828, in his 65th year. He said a converted Jew must have a changed heart, but not a change of dress.
Chapter 94
What did Segall and Suffrin do after obtaining missionary literature in 1874?
Segall, a native of Piatra in Moldavia, and a number of young friends came into possession of missionary literature left by a colporteur from Bucharest in 1874, and studied it secretly in rotation. They wrote to Rev. F. G. Kleinhenn asking for admission to an institution to learn more of the Gospel; he replied he had no such home and could not encourage them except on their own means and responsibility. Segall and Suffrin then appeared at his house and he had to take them in.
Chapter 94
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What society did Erasmus Simon form in 1829, and what institution did it start?
In 1829 Simon formed the "Friends of the Hebrew Nation" under the patronage of the Bishop of London. The society rented three houses in Camden Town for Jewish enquirers and started the "Operative Jewish Converts' Institution." Among its inmates were Ridley Herschell, future founder of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, and Wertheimer, later a well-known bookseller.
Chapter 95
How did Dr. Joseph Friedrich Sobernheim come to convert, according to the chapter?
A student had pawned a New Testament with a Jew for a paltry sum. When the student returned to redeem it, the pawnbroker had read it in the meantime and become a Christian, and gave the student a hundred Louis d'or in gratitude. This convert was instrumental in the conversion of nine other Jews, including Dr. Sobernheim and his father. Sobernheim was esteemed as an author of medical works and died in 1846.
Chapter 95
What was Friedrich Julius Stahl's view of Christianity's role, and what did Lord Acton say of him?
Stahl held that Christianity should pervade the whole life and also the State. According to Lord Acton, Stahl had a more predominant influence and showed more political ability than Lord Beaconsfield. Born in Munich in 1802, Stahl became a Christian in his eighteenth year and was baptized at Erlangen in 1819; he became professor of law at Berlin in 1840, where his lectures drew audiences of all classes.
Chapter 95
How was Henry A. Stern first drawn to Christianity, and where was he baptized?
Born in 1820 at Unterreichenbach, Stern moved with his family to Frankfort's Judengasse. While in Hamburg around age seventeen, he noticed Christian literature in a glass case near the house of L.J.S. missionary J. C. Moritz. In London in 1839 a fellow-lodger induced him to attend Dr. Alexander McCaul's Sunday Hebrew service in Palestine Place. He became an enquirer, entered the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, and was baptized on March 15, 1840.
Chapter 95
Section 964 cards
What did the Bagdad rabbis do in response to Jewish interest in Christianity?
The rabbis issued a cherem (excommunication) against all who had intercourse with the missionaries, which had the desired effect: for six or seven months no Jew was seen in the mission house. Later some came by stealth, and the authorities threatened to repeat the anathema. A second cherem followed the 1846 cholera outbreak, which Jews blamed on brethren embracing Christian doctrines.
Chapter 96
How did Stern and Sternchuss use the suspension of Bagdad work in 1845?
They made a missionary journey into the interior of Persia, holding much interesting intercourse with the Jews of Kermanshah and Hamadan. On November 21 of the same year they embarked on the Tigris for a second Persian journey, visiting Bussorah, Bushire, Shiraz and other places where Jews resided, proclaiming Christ in synagogues, Jewish schools and their lodgings.
Chapter 96
What did Stern do during his 1856 visit to the Karaites in the Crimea?
At Baktchi-Serai he was surrounded by Jews anxious to buy Gospels and was the guest of the chief rabbi, who showed him the Karaite cemetery called 'The Valley of Jehoshaphat,' with its 40,000 sculptured tombs. At Simpheropol he preached in the synagogue and sold New Testaments and Pentateuchs, and he also addressed British troops in the Crimea.
Chapter 96
How did Stern travel during his 1856 journey to Arabia?
The chapter calls it a romantic and perilous journey in the wake of Joseph Wolff, who had done the same pioneer work forty years before. Stern took precautions for his safety, adopting native dress and passing as the 'Dervish Abdallah.' At Safon and other places crowds flocked to hear him preach in synagogues; at Sanaa he spent twelve days preaching, calling the last day the happiest of his missionary career.
Chapter 96
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Why was Stern sent from Constantinople to Abyssinia in 1859?
Stern was despatched from Constantinople to found an English mission, if possible, among the Falashas—some thousands of Jews dwelling in the highlands of the interior. J. M. Flad, already in the country as a St. Chrischona "Pilgrim Missionary," joined him, and the two worked hand-in-hand. Stern later reported visiting upwards of thirty Falasha settlements and seeing priests and readers from more than fifty-five other places.
Chapter 97
What did Stern report about Falasha desire for Scripture during his first visit?
Stern said the desire to obtain the Word of God exceeded all description: young and old, the man on the verge of the grave and the youth entering life, followed the missionaries for days, heedless of the road's pain and difficulties, until they yielded and supplied communities with copies of the sacred volume from their scanty stock. He also described the excitement created by their preaching through the provinces they visited.
Chapter 97
What circumstances led to the imprisonment of Stern and other missionaries?
King Theodore's letter to Queen Victoria went unanswered, and a verbal message to Napoleon III gave offence. Theodore resolved to revenge himself on Europeans. Some expressions in Stern's book about Theodore's humble origin also gave offence. When Stern visited to ask permission to return home, his servants' offensive interpreting led to their being beaten to death; Stern's finger-biting gesture, signifying revenge in Abyssinia, contributed to his being struck down and imprisoned.
Chapter 97
How were the missionaries released, and what became of the Abyssinian mission afterward?
An English expeditionary force under Sir Robert Napier arrived; Theodore released the prisoners but was decisively beaten on Good Friday, and Magdala was stormed on Easter Monday, Theodore dying by his own hand. The missionaries returned to England in June 1868. Though no European missionary has been allowed in Abyssinia since 1869, the London Society's mission was never suspended, and 2,000 Falashas have been baptized.
Chapter 97
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Why did wealthy Jews in Höchburg resent Stern's public school?
Stern says the rich had previously hired private tutors for their own children and did not want poorer children to share that instruction. When authorities forced the rich to send their children to the public school and barred the tutors, their hatred of the school transferred to Stern, who was persecuted in various ways.
Chapter 99
Why did Stern reject Dr. Behr's new Mosaic religion textbook?
Stern says its 160 octavo pages were almost entirely ceremonial law—phylacteries, fringes, circumcision, meats, the prohibition of shaving, the creed—with nothing on morality, conscience, virtue, or holiness. He notes it omitted God's power, wisdom, goodness, mercy and holiness, and even the Decalogue found no place. He called it a dead skeleton and asked to follow his own course instead.
Chapter 99
What did Stern publish after receiving permission to follow his own instruction?
His 'Confirmation of Israelites' appeared in 1829, followed in 1835 by the second volume, 'Tree of Life.' He says both were gladly received, partly because he confirmed his positions with literally translated Talmud quotations, and that they remained standards in many schools of various countries. He claims his confession of faith drew on the New Testament in text and notes without rabbinic objection.
Chapter 99
What did King Ludovic I do for Jews in 1836, according to Stern?
Stern describes the king's earlier favours—national schools for Jews, regularly educated rabbis, free admission to Christian scholastic institutions, benefits for Jewish mechanics—as again shown in 1836 by convoking Jewish committees. These met in provincial capitals under a royal commissary, composed of rabbis, teachers, and community delegates, to address theological, scholastic, and social questions and advise the Government.
Chapter 99
Section 1004 cards
What did the rabbis at Würzburg declare about the Trinity and the Old Testament?
The rabbis consulted in private sessions and then declared in public session that the doctrine of the Trinity is not contained in the Old Testament, and that for this reason the Jews did not acknowledge this doctrine. When the president asked all who agreed to rise, 116 individuals—rabbis, teachers, and delegates—stood, while Bernstein alone remained seated and submitted a written notice requesting explanations first.
Chapter 100
How did the government respond to the complaint against Bernstein's circular?
The government declined to entertain the complaint that his circular shook the basis of his religion. It reasoned that by issuing the circular Bernstein had followed the very course the rabbis themselves prescribed for a Jew with religious doubts: since no supreme religious tribunal existed, the enquirer should address a circular letter to all Jewish theologians. The author presents this as a weighty reason against appealing to the Ministerium.
Chapter 100
On what grounds was Bernstein removed to Main-Stockheim?
He was accused of transgressing his religion by teaching that in case of necessity Jews were permitted to break the Sabbath laws to relieve a fellow-man. He was cited, heard, and confessed the charge was true. The royal Ministerium then resolved on his penal removal to the school at Main-Stockheim. The author argues this penalty could not have been inflicted had the rabbis not represented that Jews may not violate Sabbatical laws to relieve a fellow-man.
Chapter 100
What six sins was Bernstein accused of by his community?
He was accused of: permitting and commanding female scholars to attend synagogue on Saturdays for religious instruction; cutting his beard in Omer; appearing with gloves when called to the Torah; keeping a Christian servant; not leading synagogue service on his parents' death anniversaries; and refusing his wife the dipping bath while giving her his arm. The chief rabbi judged him worthy of death under Levit. xx. 18 and dischargeable.
Chapter 100
Section 1014 cards
Why did the discharged teacher leave his native country for Frankfort?
He was discharged, lost salary still due, and was judged to have forfeited both his claim on the States Institution for the Relief of Orphans and Widows of German School Teachers and his right to 133 florins already paid in. With satisfactory testimonials from his superiors, he moved with his wife and children to the free town of Frankfort, where he enjoyed perfect peace as a private tutor.
Chapter 101
What did Joseph Paul Stern request when Bernstein administered Holy Communion in 1872?
During his sickness in 1872, when the Rev. A. Bernstein visited and administered Holy Communion, Stern asked to be dressed in his best clothes because he expected to go to the marriage of the Lamb. He lingered a while longer and died in 1873, uttering with his last breath, "Christ is all."
Chapter 101
What distinguished Tartakover's 1842 ordination in Jerusalem?
On October 30th, 1842, Tartakover was ordained in Jerusalem by Bishop Alexander. The chapter states that such an event as the ordination of a Jewish convert had not been witnessed in the Holy City since Apostolic times, and notes that little information about him is available, though it reflects on a long period when Palestine had no Hebrew Christian minister.
Chapter 101
What did Turckheim declare about his identity at the 1893 L.J.S. meeting?
Turckheim said that though a Jew by birth, training, and national sympathy, he was also a Christian by God's grace and the power of His Word. He insisted Christians by grace remain Jews by nature, race, and sympathy, testifying that God has not cast away His people. After twenty years he affirmed with the Ethiopian eunuch, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Chapter 101
Section 1024 cards
What did Vambrey publish about his travels through Central Asia and Persia?
Vambrey published numerous works based on his journeys, including 'Travels in Central Asia' (1865), 'Sketches from Central Asia' (1868), 'Wanderings and Experience in Persia' (1867), 'The Russian Power in Asia' (1871), 'Central Asia' and 'Anglo-Russian Relations' (1873), and 'History of Bokhara' (1872). He also wrote a German-Turkish Dictionary and an etymological dictionary of Torkatartaric languages.
Chapter 102
How did Mrs. Murray Vicars come to embrace Christianity?
She was influenced by a Christian nurse, and her father's death deepened her thoughts: Jewish visitors feared telling him he was near death, prompting her to question why Jews shrink from mentioning death to the sick. Later, asked to swear on an Old Testament in court, she declared 'The New Testament is for me,' and was baptized. She married Rev. Murray Vicars and worked among Jews in Bagdad.
Chapter 102
What does the chapter say about Joseph Wolff's missionary journeys?
The chapter calls Wolff the pioneer missionary to Jews in the Orient and compares him to Livingstone. Within sixteen years he visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey, Persia, India, Bokhara, Abyssinia and Arabia, some more than once. The author argues his efforts in the third and fourth decades of the century laid the foundation for much later Jewish mission work.
Chapter 102
How did Joseph Wolff's early life lead to his baptism?
Born in 1795 or 1796 at Weilersbach to a rabbi of the tribe of Levi, Wolff received a strict Jewish education and recited the Hebrew prayer-book daily by age six. He attended Christian and Catholic schools, resolved at Bamberg to become a Christian missionary like Francis Xavier, then wandered restlessly through many cities before being baptized at Prague in 1812, aged seventeen.
Chapter 102
Section 1034 cards
Why was Wolff expelled from the Propaganda in 1818?
Wolff entered the Collegio Romano and then the Propaganda, but was expelled in 1818 because of his Protestant leanings and his neglect of scholastic divinity in favour of the Bible. He then returned to Vienna, lamenting that his missionary aspirations had been frustrated.
Chapter 103
What did Wolff do during his 1832 visit to Bokhara?
Wolff dressed as a Turkoman and obtained an audience with the king, though Jews denounced him as a Russian spy. He overcame opposition, won permission to evangelize Jews but not to hold religious converse with Moslems, lodged with a Jew, and baptized as many as twenty during three fruitful months, especially among the learned class.
Chapter 103
What did Wolff find at Mosul regarding a Hebrew New Testament?
At Mosul Wolff was shown a Hebrew translation of the New Testament made by a rabbi a hundred years previously. It had been left as a precious heirloom to the rabbinical college but remained neglected until Wolff pointed out its priceless value.
Chapter 103
How did Wolff's 1844 second visit to Bokhara differ from the first?
The second visit was more hazardous and aimed at learning the fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, two Englishmen later found to have been murdered. Wolff's arrival was witnessed by 20,000 people shouting welcome, and his gown, hood, and shovel-hat costume astonished onlookers. He also obtained the king's permission for Jews to repair their ancient synagogue.
Chapter 103
Section 1044 cards
Where did Wolff travel in 1835 and 1836, and what did he do at Sanaa?
In 1835 Wolff was in Abyssinia, and in 1836 he visited Arabia and the Yemen. At Sanaa he expounded Isaiah liii. to the Jews and subsequently baptized four with their families. The chapter notes that the Jews there were polygamists but apparently dissatisfied with the state of things thus entailed.
Chapter 104
How did Wolff's friend Henry Drummond describe his fitness for parish ministry?
Drummond told Wolff, "Your call is to be an evangelist for all the nations of the earth, and for this you are fit; but, to use your own simile, you are as fit for a parish priest as I am for a dancing-master." The chapter presents this as evidence that Wolff, though a pioneer, was ill-suited to settled parish work.
Chapter 104
What did the quoted observer say about Wolff as a pioneer versus an organizer?
The observer called Wolff a "comet without any perihelion" and said, "As a pioneer I deem him matchless, aut inveniet viam, aut faciet; but, if order is to be established or arrangements made, trouble not Wolff." He added that Wolff knew no church but his heart, no calling but zeal, no dispensation but preaching.
Chapter 104
How did Wolff's parish career in England end, and where did he settle afterward?
Wolff was vicar of Linthwaite, then had sole charge of High Hoyland, about 120 souls, which he resigned after five years because he could not meet his expenses, then undertook his second journey to Bokhara. On returning he was appointed to Isle-Brewers in Somersetshire, population 300, where he remained for the rest of his life, building a parsonage, schools, and a new church.
Chapter 104
Section 1054 cards
Why was young Mordecai Wolkenberg smuggled from Russian Poland into Galicia?
To avoid being Christianized and trained for military service, a practice common under Emperor Nicholas I, when Jewish lads were seized for those ends. His parents placed him with pious orthodox relatives at Brody, where Rabbi Salomon Kluger took interest in him and he acquired a good Hebrew and Talmudical education.
Chapter 105
What did the London merchants certify about Jonah ben Jacob Xeres in May 1709?
Seven merchants trading into Barbary certified they had personally known Xeres, born in Saphia, who lived as a professed Jew until about age twenty-five, was educated in Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean, and behaved soberly and justly. They attested he came to England about eighteen months earlier, troubled by a notion that the Messiah had already come, and they recommended him to Dr. Allix.
Chapter 105
How did Zabanski first encounter a Hebrew New Testament, and what followed?
His bigoted Talmudist father sent him on an errand to a Christian nobleman who gave him a Hebrew New Testament. Told to return it, Zabanski grew curious, procured his own copy, and was punished repeatedly; at last his father had police give him twenty-five strokes, leaving him ill in hospital nine weeks. He later fled, taught, and became a Christian.
Chapter 105
What did Oscar Ludwig Bernard Wolff accomplish, and where did he work?
Born in Altona in 1799, after embracing Christianity at an uncertain date he held professorships of modern languages and literature successively at Weimar and Jena, where he died in 1851. His literary works appeared at Jena in 1841-43 in fourteen volumes; best known are 'Poetischer Hausschatz des Deutschen Volkes' (Leipzig, 1839), 'Hausschatz Deutscher Prosa' (1855) and 'Geschichte des Deutschen Romans' (Jena, 1843).
Chapter 105
Section 1064 cards
How did Leopold Zeckhausen first come into contact with the London Jews' Society missionary at Amsterdam?
Zeckhausen found the Society's address through an Encyclopædia and obtained a letter of introduction from its Secretary to Rev. A. C. Adler, the Society's missionary at Amsterdam. He told Adler his difficulty was not the history of Christ but the spiritual element of the New Testament, and Adler suggested they read St. John's Gospel together for about seven weeks.
Chapter 106
What did Zeckhausen ask of Adler when he had to leave Holland suddenly?
He telegraphed that he must return to Germany, traveled to Zandvoort where Adler was on holiday, and asked as a special favor to be baptized the very next day. Adler was on principle opposed to haste, especially regarding baptism, but judged the case exceptional and consented; Zeckhausen was baptized Sunday, August 12th, 1888.
Chapter 106
Why did Zeckhausen stop visiting Adler before eventually returning?
Faced with the question of what he now thought of Christ, pride of reason and lingering prejudice asserted themselves; he suddenly ceased visiting Adler and intended to get Christianity out of his head entirely. He said his peace of mind was gone, and he later returned, whereupon Adler joyfully said he had been praying for that.
Chapter 106
What did Zeckhausen do after his baptism, and how did he come to missionary training?
The day after baptism he left Holland for Koenigsberg, where he spent three more years in commerce while corresponding regularly with Adler. Adler repeatedly reminded him of his Christian duty toward Jewish brethren and invited him to offer himself for missionary training. Despite doubting his qualifications, he applied to the London Jews' Society's Missionary College, was admitted December 1891, and stayed three and a half years until July 1895.
Chapter 106
Section 1074 cards
What positions did the author hold in Jerusalem and when was he ordained?
He was transferred to Jerusalem in 1899, ordained deacon at Christmas 1900 and priest on Trinity Sunday 1902 by Dr. Blyth, Bishop of the Church of England in Jerusalem and the East. He also married Miss Sara Jane Ellison, daughter of the late Dean Ellison of Shillelagh, County Wicklow, Ireland, in April 1901.
Chapter 107
How did the author's elder brother react to his decision to become a missionary?
The brother wrote expressing admiration, saying he had watched the author climb the ladder of commercial success and then deliberately throw it over to become a missionary. He called it the right and proper thing, said they differed in religious opinions but not on principle, and praised enthusiasm for ideal goods in a sordid age of materialism.
Chapter 107
What became of the author's elder brother after his letter?
The author states gratefully that his brother was by then himself a worker in the Lord's vineyard, labouring with marked success as a medical missionary among the Jews of New York, faithfully assisted by his wife, who was also a convert from Judaism.
Chapter 107
Who was G. J. Zuckertort and how was his family affected by his conversion?
G. J. Zuckertort, father of the famous chessplayer, was won for Christ through the preaching of the L.J.S. missionary Wendt and baptized by him in 1831. In 1836 he was appointed assistant missionary at Lublin, where he preached to his own relations; one, a thriving medical doctor of the same name, confessed Christ and was baptized with his four children in 1845, and his wife later in 1849.
Chapter 107
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #37734 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-27. Cards reviewed 2026-10-27.
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