Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
public confession of his faith, and was baptized by Pastor Pfeiffer, at
Erlangen, in 1750. He studied theology, but was too humble and timid to
ascend the pulpit. So he maintained himself by teaching Hebrew, Latin,
Greek, and French, and by writing. One of his works is entitled: "Der
troslose Jude in der letzten Todesstunde." Another is, "Der bussfertige
Sünder Schriftgemässe Vorstellung und freundliche ermahnung an
sämmtliche proselyten der jetzigen Zeit. Vernünftiger Unterricht über
die natürliche Religion und desen Vornehmste Streitigkeiten und über die
Christliche Religion."
GOTTFRIED, Philip Selig, born in 1722 in a little town near Halle. When
ten years old his mother died, and the Jewish authorities would not
allow her to be buried there, because they had heard a rumour that "she
had in her dying hour committed her soul into the hands of Jesus Christ
the Saviour of the world." His father had to take her at night to Halle
for burial. Philip was then sent to a school at Fürth, where he studied
the Talmud diligently. He narrates in his autobiography, 3 volumes,
Leipzig, 1755: "I can, without boasting, say that when I was 13 years
old I could repeat by heart 500 pages of the Talmud without mistake, and
deliver a Derashah (sermon) on a solemn occasion." His father then got a
theological student to instruct him in Latin and German, but made it a
condition that he should not mention the subject of religion to the boy.
However, the teacher and his clever, inquisitive, pupil soon had
disputations together. It happened one day that a Jewish girl passed by
their house, dressed in black and accompanied by a number of Christians
leading her to church to be baptized. A neighbour asked Gottfried
whether he liked the procession, and his reply was that "it looks like
leading a criminal to the place of execution." "Quite right," said the
other, "the girl is led as a sinner to Jesus to have her sins washed
away by the blood which He shed on the cross." Gottfried continued his
disputes about Christianity with his teacher, who sometimes was
perplexed in not knowing how to answer his objections. He brought a
Hebrew scholar to him and they read Isaiah liii. together, Gottfried
quoting the rabbinical interpretations of it, and the other refuting
them. After the debate was over, Gottfried earnestly reflected upon the
subject, and was convinced that the Christians are right. He then bought
a New Testament for 12 groschen, and studied it critically. After a long
inward struggle and earnest prayer, he by the aid of the Holy Spirit
triumphed over his intense prejudices, and applied to a pastor for
Christian instruction. Before his baptism, in 1738, he had to answer 400
questions in his examination. Two sisters followed his example. The
father disinherited them all. The convert Friedrich Augusti was then
very kind to him. In 1788 he published a Kabbalistic work entitled
"Sepher Shimush Tehillim." His chief work was his weekly paper, "Der
Jude," in 9 volumes, Leipzig, 1767-1771.
GOTTHEIL, Rev. Paul Eduard, brother of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, of the
Temple Emmanuel, New York, born at Franstadt (Germany), April 5, 1818,
died at Stuttgart in 1893. He was one of the most distinguished converts
and missionaries in the nineteenth century. He studied theology at Basel
and then entered the service of the British Society in 1848, in which he
continued all his life. He was for many years minister of the English
Church at Canstadt, and then minister of the Diakonessenhaus at
Stuttgart. In both offices he was very successful. Some of those he
baptized at Nuremberg, Canstadt and Stuttgart, have become ministers of
the Gospel or missionaries to the Jews, like Bahri and Löwen, who both
laboured at Vienna. He published "Blätter für die Evangelische Mission
unter Israel," 1850-1858; "Der Messias Israel's Hoffnung und aller
Völker Verlangen," 1863 (translated into English); "Mishan Lehem,
Lebensbrot für Gottes Volk aus Gotteswort" (Hebrew and German), 1871,
Yiddish and German 1873; "Die Arbeit an den Einzelnen," in "Nathaniel,"
1891, No. 6; an extensive Memoir of Professor Franz Delitzsch in "The
Everlasting Nation," 1890.
GOTTLIEB, K. J., was a native of Sadagora (Bukovina, Austria), a town
which has been the residence of several generations of wonder-working
rabbis for about a hundred years, and has become the Mecca of the
Chassidim. Naturally he was brought up in strict orthodoxy. An elder
brother of his, however, managed to learn German and to study medicine,
and settle as a practitioner in Pesth. At the age of 16 Gottlieb visited
his brother, in whose house he found a Hebrew Bible with a German
translation, which he diligently read, and his brother explained to him
difficult passages, directing his special attention to Messianic
prophecies without at once disclosing his own views. This excited his
interest, and he began to enquire into the subject. He then happened to
meet with a Jewish tract, entitled "Source of Salvation," in which the
year 1864 was assigned for the advent of the Messiah, but in which the
Messiahship of Jesus was distinctly repudiated. This caused him to ask
his brother if he could throw light on the subject, and to his surprise
he found that his brother had long been a baptized Christian, and he
resolved to become one likewise if he should by instruction be
convinced. A place was then found for him as Hebrew teacher in the
Scotch Mission school, and he received Christian instruction from Pastor
König and Pastor Wagner. However, it was found advisable to send him to
Prague, where, after receiving further instruction from Mr. Schönberger,
he was baptized by him in 1876. Gottlieb studied afterwards at Basel,
and for a time was a missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, but most
of his missionary career was in the service of the Berlin Society, in
Berlin, Jassy, Chernowitz, near his home, and lastly in Stanislau. In
all these places he was much beloved for his excellent qualities and
true Christian piety. He died comparatively young, and "the remembrance
of his name is for a blessing."
GREEN, Rev. Samuel J., was baptized in 1859 by the Rev. John Wilkinson,
the founder of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews. He went to Australia and
preached the Gospel to the Jews at Bathurst, where he also built a
church in 1879.
GURLAND, Rev. Rudolf Hermann, born in Wilna, 1836, of a family which
were Spanish Gentile Christians, who became Jews and had fled from the
Inquisition at the beginning of the eighteenth century into Russia. The
father was a strictly orthodox and bigoted Jew, and sent his son to
various yeshivas (rabbinical colleges), so that in 1857 he received the
title of Doctor, and was called to be the President of the Seminary at
Berditscheff, where he remained till 1860. He tried at first to
introduce reform in the Synagogue, and wrote a work under the title "Das
Judenthum und die Reformversuche des 17 und 18 Jahrhundert" (only in
M.S.), but won no sympathy for his attempt. Meeting a traveller in 1862,
he received from him a Hebrew New Testament, and at the same time
learned from him about Pastor Faltin's missionary activity at
Kischineff. He went there and became rabbi of a congregation. One day he
came to Faltin and asked him if he could get him pupils for caligraphy
and drawing, and showed him some specimens of his work. Faltin tried to
do so but failed, and then proposed that they should read the Hebrew
Bible together. Gurland agreed, but made it a condition that the main
issue between Judaism and Christianity should not be introduced. Some
time passed in reading book after book of the Old Testament, and Gurland
gave no sign of any change in him. They were reading Isaiah liii. for
the second time. When Faltin finished, Gurland said, "Read it over
again," but he could not wait till he had done so, because he was
inwardly moved, and went home in silence. Faltin then fell on his knees
and earnestly prayed that God might open the eyes of the rabbi to see
Christ in all His glory. The next time Gurland came, he asked Faltin to
read again the same chapter; and then he could no longer resist the
striving of the spirit within his heart, and exclaimed, "I do not know
what it is, I now find much in the Bible which I have not found before,
although I know it by heart. The chapter must refer to your Jesus, and I
must soon acknowledge that He is the promised Messiah." The result of
this meeting was, that the rabbi became the pupil of the pastor,
receiving frequent instruction from him in the doctrines of the Gospel.
But this frequent intercourse between them could not fail to be observed
by the Jews, yet they at first had not the slightest suspicion of the
rabbi's intention, but on the contrary thought that Faltin was inclined
to embrace Judaism. In fact, one of them told this to one of his
congregation. This man came to the pastor and questioned him about it,
and was assured by him that he would never deny his Saviour, but it was
possible that Gurland might embrace Christianity. Several rabbis came
now to Gurland and, like the Protestant, asked him whether Faltin wished
to become a Ger (proselyte) to Judaism. This brought the matter to a
climax, and he confessed before them all that Jesus was the Messiah and
proved his convictions from the Bible. They cried, "You have a false
Bible," but he answered, "Compare it with your own and see whether it is
false." What he had to suffer afterwards, need not here be described. He
and his wife were baptized on Easter Sunday, 1864, before a large
congregation of Christians and Jews. He then studied theology in Berlin,
returned to Kischineff and became assistant pastor to Faltin, when many
Jewish converts were the result of their labours. Gurland was later
chief pastor at Mitau, working at the same time among the Jews. His
latter years were devoted to spreading the New Testament in Wilna,
Odessa and the Baltic provinces, under the auspices of the Mildmay
Mission to the Jews. Professor Delitzsch called him "A noble soul."
GUTENHAUER, Gutschalk Eduard, after having been won for Christ and
baptized by the Rev. W. Ayerst in Berlin in 1836, studied philosophy and
became Professor at the University of Breslau in 1841. There he
published a work about Leibnitz, and another about Lessing, 1842, 1852.
HALBMILLION, Jacob, a convert of the L.J.S. at Jerusalem, was afterwards
house-father of the Wanderers' Home in London, under Dr. Stern, and then
one of the first missionaries of the Mildmay Mission, zealously
labouring in London and then in North Africa. He died in Morocco in
1888.
HAMBURGER, a convert in Holland, died in 1872. Da Costa delivered an
oration at his funeral.
HÄNDLER, Rev. H. G., born in Warsaw in the thirties of the nineteenth
century. In his youth he became distinguished for his Talmudical
learning, so that the epithet Harif or Nilley (expert) was applied to
him at that time. Gifted with a good memory, he easily acquired a
knowledge of German, Polish, Latin, and Greek, and he compiled a
collection of noble sayings in the Greek Classics. When quite a young
man he came to London, and was converted to Christianity under the
ministry of Dr. McCaul, Reichardt, and others, in Palestine Place. After
four years at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution he studied in
the L.J.S. Hebrew College, and then laboured as a missionary in Breslau,
and in Tunis. In 1873 he opened a school for Jewish children (mostly
girls) at Cracow, and carried it on successfully for about ten years. In
1883, he was transferred to Vienna, where he had many tokens of Divine
blessing upon his efforts. One of his converts has for many years been a
Chaplain in India, and is still there. Händler assisted Professor
Delitzsch in his translation of the New Testament into Hebrew, and