Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
himself and for the loss of his learning and piety. His son is the Rev.
Professor David S. Margoliouth, D.Lit., Laudian Professor of Arabic at
Oxford University, and examining chaplain to the Bishop of Liverpool.
MARGOLIOUTH, Rev. George, a nephew of Dr. Moses Margoliouth, was
converted to Christianity at Strassburg. He studied philology at the
University of Bonn, and theology at Cuddesdon College, was ordained in
1881-1883, held the curacy of St. Thomas', Leeds, when he was also
missionary of the Parochial Missions to the Jews; then at Carleton,
Yorks., 1883-84; then again missionary curate of Holy Trinity, Stepney,
1884-87; then at St. Mary the Less, Cambridge, 1887-89; St. Botolph,
Cambridge, 1889-91, when he took his degree in Semitic languages, at
Queen's College. He is the author of "Descriptive List of the Hebrew and
Samaritan MSS. in the British Museum," 1893; "The Superlinear
Punctuation," 1893; "The Liturgy of the Nile, Palestinian, Syriac and
English," 1896; "The Palestinian Syriac Version of Holy Scripture, four
recently Discovered Portions," 1896. He also contributed valuable
articles to the "Jewish Quarterly Review."
MARGOLIOUTH, Rev. Dr. Moses, was born at Suwalki in 1820, and died in
London, 1881. He was no relation to Ezekiel Margoliouth, though from the
same town. Coming to Liverpool in 1837 he met the missionaries of the
L.J.S., Lazarus and Rev. H. S. Joseph, and as a result of intercourse
with them he was baptized in 1838. He entered Trinity College, Dublin,
in 1840, and became curate of St. Augustine, Liverpool, January 30,
1844. Much later he was curate of St. Paul's, Onslow Square, London, and
lastly, Vicar of Little Limford, Buckinghamshire. He took the degree of
Ph.D. at Erlangen in 1857. In 1847 he started a Hebrew Christian monthly
magazine entitled, "The Star of Jacob." In the seventies he was editor
of "The Hebrew Christian Witness." He also wrote the following works,
all published in London: "Modern Judaism" (1843), "The History of the
Jews of Great Britain" (1851), "A Pilgrimage to the Land of my Fathers"
(1855), "The Curates of Riverdale"(1860), "The Spirit of Prophecy"
(1864), "The Poetry of the Hebrew Pentateuch" (1871). Margoliouth was
one of the revisers of the English version of the Old Testament. He
wrote also a considerable number of minor works.
MARGOLIOUTH, Naphtali, baptized in 1603 under the name of Konrad Otto,
became professor of Hebrew in Altorf. He wrote "Grammatica Hebraica"
(Nurnberg, 1605), a part of a "Dictionarium radicale" of rabbinic and
Talmudic words, "Gale Razia or Revelatio arcanorum ex Daniel ii. 29," in
Latin and German.
MARKHEIM, H. A., was one of the most gifted missionaries of the L.J.S.
in the nineteenth century. As a great linguist he suitably occupied the
following stations: In 1840, he succeeded Lewis at Smyrna; in 1850, he
laboured at Oran and Tangier; in 1860, at Gibraltar; in 1863, at Turin;
from 1861-63, at Marseilles, and then until the siege of Paris by the
Germans, he laboured there. He died in 1889.
MARIA was born of English Jewish parents, in affluent circumstances.
When yet a child she fell down a steep flight of stairs and seriously
injured her spine, so that she became a permanent invalid. A Christian
lady used to visit her, and got permission to read to her the Psalms.
She asked her father to buy her a Bible, who instead of doing so bought
her some narratives, but seeing her disappointment, complied with her
request. From this Bible, which contained the New Testament, she learned
to know and to love the Saviour, believing that Jesus made a perfect
atonement for her sins. Becoming gradually feebler and losing her sight,
she said to Miss P. that she enjoyed great tranquillity of mind, and had
learned to understand Isaiah xxvi. 3, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." Prayer was never a weariness to
her. She influenced her sister to read to her the Bible. She then bore
witness from her sick bed to the faith which was the source of her calm
resignation and happiness before those friends, both Jews and Gentiles,
who visited her. When her life drew to a close, she said to her father:
"Dear father, I have one request to make; remember! it is my dying
request, the last favour I shall ever ask you, father." With much
kindness he enquired, "What is it, my dear?" "It is, father, that you
will consent to my baptism." "No, Maria, I cannot do that, you were born
a Jewess and you must die one." "Father! that is impossible, for I am a
Christian. I believe that Jesus is the Saviour and without Him we should
perish everlastingly." She then explained that by being a Christian she
had not ceased to be a Jewess. She was then permitted to receive both
sacraments from the curate of the parish. Before her death she said to
her brother: "My dear brother, be good, and never, never despise the
Messiah Jesus Christ. I am going to heaven, and may I not hope to meet
you there? I have prayed for you and all my family, and it is my belief
the Lord will answer my prayers, and shew His salvation to you all."
(_Jewish Intelligence_, October, 1841).
MARKS, J. D., a convert was at first in 1819. It was owing to his
influence that a missionary society in Switzerland was founded. This is
emphasized in a letter from Basel to the L.J.S. in 1820, whose
missionary he then was. At that time there seems to have been an
important movement among the Jews of Frankfort and its neighbourhood
towards Christianity, in which he was to some extent instrumental, and
the result was that in three years ninety Jews embraced Christianity. He
died as missionary at Offenbach in 1841.
MARKS, Rev. John Ebenezer, D.D., of Canterbury, 1879, laboured as a
missionary at Moulmein, India, 1863-67; as Chaplain at Rangoon,
1867-68; Irrawaddy, 1869 and 1876-83; Mandalay, 1869-76; Tavoy and
Mergui, 1883; as missionary of the S.P.G. and Principal of St. John's
College, Rangoon, from 1876-96.
MARX, Adolf Bernard, was born in Halle in 1779. From his youth he was
very fond of music, and Handel's "Messiah" led him to become a
Christian. His father, though indifferent to religion, was very angry
with him, and he was obliged to prosecute his studies of law and music
under great deprivations. He finally became a judge at Wittemberg, but
he had more taste for music than for the law. He then relinquished his
office and went to Berlin, and devoted himself entirely to the study of
music. He made there the acquaintance of the English musician Logier,
and got from him some new ideas, which he was not slow to put into
practice. In 1837, he published a work on the principles of harmony. He
did much for the proper understanding of Beethoven, Sebastian Bach, and
Glück. He is said to have been the founder of modern musical literature.
He died in 1866.
MARX, Karl, born at Treves, in 1818. He was baptized with his father,
his brother, and five sisters in 1824. In 1842, he became editor of
"Reinische Zeitung für Politik, Handel, und Gewerbe." In 1843, he
published at Paris, "Zür Kritik der Hegelschen Rechts Philosophie." In
1848 he edited the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung." He is known as the founder
of the political theory called Socialism, and on account of that he came
in conflict with several governments, and he sought refuge in England.
He married the sister of the minister, von Westphal. She died in 1881,
and he also passed away in 1883, in London.
MASSENA. All that is known about him is a tract, published at
Strassburg, in 1859, entitled "Massena ein Wahrer Israelite oder die
Kraft Gottes."
MASSIAH, Rev. J. P., was curate of Holy Trinity, Stepney, in 1883, when
he received some Jews into the Church.
MATHAI (Shimon), Adam Rudolf George Christoph, was born at Fürth,
Germany in 1715, and was instructed in the Talmud by his father Jaidel,
a teacher in the Beth-hamedrash there. At the age of sixteen, he went to
Prague to continue his studies, and on returning home he, too, became a
Talmudic teacher. Just then he narrates, in the preface of his
"Description of the Jewish Sabbath": "When I considered the corruption
among my people, doubts arose in my mind about the rabbinic system of
religion, and I began to study its doctrines, rites and ceremonies, and
found that they did not agree with the Word of God." The name Jeshua sar
happanim, in the service for the New Year, struck him as very
mysterious, and he began to enquire as to which of the angels this name
referred. At last, after long enquiry, he became convinced of the divine
origin of Christianity and applied to a pastor in Fürth for baptism in
1748. However, on account of the commotion created among the Jews, he
went to Nürnberg, where he was baptized the same year.
MATTHEWS, Rev. Aaron, after embracing Christianity with his wife, was
appointed a missionary of the British Society in London in 1867, where
he laboured successfully for some years. Then he accepted a call to be
minister of a Baptist Chapel in Liverpool, which position he only held
for a few years. Then he opened a mission to the Jews at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and afterwards laboured amongst them in Glasgow with
considerable blessing on his labours, attracting the Jews by his fervent
and devotional spirit as well as his Hebrew learning.
MAYER, Samuel Morum, was born in 1797 at Friedenthal; and died in 1862.
His father was a rabbi, his grandfather was appointed by King Friedrich
grand rabbi, who gave the grandson a good Jewish education, so that at
the age of ten he could repeat the Psalter in Hebrew with Mendelssohn's
translation. A pastor also privately taught him classics. He was then
sent to a Talmud School, but the Talmud did not satisfy his thirst for
useful, solid knowledge, so he sent a petition to the King asking for
permission to enter the Gymnasium. This was granted in 1815. He studied
there and subsequently became a celebrated lawyer. Government offices
were offered him on condition of his embracing Christianity, which he
repeatedly refused, but held a professorship unconditionally. However,
he investigated the doctrines of Christianity himself, and was baptized
in 1834. He was then persecuted by his relations, but he rendered them
good for evil. The following is a list of his works in their
chronological order; with one exception they were published at Nürnberg.
"Beschreibung des Jüdischen Sabbath,"
1750; "Die Verderbniss des heutigen Judenthums," 1752; "Beschreibung des
Jüdischen Neujahrfestes," 1755; "Beschreibung des Jüdischen
Purimfestes," 1758; "Beschreibung des Jüdischen Yom Kippur," 1760;
"Sammlung Talmudisches Lehrsätze," Schwabach, 1763; "Abhandlung von der
Verleumdung," 1765; "Sendschreiben an Rabbi Peloni aus der Stadt
Lo-Theda," 1766; "Kurzgefaste Talmudische Lehrsätze von der
Nothwendigkeit sich in den Ehestand zu begeben," no date; "Beweis von
der Uebereinstimmung der alten Israelitischen Kabbalah mit der Lehre des
Apostel Paulus," no date; "Beweisgrunde von der Uebereinstimmung der
Altjüdischen Lehre mit der Lehre der Christen," 1770; "Kristliche
gesinnte Erklärung der Kabbalisten über das Hohelied," 1776.
MAYER, Rev. W., was educated both in the school and college of the
L.J.S. in London. In 1855, he succeeded his brother-in-law, the Rev. A.
I. Behrens, at Jassy, where he was assistant missionary for some time
previously. He had there a most flourishing school, containing about 300
scholars. Mayer, who was a very intellectual man, was somewhat affected
by the criticism on the Bible by Bishop Colenso, and he also was of the
opinion that the Jews ought to have their own Christian Church. This led
to his severance from the Society. He, however, remained in Jassy all
his life, and revised the Roumanian Bible for the British and Foreign
Bible Society.