History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.Anderson, Rufus
Religion
History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.
Anderson, Rufus
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Missions -- Eastern churches
In May, 1839, Mr. Schauffler left for Vienna, to superintend the
printing of the Old Testament for the Spanish Jews. As he was
leaving, the caique, in which himself and family, including an
infant child, were going off to the steamer, upset, and the whole
party narrowly escaped drowning. His visits to Odessa, in going and
coming, were the occasion, as before, of spiritual blessings to the
people. His family expenses were paid by the Board, but the printing
was at the charge of the American Bible Society. He was absent
nearly three years, returning in August, 1842; and in that time
carried through the press three thousand copies of the Old Testament
in Hebrew-Spanish, in two volumes quarto, containing fifteen hundred
pages. The Hebrew occupied every alternate page. He also printed
five hundred copies of the Hebrew-Spanish Pentateuch, in two
volumes, 16mo., with the Hebrew on the opposite page. The Sefardim,
or Spanish Jews, having the New Testament previously, were now
favored with the whole inspired volume in their vernacular tongue.
Notwithstanding the anathemas of Jewish rulers, the three thousand
copies of the Psalms, printed in 1836, were nearly exhausted in
1844, and the book was in great esteem among the people. A vain
effort was made by the rabbis to suppress the Vienna edition of the
Old Testament. Only a few of the hundreds of copies in the hands of
the people were delivered up, and it was believed that those
confiscated by the rabbis found their way again into circulation.
About this time, the "Committee of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland on the Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews,"
made a grant of L2,162 (about $10,000) to this mission for the
circulation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the purchase of rabbinic type,
and the publication of school-books and tracts for the Jews. This,
while it generously enlarged the operations of the mission, afforded
no relief to the treasury of the Board.
Such were the calls for the Hebrew-Spanish Old Testament, that more
than twelve hundred copies went into the hands of the Jews previous
to June, 1843. One rabbi requested twenty copies for poor Jews in
Roumelia; another, and he the chief rabbi, asked for ninety copies
for six destitute places; and another, the rabbi of Orta Keuy, made
repeated solicitations for thirty copies for schools in that suburb,
and for twenty additional copies to place in reading rooms, where
Jews come together in a social manner, on their Sabbath, to read the
Bible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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