Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ Part 7

vii. 14, but when he saw that it was always used in opposition to married women, he at once accepted Christ as his Saviour, and was baptized with his wife and children in 1860, in St. Matthew's Church, Berlin. With a recommendation from Queen Elizabeth of Prussia he came over to England, and from 1883 worked in connexion with the L.J.S. in London. He died March 5, 1901, deeply regretted by both Jews and Christians.

BENFEY, Theodor, born at Noster, near Gothingen, January 28, 1809, became a convert to Christianity in 1848, died in 1881, at Gothingen. He was author of numerous linguistic works on the Sanscrit, Bengali, Hindustani, Persian, Egyptian, and Semitic languages. His two works in English must be mentioned here: "A Practical Grammar of the Sanscrit Language" (Berlin 1863, London 1868), and "A Sanscrit-English Dictionary" (London 1868). He established a periodical, "Orient and Occident," in 1862.

BENJAMIN, Selig, a native of Bunzlau, Bohemia, and surgeon by profession about the middle of last century. Embraced Roman Catholicism, but found no peace, so he relapsed into Judaism, but remained in the same condition, wandering about to find satisfaction for his restless soul, until he came to Weikersheim in Wurtemberg, and attended the services of the court preacher Kern, when he was converted. Whereupon he went to the synagogue and publicly confessed his evangelical faith before the congregation.

BENJAMIN, a Dutch Jewish convert. The story of his conversion is a remarkable one and deserves a place here. Pauli and his a.s.sistant Bloch visited once a Kabbalistic Jew on a very stormy night. The Jewish neighbours, when hearing of their visit, watched for them outside the house. They followed them on their way home, and when pa.s.sing a bridge, some called out, "Make an end of him (Pauli); throw him into the water." Whereupon Benjamin, who accompanied his visitors, cried, "Away with you!" and pushed the a.s.sailants aside. "He is a good man. He helped me to keep the Sabbath properly." They then went away abashed. Benjamin was afterwards baptized with his whole family in the presence of 3,000 Jews. This was the first entire family which Pauli baptized at Amsterdam.

BENJAMIN, a Jewish convert in India, baptized by the Rev. ---- Laseron in 1849.

BENNI, a Jew who first heard the Gospel from Wendt and Hoff in Konigsberg, became a Christian Pastor in Petrekow, later in Radorn, and through his faithful testimony not a few Jews decided to acknowledge Jesus as their personal Saviour.

BENOLY, Gabriel, M.D., baptized at Salem, Bromberg, in 1869, was afterwards for many years medical missionary of the L.J.S., and did good work in the East End of London.

BEN OLIEL, a well-known family in Oran, North Africa, has given to the Church three sons about the middle of the eighteenth century, baptized by the Wesleyans in Gibraltar.

BEN OLIEL, Rev. A., was for many years missionary in Rome, and then at Jaffa and Jerusalem. He was a true man of G.o.d, an ardent lover of his nation, whose spiritual welfare he endeavoured to promote by word and pen all through a long life. He died in America towards the close of last century.

BEN OLIEL, Rev. Maxwell Mochluff, after finis.h.i.+ng his theological course at St. Aidan's, was ordained in 1860, and was curate in several churches; also domestic chaplain to the Dowager d.u.c.h.ess of Northumberland, 1864-66; minister of St. Patrick and St. Saviour, South Kensington, 1878-81; missionary at W. Berkeley, California, 1889-91; Rector of San Bernadino, Cal., 1891-93. Returning to England, he conducted a mission to the Jews at Kilburn, by writing and lectures. As a good preacher and thoroughly conversant with Jewish and Christian literature, he was gladly heard in the churches and cathedrals of England. His writings on the Jewish subject are numerous.

BEN OLIEL, Moses, served for many years as Bible agent of the B. & F.B.S. at Oran.

BEN ZION, Benedix (Baruch), born in h.o.m.oslaipolia in the government of Kiev, Russia, in 1839, was led to become a Christian in a remarkable manner. Once, when still a little boy in the Heder, he and his fellow-pupils pa.s.sed by a Russian Church when they observed the cross and images. His companions at once repeated Deut. vii. 26, and spat on the ground. Ben Zion did not like this behaviour, so he made figures and a cross with his stick on the ground. This was reported to the teacher, who locked him up and punished him severely for it. The fanaticism of the Jews in the place was so great that Ben Zion's father lost his position as Talmud teacher, because his boy had been reading Mendelssohn's German translation of the Bible. At the age of 13 Ben Zion began his wandering career, and pa.s.sing a chapel in a forest, his eyes met the image of the Madonna and Child. Without the least desire to render homage to the figure, but only conscious that for its sake he had already suffered, he took off his hat, knelt down, and in this posture fell asleep, and was finally awakened by a peasant. These apparently trifling circ.u.mstances caused him later on to think seriously of Christianity, and to search the Scriptures. He was baptized in Berlin in 1863, then studied medicine and graduated at the University of Wurzburg in 1867. He went to England, and having entered the service of the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, was sent to Roumania in 1874 as medical missionary. In 1876 he was transferred to Odessa, where he laboured successfully for ten years.

Then he was for a short time in Constantinople, and since about 1888 he has been living in the United States and helping in missionary work. He is the author of "Orah Zedakah," a collection of proverbs and parables in the style of Ecclesiasticus (Odessa, 1876); "Kol Kore el Beth Israel"

(translated from the English by Dr. Ben Zion, London, 1868); a translation into Judaeo-German of Jos. H. Ingraham's "Prince of the House of David," under the t.i.tle of "Tiferet Yisrael" (Odessa, 1883-88), and a translation into Judaeo-German of Silvio Pelier's drama, "Ester d'Engede," under the t.i.tle "Der Falsche CohenG.o.del."

BERDENBACH, born at Offenbach, in 1809, brother of the great lawyer of that name in Darmstadt, was baptized by Pastor Schultz in Berlin, in 1839.

BERGER, Rev. S. D., convert and student of the L.J.S., was afterwards ordained to the Ministry in the Lutheran Church U.S., and was appointed missionary to the Jews in Chicago about 1885.

BERGHEIM, M., a n.o.ble Jewish convert, was sent out by the L.J.S. in 1837 to a.s.sist the Rev. Nicolayson in his work in Jerusalem. He was afterwards a banker and died in 1896 as churchwarden of Christ Church, Mount Zion. The Jewish traveller, Dr. Ludwig August Frankel, who published a book on his visit to Jerusalem in 1860 (translated into Hebrew by M. E. Stern), says he found there 131 Jewish Christians in the Holy City, nine of whom were of the Bergheim family.

BERGMANN, Marcus S., convert of the L.J.S., is well-known as a missionary of the L.C.M. and translator of the Bible into Yiddish. A second edition, with improved translation into simple Jargon, was issued by him in 1905. In an account of his conversion he thus writes:--

"I was born in Wieruszow, on the borders of Silesia, in the year 1846.

My father (who was of the sect of Cha.s.sidim, which is the strictest sect of the Pharisees, and a great Talmudist) died when I was about a year old. Of my dear mother I have only a very dim recollection, as she, too, died when I was but six years old. I had one elder brother and one sister. My brother was established in a large way of business in Luben, a town near Breslau, and my sister was brought up in the house of the Chief Rabbi of Breslau, Rabbi G'dalia t.i.tkin (who was a relative of ours), whilst I was brought up with my uncle, Woolf Bergmann, a Cha.s.sid like my father, in Wieruszow, under whom I studied much of the Talmudic and Rabbinical literature.

"When I was fourteen years of age I was sent to Breslau to study under the chief Rabbi there. I did not like it at first, as I had to change my Cha.s.sidic dress for the German style, but I soon became accustomed to it. After a residence of three years in Breslau I went to one of my uncles who was a Rabbi in Frankenstein, under whom I had ample opportunity to practise for some time. I then went back to live with my sister in Kalisch, and applied myself more than ever to the study of the Talmud, believing it to be the most honourable of all employment and most conducive to the glory of G.o.d, and the best mode of making amends for my sins, which I found clung to me even when engaged in these religious duties.

"The word of the LORD to Abraham (Gen. xii. 1), 'Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred ... unto a land that I will shew thee,'

seemed at that time to be constantly ringing in my ears, and made me so restless that I could not put my mind to anything. I obeyed that voice, and in 1866, I left my native country and came to England. Shortly after my arrival in London I established a small synagogue at which I gratuitously officiated as minister for nearly two years; my sister from time to time sending me remittances, as I required, from the portion which I inherited of my father's property.

"It pleased the Lord at this time to lay His hand upon me, and I was laid aside for six weeks in the German hospital. When feeling a little better I began to look into the Hebrew Bible, which was on the shelf in the ward. As a reader in the synagogue I knew the letter of the whole of the Pentateuch and other portions of the Old Testament by heart.

"The portion of Scripture that made a great impression on me at the time of my illness was Daniel ix. Several verses of this chapter (the confession of Daniel) are repeated each Monday and Thursday by every Jew; but the latter part of the chapter, which so plainly prophesies the suffering of the Messiah, is never read--in fact the Rabbis p.r.o.nounce a dreadful curse upon any one who investigates the prophecy of these seventy weeks. They say: 'Their bones shall rot who compute the end of the time.' Remembering this anathema, it was with fear and trembling that I read the pa.s.sage about the seventy weeks, and coming to verse 26, 'Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself'--though we Jews are most careful not to let a Hebrew book drop to the ground--I threw that Hebrew Bible out of my hand, thinking in my ignorance that it was one of the missionaries' Bibles. But although I threw the Bible away, I could not throw away the words I had just read: 'Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.' These words sank deeper and deeper into my soul, and wherever I looked I seemed to see them in flaming Hebrew characters, and I had no rest for some time. One morning I again took up the Bible, and without thinking or looking for any particular pa.s.sage, my eyes were arrested by these words (also in a chapter which is never read by the Jews): 'For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken.' (Isa. liii. 8.)

"This seemed to be the answer to the question I was constantly asking myself during this time of soul-conflict--'Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.' For whom then? Here it was plainly revealed to me.

'For the transgression of My people;' and surely I belonged to His people, therefore Messiah was cut off for me.

"Shortly after this I left the hospital and was again among my Jewish friends, but I could not banish from my mind these two pa.s.sages.

"One morning I put on my phylacteries and tallith in order to perform the prescribed prayers, but I could not utter a single sentence out of the prayer book before me. One pa.s.sage (Psalm cxix. 18), 'Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law,' came into my mind, and that I repeated over and over again, and for nearly two hours that was the cry of my soul. After laying aside the phylacteries and tallith I left the house without tasting food, and as I walked along the streets I prayed again in the words of the Psalmist, 'Lead me in Thy truth and teach me, for Thou art the G.o.d of my salvation, on Thee do I wait all the day long.' My heart was burdened with a very great load, and yet I dared not open my mind to any one. In this state I believe the Spirit of G.o.d led me to Palestine Place. My heart failed me when I reached the door of the late Rev. Dr. Ewald's house.

"After several vain attempts, I ventured to knock, and was admitted to see that venerable servant of the Lord. To him I unburdened my soul and told him all that was in my heart. He asked me whether I was willing to come into his Home for enquirers in order to be instructed in the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus. I told him that was just what I needed, and at once accepted his kindness, and I did not return to my Jewish friends. This was just one week before the Pa.s.sover.

"On the first day of the feast several Jews of my congregation, who had discovered where I was, came and entreated me to leave the missionaries and go back with them. As I refused to do so, they said they would soon get me away with disgrace. They left, but only for a short time, and when they returned they brought a policeman with them and charged me with being a thief, and as such I was taken to the nearest police station and locked up. Whilst in the cell I was visited by several Jews who implored me to return to them, and said that if I promised to do so they would not appear against me on the morrow, and I would be liberated. I answered in the words of David, when Gad, the seer, was sent to give him the choice of his own punishment: 'Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great, but into the hands of man let me not fall;' and I added, 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.' They left me disappointed. But I never spent a happier night than in that prison cell, for I felt and fully realized that the Lord was with me, and it was there that I for the first time knelt down and prayed to G.o.d in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Though up to this time I knew very little or nothing of the New Testament, yet it seemed to me as if the Lord Jesus spoke to me in the same manner as He did to His disciples. 'They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth G.o.d service; these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I have told you of them.' 'And when they bring you unto magistrates, and powers take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.' Pa.s.sage after pa.s.sage seemed to come before me, as if the Lord Jesus had spoken audibly to me to encourage me to cling close to Him and not to fear what man could do unto me.

"The night--though sleepless--I pa.s.sed joyfully and peacefully. The morning came, which brought other Jewish visitors with food from their table, also entreating me to return to my Jewish friends. As I refused, they told me that they had witnesses to prove the charge against me, and I should be put into prison for at least three months; but I felt that the Lord Jesus was my advocate, and that He would plead my cause.

"About 10 o'clock I was taken out of the police cell and led to the Mansion House (followed by a large number of Jews) to appear before the Lord Mayor of London. The whole judgment hall was filled with Jews. My chief accuser swore that I had robbed him, and three others gave their evidence on oath against me. The Lord Mayor asked me, through an interpreter (for I could not then speak English), what I had to say in my defence, and whether I had any witnesses to prove my innocence. I replied, 'I stand here in this position on account of my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not only not guilty of the crime which is imputed to me, but I have left all my valuable things at the house where I lodged. It is only because I wish to become a Christian that I am accused.' The Lord Mayor then ordered my chief accuser again into the witness box, and asked him whether he knew that it was my intention to become a Christian. The expression which flashed across his angry countenance and was reflected by the face of the other Jews present, sufficiently answered the question before he could speak a word.

"On cross-examination they so contradicted each other that they themselves proved my innocence, and I was at once set at liberty. (I wish it to be clearly understood that this persecution was not in enmity to myself personally, but rather in friends.h.i.+p and mistaken zeal. They wished to save me at any cost from becoming a Christian).

"On leaving the Mansion House I returned to Dr. Ewald, and after being thoroughly instructed in the Scriptures, I was admitted into the visible Church of Christ on the 7th of June, 1868, by the rite of baptism.

"After my baptism I was admitted into the Operative Jewish Converts'

Inst.i.tution, where I stayed nearly two years. In May, 1870, I was accepted as an agent of the London City Mission, to work among my poor benighted people in the East of London. During the first few years of my mission work I had naturally to undergo much persecution, and the work was most arduous, but by the blessing of G.o.d this is in a great measure changed.

"It is now fully thirty-one years since I became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I can look back upon all these years and say that not one good thing hath failed of all His gracious promises."

BERNAL, Jacob Israel, an English Jew, in the first half of the 19th century, had his children baptized, only one son, Ralph, remained in Judaism.

BERNAL, Osborn, M.P., the son of Ralph, embraced Christianity, and his daughter married the Duke of St. Albans.

BERNARD, D., baptized in Wilna with his wife and daughter in 1818, by Pastor Nichlous, of the Lutheran Church, is recorded as having lived an exemplary Christian life. He was first baptized in the Roman Church, came then in contact with Luther, who had won him for the Evangelical Truth, and wrote to him a letter with a view to strengthen him in the faith, and that he should make it known to his brethren.

BERNARD, Herman, born in Southern Russia in 1785, baptized in his youth, settled in Cambridge as a private teacher in 1830, and was appointed "Preceptor Linguae Sacrae" in the University, October 18, 1837. Bernard published the following works--"The Creed and Ethics of the Jews" in selections from the "Yad Hahazakah" of Maimonides (1832), and "Hamenahel" (the Guide of the Hebrew Student), 1839. The "Me Menichoth"

(Still Waters), an easy, practical Hebrew grammar, in two volumes, appeared during his blindness. His lectures on the book of Job appeared in one volume in 1864.

BERNARD, Rudolf, a Swiss Jewish convert, published an Epistle to the Jews in 1705, under the t.i.tle "Lekah Tob" (good doctrine), in which he tried to influence them in favour of Christianity.

BERNAYS, Michael, was baptized in the 19th century, date not known. In 1872 and 1873 he taught at the University of Leipzig, and in 1874 he was appointed extraordinary Professor of Modern German, English and French Literature, at the University of Munich. He wrote on the poetry of Goethe, under the t.i.tle, "Der junge Goethe," Leipzig, 1875.

BERNHARD, a Polish Rabbi, who was baptized by Pastor Storr, in the 18th century, in Heilbronn, a.s.sumed the name of Christoph. David Bernhard. He was afterwards Reader of Hebrew at Jena, and later at Tubingen. (Wolf, B. ii. 3, 4.)

BERNHARDY, Dr. Gottfried, born in Landsburg, 1860, died 1875, embraced Christianity when studying in Berlin. He was a great cla.s.sical scholar, and wrote as Professor, "Syntax of the Greek Language," Berlin, 1829.

"Grundriss der Romischen Literatur," 1830. "Grundlinien der Encyclopaedia der Philologie," 1832, &c.

BERNHEIM. We have only his memorial preserved as having been an a.s.sociate of Rev. J. Neander, and of another proselyte, Bonhome, in the evangelization of the Jews in New York, about 1845.

BERNSTEIN, Rev. Aaron, born in Skalat, Galicia, in 1841, received, as an only son, a good and pious early education, and was when quite young brought under the influence of the wonder Rabbi of the town, with whose grandson he learned Talmud at school. At the age of 17 he was a.s.sistant teacher in a town in Moldavia, when the Rev. W. Mayer, L.J.S. missionary at Ja.s.sy, appeared one day in the Synagogue and had a discussion with the Jews, on which occasion he received a German tract, ent.i.tled "The Righteous shall live by his Faith." This made some impression upon him, but it pa.s.sed away, as he was too young to understand it all. A few years later he went to Ja.s.sy, when he met Mr. Mayer again, who gave him a Hebrew New Testament and the "Old Paths." These were the means under G.o.d of leading him eventually to acknowledge the Saviour. He was baptized by Dr. Ewald, together with nine other Jews, on November 22, 1863. After being for a short time in the Operative Jewish Converts'

Inst.i.tution, he went to the United States, and after a year or so of teaching in a school and privately, he entered a missionary college which was established by a German missionary, known later as Bishop Auer of Cape Palmas. He then studied Theology in the General Seminary, New York, was ordained Deacon in Philadelphia in July 1870, and appointed by Bishop Stevens as Rector of St. Paul's, Manheim, Pa. In June, 1871, the L.J.S. sent him as missionary to Jerusalem, where he laboured only about a year and a-half, as he could not stand the climate. Subsequently he laboured in Bucharest, Paris, Liverpool, and Frankfort, but the greater part of his missionary career was in London, with the exception of an interval of three years, in which he was curate in Hertfords.h.i.+re.

Bernstein had the honorary degree of M.A. conferred upon him by Columbia College, New York, in 1873, owing to his taking the Greek Prize at the Seminary in 1870, and later the Faculty of the Seminary gave him B.D. He wrote "Sefer Roshey Hatayvoth," "Anglo-Israel Theory," translated Professor Ca.s.sel's "Commentary on the Book of Esther" into English, together with the "Targum Sheni" from the Original and Appendices (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1888). He published "The City of David," "The Book and the People," and contributed articles to the "Hebrew Christian Witness," "The Scattered Nation," "The Everlasting Nation," "Jews and Christians," "The Jewish Missionary Intelligence," and wrote about a dozen tracts in English, Hebrew and Yiddish, and revised a new edition of the Hebrew Bible in 1895. Editor of the "Kol M'Bha.s.ser" since 1907.

_Non n.o.bis, Domine, non n.o.bis, sed nomini Tuo da honorem._

BERNSTEIN, Rev. ----, a congregational minister in North London.

BERNSTEIN, Theodor. Though brief, the information of this convert is very interesting. He was baptized by the Rev. H. Stewart, in Liverpool, on the same day that his spiritual teacher, the missionary H. J.

Joseph, was ordained to the ministry of the Church of England, in 1836.