Missionary Journal and Memoir of the Rev. Joseph Wolf: Missionary to the Jews (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Missionary Journal and Memoir of the Rev. Joseph Wolf: Missionary to the Jews

Near Bamberg in Bavaria is a little village, called Weilersbach, which is inhabited by fifty Catholic, and fifteen Jewish families. I was born in this same village, in the year 1796. My father was the Rabbi of these Jews. My parents left this village within fifteen days after I was born, and came to Halle in Prussia, where. My father exercised again the office ofa Rabbi. I had a strict Jewish education my father began to teach me all the Jewish ceremonies, when I was four years old; and told me that all the Jews were expecting the Mes siah, every day and every hour, that his advent could not be far off, and at that time we should dine on the great fish, called Leviathan. I believed all my fa ther told me, and I considered Christians as worship pers ofa cross of wood, and no better than idolaters. I began to read the Hebrew prayer-book when I was six years old, and recited it every day, without being able to understand its contents. Lily father sent me at this time to a public Christian school, to be instructed in German reading; but I had his express command never to be present when the school-master began to speak on a religious subject; and my father, with this View, de sired the schoolmaster to allow me to remain at home on those days which were fixed for explaining the Christian doctrine. The schoolmaster did so, and I continued to be an orthodox Jew.

When I was seven years old I walked one day in my room, occupied in meditation; at the same time I thought about Christ Jesus, whom I considered as a bad man.

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