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SOME
JEWISH WITNESSES
FOR
CHRIST.
BY
Rev. A. BERNSTEIN, B.D.
_Price One Shilling and Sixpence._
PRINTED AT THE
OPERATIVE JEWISH CONVERTS' INSTITUTION,
PALESTINE HOUSE, BODNEY ROAD, LONDON, N.E.
1909.
PREFACE.
This book has grown very considerably in the making, and what was
expected to form a comparatively small pamphlet has become quite a
substantial volume. It is probable that if still more time could have
been spent upon it, its size would have been greatly increased, for the
fact of the matter is that there have been and are many more Jewish
witnesses for Christ than can readily be enumerated. But the author has
all along been very desirous that his work should appear in the
Centenary Year of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst
the Jews, the same year which has seen the production of the History of
that Society written by its gifted and deeply lamented Secretary, the
late Rev. W. T. Gidney. The two books are companion works of reference,
and in relation to Jewish missions they are both of inestimable value.
In some degree the one supplements the other, because the biographies
indicate many of the results of the various missionary enterprises
recorded in the History.
That Hebrew Christians should publish the arguments which have convinced
them that Jesus is the Messiah, not merely for their own vindication,
but rather to lead others to the same conviction, is not at all
surprising. It is, however, peculiarly noteworthy that their literary
efforts have not been limited to those of an apologetic nature, but
that, on the contrary, they have made valuable contributions to almost
all the departments of human knowledge. The learned author has rendered
this one of the most pleasing features of his work, and it has evidently
afforded him no little gratification to exhibit clearly the vast
erudition of his numerous brethren.
The Rev. F. L. Denman, the other Secretary of the Society, has read the
proofs, and has done all in his power to secure accuracy, yet as many
authorities have been consulted, and all are not of equal reliability,
it is probable that some errors have been overlooked, and those to which
readers kindly draw attention will be corrected in any future edition.
H. O. ALLBROOK,
_Principal of the Operative Jewish
Converts' Institution._
JEWISH WITNESSES FOR CHRIST.
INTRODUCTION.
THE history of the Mission to the Jews is coeval with the history of the
Christian Church. The names of Christ's disciples mentioned in the
Gospels are nearly all those of Jews, and in the Epistles a great many
of them are of Jewish converts. But the general reader of the New
Testament does not realize the fact, because it was the fashion among
the Jews at that time to assume Greek names. For instance, several of
St. Paul's relatives bearing Greek names became Christians, but we
should not know that they were Jews if the Apostle had not written,
"Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen." Again, "Lucius, and Jason, and
Sosipater, my kinsmen" (Rom. xvi. 7 and 21). Whilst where we have not
this information with regard to other such names, we take it for granted
that they were Gentiles. For instance, Zenas, mentioned in Titus iii.
13, is naturally taken by the general reader for a Greek, yet scholars
maintain that he had formerly been a Jewish scribe or lawyer.
The aim of this work is to shew that God had at all times in the history
of the Christian Church a considerable number of believing Israelites
who, after their conversion to Christianity, rendered good service to
their fellowmen and to the Church of Christ at large. Out of this
company of "the remnant according to the election of grace," only a very
few comparatively have their names recorded in history. The names of the
great majority are written in the Book of Life alone. But as in the
prophet Ezekiel--Noah, Job and Daniel--and as in the Epistle to the
Hebrews--the short list of the Old Testament saints--are the
representatives of a large number, so may the converts mentioned in this
book be considered as representatives of a vast number of their brethren
who had the courage and the grace given them to take up the cross and
follow Jesus.
Yet, of course, to give a mere nomenclature, or catalogue, of persons
would not signify much unless it were followed by a description of the
life and work of the persons concerned. The material thereto is
abundant--there is a vast literature upon the subject--as will be
presently seen, with the exception of that which refers to Jewish
converts of the Eastern Church. The sublime maxim, "One soweth and
another reapeth," is peculiarly applicable to a biographical writer. He
cannot and must not be original, but has to state the facts in the life
of the person whom he attempts to delineate, just as he finds them
recorded in books, or letters, or as he knows them from personal
observation. But it is obvious that the latter can only be the case when
the subject of a biographer's writing is a contemporary and known to
himself.
The following are the sources from which the writer has immediately
drawn his information:--
(1.) "The Jewish Encyclopædia." Every contributor to this remarkable
work of 12 volumes is well-known in the literary and religious world as
a reliable authority upon the subject of his article.
(2.) "Juden Mission, a history of Protestant Missions among the Jews
since the Reformation," by Pastor de le Roi, well-known and esteemed in
the churches on the Continent and beyond its borders.
(3.) "Christen und Juden," by the late Rev. A. Fürst, D.D., formerly a
Missionary and Pastor at Amsterdam, and well acquainted with Spanish
literature.
(4.) "Jewish Witnesses that Jesus is the Christ," by the Rev. Ridley
Herschell (father of Lord Chancellor Herschell), who gives his
autobiography and the lives of several personal friends.
(5.) "The People, the Land and the Book," by B. A. M. Schahiro, of the
Bible House, New York.
(6.) "The Hebrew Christian Witness," by the Rev. Dr. Moses Margoliouth,
1874-5.
(7.) "Sites and Scenes," by the Rev. W. T. Gidney, M.A.
(8.) "The Talmud," whose testimony is very reliable when it speaks of
Jewish Christians.
Ultimate sources of information, and ulterior literature, to which
nearly all these writers refer, are as follows: "Wolf, Bibliotheca
Hebraica." "Gräetz, Geschichte der Juden." "Hetzel, Gesch. der
Hebraischen Sprache." "Fürst, Bibl. Jud." "Steinschneiders
Bibliographisches Handbuch." "Catalogue Bodl." "Dict. Nat Biog."
"Meyer's Conversations Lexikon." "Da Costa's History of the Jews in
Spain." "Kalkar, Die Mission unter den Juden." "The Jewish Missionary
Intelligence." "The Jewish Missionary Herald." "Saat auf Hoffnung," by
Professor F. Delitzsch, of Leipzig. "Nathanael," by Professor Strack, of
Berlin. Other biographical dictionaries and histories.
CHAPTER I.
APOSTOLIC PERIOD.
The Apostolic Period began on the day of Pentecost when the disciples
who were gathered together were a hundred and twenty in number (Acts i.
15), but were only a section of the 500 brethren who had seen the Lord
after His resurrection (I. Cor. xv. 6). On the same day, as the result
of St. Peter's first missionary sermon, "there were added unto them
about three thousand souls" (Acts ii. 41). A short time afterwards "the
number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great
company of the priests were obedient to the faith" (Acts vi. 7). This
progress continued to such a degree that St. James, after hearing the
interesting missionary report of St. Paul, "about the things which God
had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry," said to him, "Thou
seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe"
(Acts xxi. 20). How glad we should have been if we had some account of,
at least, the more prominent converts of that period, and knew something
of the sufferings that they had to endure for the sake of Christ.
Nevertheless, the Acts of the Apostles, though containing much in
relation to the progress of the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles, gives
but little information with regard to Jewish individual conversions, and
mentions only two Jewish Christian martyrs--namely, St. Stephen and
James the Elder--and is even silent about the exclusion of Jewish
converts from the Temple, which we gather only from the Epistle to the
Hebrews. This fact is to us an evidence that St. Luke, the first
ecclesiastical historian, had no design to shew to the world the
inherent power of the Gospel exemplified by the conversion of many of
the very people who had rejected Christ, and it proves the genuineness
and authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles and the date commonly
assigned, for had it been written later, as some critics maintain, the
author would surely have taken the trouble to give his readers some
detailed information concerning at least one per cent. of that vast
multitude of Jewish converts mentioned by St. James. Such is the method
of the ecclesiastical historian in modern as well as in ancient times,
as the following two examples will shew: Pastor de le Roi, Jewish
missionary historian, has for years not only collected statistics of
Jewish converts in various churches, and summed up the whole number as
being 224,000 in the nineteenth century, but he has also furnished us
with a great deal of information concerning the history of many of these
converts. For, as the Rev. W. T. Gidney rightly says, "Jewish converts
must be weighed as well as counted." The second example is Hegesippus,
who, according to Eusebius, was a Palestinian Hebrew Christian, and
lived in Rome about 150 A.D. He is the father of Church history, and
wrote a book under the title "Hyponeymata Pente," with the special
design to answer the question of the Pharisees, "Have any of the rulers
believed in Him?" and to shew that the Gospel made rapid progress among
the Jews in the first century in spite of great opposition. Of this
opposition the Jewish Liturgy to this day bears witness in the so-called
"Blessing against the heretics," which Samuel the Little composed in the
Synagogue of Yabne, in the presence of Gamaliel the Elder. Justin Martyr
in his Dialogue, Origen in Homily 18, Jerome on Isaiah, complained of
it, and it has, alas, been a source of trouble to the Jews at various
times throughout the Christian ages. Hegesippus supplies information
about a number of Jewish sects, who regarded each other as heretics. It
is a pity that the greater part of his book has been lost, and we have
only a few fragments in "Euseb. History iv.," and an extract in "Photius
Bibliotheca" (page 232). That probably contained detailed information
about the more prominent converts in the Apostolic age. Still, the most
valuable relic for us is his list of Hebrew Christian bishops in regular
succession in the mother Church at Jerusalem. These are as follows:
James, the Lord's brother (Gal. i. 19), of whom Hegesippus states that
he was martyred while praying in the Temple. Symeon about 62 A.D.,
Justus I. 64, Zacchæus 112, Tobias 114, Benjamin 116, Justin 118,
Matthias 120, Philip 122, Seneca 125, Justus II. 126, Levi 128, Ephres
130, Joseph 132, Jude 133. The shortness of their episcopates probably
indicates that it was a time of great tribulation. To this list may
perhaps be added Ananias, who baptized Saul of Tarsus at Damascus, and,
according to tradition, was subsequently bishop there and suffered
martyrdom (See "Schaff. Bible Dictionary"); Crispus, Chief of the Jewish
Synagogue (Acts xviii. 8), who, according to tradition ("Constituit
Apost." vii. 46), was afterwards Bishop of Ægina; Clement, of Rome, who,
according to Bishop Lightfoot, was an Hellenistic Jewish convert or son
of a convert. The bishop came to this conclusion, after weighing much
the internal evidence of his Epistle to the Corinthians.[1]
[1] Rev. Dr. Giles writes: "In the 'Homiles and Recognitiones,' falsely
ascribed to Clement, his father is said to have been one Faustinus,
descended from the family of the Roman Cæsars, and this absurd fable is
copied in the 'Liber Pontificates,' or book of the Roman Pontiffs, and
in the work of Eusebius, Bishop of Lyons." ("Hebrew Records," vol. ii.
294).
Two of the converts of the first century are mentioned in the Talmud and
receive there an excellent testimonial. The first is Nicodemus,
identical, according to the writer in the "Jewish Encyclopædia," with
Nicodemus ben Gorian. He is said to have been a great saint. The other
is Jacob of Kefar Sakanya (Simai). He once met R. Eliezer in the upper
market-place of Sepphoris and asked his opinion on a curious ritualistic
question bearing upon Deut. xxiii. 8. As R. Eliezer declined to give an
opinion, Jacob acquainted him with the interpretation of Jesus derived
from Micah i. 7. R. Eliezer was pleased with the interpretation, and was
consequently suspected of Christian leanings by the governor (Abodah
Zarah, 17. a). On another occasion, Jacob went to heal R. Eleasar ben
Dama of a poisonous bite by a serpent in the name of Jesus, but his
uncle, R. Ishmael, would not allow it. Jacob said to him, Rabbi Ishmael,
my brother, let me heal him, and I will prove to you from the Torah,
that it is allowed, but R. I. was obstinate. In the meantime the patient
died, and his uncle apostrophized the corpse in these words: "Happy art
thou Ben Dama that thy body is pure and thy soul departed in purity, as
thou hast not transgressed the words of thy fellow rabbis" (Abodah
Zarah, 27. b).