The Jews in Great Britain: Being a Series of Six Lectures, Delivered in the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, on the Antiquities of the Jews in England.Margoliouth, Moses
History
The Jews in Great Britain: Being a Series of Six Lectures, Delivered in the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, on the Antiquities of the Jews in England.
Margoliouth, Moses
Jews -- Great Britain -- History
But methinks I hear one say, Suppose there were a few Jews in
this island, would that circumstance afford St. Peter sufficient
encouragement and invitation to visit it. I answer, yes――there was
encouragement and invitation enough for an apostle to the Jews to travel
such a great distance. The Jews, being thus far removed from Jerusalem,
had no opportunity of hearing any thing of the awful scene that was
exhibited on Calvary, they would, therefore, be free from all the
prejudices which prevailed in the breasts of their brethren in Palestine.
The apostle might, therefore, calculate on sure success, for he would
come to them, and preach the things noted in their Scriptures of truth
respecting their Messiah, who was then universally expected by them.
St. Peter would unfold to them the ninth chapter of the Book of the
Prophet Daniel, where the time of Messiah’s first advent was fixed,
as also that He was to “be cut off, but not for himself;” all of which
is, to unprejudiced and unbiassed minds, so self-evident, that the
then British Jews could not but believe, especially when preached by a
holy and pious countryman of their own. Dr. Wolff’s last journal of his
travels to Bokhara convinces me, that where the Jews are ignorant of the
controversy at issue between Jews and Christians, the Gospel meets with
an easy and favourable reception by them, as you will perceive from the
following extract:――
“Here I may as well notice the Jews of Yemen generally. While at Sanaa,
Mose Joseph Alkaree, the chief rabbi of the Jews, called on me. He is
an amiable and sensible man. The Jews of Yemen adhere uniquely to the
ancient interpretation of Scripture in the passage (Isaiah, vii. 14),
‘A virgin shall conceive,’ and they give to the word עלמה the same
interpretation, virgin, that the Christians do, without knowing the
history of Jesus. Rabbi Alkaree asserted, that in Isaiah, liii. the
suffering of the Messiah is described as anterior to his reign in glory.
He informed me that the Jews of Yemen never returned to Jerusalem after
the Babylonish captivity; and that when Ezra wrote a letter to the
princes of the captivity at Tanaan――a day’s journey from Sanaa――inviting
them to return, they replied, ‘Daniel predicts the murder of the Messiah,
and another destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and therefore we
will not go up until He shall have scattered the power of the holy
people, until the thousand two hundred and ninety days are over.’ I
demanded, ‘Do you consider these days to be literal days?’ The Alkaree
replied, ‘No; but we do expect the coming of the Messiah from the
commotions now going on at Yemen. We think he begins to come from Teman,
_i.e._, Yemen, for you see the tents of Cushan are now in affliction,
and the curtains of Midian tremble. There is now war in the wilderness
unprecedented in our memory. There are twelve gates at Sanaa. As soon as
one of them――the Bab Alstraan, which is always kept closed――is opened,
we expect Him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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