FROM JUDAISM to CHRISTIANITY

by

F. C. Gilbert

CHAPTER XII

BEGINNING TO LABOR FOR MY JEWISH BRETHREN

1. In the month of June, eighteen hundred ninety-four, I went to Boston, Massachusetts, to begin to labor among my Jewish brethren. I was asked to connect with a man who had been in the Jewish work for several years, and who had some experience in working with them. He had with him another believing Jew who had very little experience as a Christian. Not having been among the Jews for a number of years, and not having used the Yiddish for some time, I feared I should have difficulty in making myself understood by them.

2. Some information about Jewish, or Yiddish, language may be of interest to the reader. Very few of the Jews of today speak the language that the Jews spoke two thousand years ago. The Hebrew language is practically a dead language. The Hebrew tongue is called Lo-Shan Hakodesh, the holy tongue. It is used by the rabbis some of the time, especially on the Sabbath. The masses of the Jews, however, do not speak this language because they know not how. On the Sabbath day many of the pious and devout Jews who are educated, speak the Hebrew. It being the holy day of the Lord, they are not supposed to use the same vernacular that they speak during the week. The dialect the Jews use during secular time is called Yiddish, meaning, literally, the talk of the Yid, or Jew. The word Yid is an abbreviation of the Hebrew word, Ye-hu-dah, which means Judah. ^(p127) This of course applies to the Orthodox Jews.

3. Yiddish is also called Jargon, and truly it is a jargon. It is not a language, it is merely a dialect. During the days of the Spanish inquisition, when Spain, Morocco, and other countries, drove the Jew from their territory, he traveled into Europe, and settled thickly in German, Russian, and other European territory. As a result of his wanderings, he assimilated some of the language and customs of the country. Gradually he developed this mixture into a tongue, or dialect, called Yiddish. It contains some Hebrew, some German, some Russian, and expressions of other European tongues. The dialect is so elastic that, whenever the Jew wishes to adopt a word for the Yiddish in the country where he lives, he makes that word part of his vocabulary, and he quickly has an additional stock of Yiddish knowledge. In this way many English and American words and expressions have found their way into the dialect, and it all passes for Yiddish in these days. There are many newspapers published in this dialect, and wherever the orthodox Jew goes, the Yiddish is also there. It is rapidly developing into a language, and some of the educated men among the orthodox Jews have written dictionaries and grammars in the development of the tongue.

4. The Yiddish appears in Hebrew characters when used in books, in newspapers, in advertisements, and for public reading; but when used in letters for correspondence, it appears in a hieroglyphic form. The appearance of the printed Yiddish has very little resemblance to the Yiddish in correspondence. ^(p128) For the benefit of the reader, we insert on opposite side  a page of Yiddish written in Hebrew letters. [Click here for the page].  A person who can read the Yiddish in the Bible or in the newspaper, does not necessarily read the Yiddish in correspondence. The written Yiddish has to be learned by itself. This form of writing has been reduced from the Talmudic script, and many of the rabbis have written in such a peculiar way that their successors can scarcely read what they have written, and it is doubtful if some of the authors could read their own writings.

5. Before I gave my first address in Yiddish, I earnestly sought the Lord for a special anointing, that I might speak to the Jews so that they would understand what I said. I had two reasons for this: First, I wished them to understand the truth of God; second, I did not want them to make sport of the gospel of Christ and bring a reproach upon His cause. It must be remembered that the Jew of today, that is the orthodox Jew, is the identical Jew of two thousand years ago. In his ways, customs, peculiarities, social life, sharpness in wit and sarcasm, in his effort to entrap and to ensnare, he has not changed, save that with age he has increased his powers in this direction. Ninety-five orthodox Jews out of every hundred you meet are at first opposed to the gospel. You must not expect sympathy from more than five per cent. You truly go to them as sheep among wolves. Knowing this to be so, one must be guarded in what he says, for all present at a service have not come to hear the truth. Many have come to catch you in your words. They watch very closely what you say, that they may entrap you later in asking questions. They are close listeners, so that they feign themselves disciples. ^(p130) This they do to entangle you the more. So I felt in my soul that I needed much of the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to present the truth clearly as it is in Jesus. The Lord surely blessed and helped me. I was surprised to see how well I was able to use the Yiddish, though it was nearly twelve years since I had indulged in conversation in this jargon. My soul was longing to help these poor lost sheep.

6. Many of the Jews listened attentively, while some came to scoff and to mock. Some present seemed eager to learn, but there were many who sat and gnashed with their teeth. I was grateful to God for the encouragement I had at the beginning of the work.

7. I had not been in the field very long before I received some of the persecutions we read about. At times the Jews would be very abusive in service as well as out of it. Occasionally in the middle of the meeting, some of the audience would rise up and shout at the top of the voice, to drown the words of the speaker. They would blaspheme, and seemed to have no respect for the house of God. The more they scoffed and were abusive, the more I longed to bring the light to them, for I knew they were not aware of what they were doing. There were some present while the word of God was being proclaimed, that would rise from their seats, and would gnash and chatter with their teeth for rage. They would call the speaker a liar, saying, “It isn’t so, it isn’t true.” At times a book would come flying in the direction of the speaker. I felt sorry to see the way they acted, and wondered if that was to be the future of the work among the Jews.

^(p131)  8. At the close of the service, it was arranged for the inquirers to ask questions, and the audience never failed to improve the opportunity. It would astonish you could you hear the questions they sometimes asked. The orthodox Jews, it should be remembered, are not ignorant of the wording of the Scriptures, for there are large numbers of pious Jews who can repeat entire chapters of the Bible without even looking at the book. The reason for this is found in the previous chapters of this book.

9. Working for Jews is entirely different from working for Gentiles. You cannot take your Bible and read a text of Scripture to the Jews, and then explain that text with some story by way of an illustration of the text. The Jews are Bible students; that is, they know the words of the Bible. You may begin a verse in the Hebrew, and the audience will finish it for you. You may begin a chapter, and nearly all the congregation will read for you, should you wish them to finish the chapter, even though they may not have their Bibles with them. In dealing with the Jews on Bible lines, you must remember that you are not dealing with people who are ignorant of Scripture as far as the letter of the law is concerned.

10. It should also be considered that the Jew has more than one way of understanding the Bible. It is not necessary for the orthodox Jew that you translate a text and say it means just so. To him every verse has many ways of being understood. Here is what a rabbi says about understanding the Bible, and this rabbi is a great authority in Hebrew lore. The following comment is read seven days a week by every Jewish child and Jewish adult:

^(p132) 11. “Rabbi Ishmael says, that the law [that is the Bible] is to be expounded in thirteen different ways: 1. Light and heavy, an inference from a major to a minor, and from a minor to a major. 2. A decision adduced from an agreement or equality of texts. 3. From the principal constitution contained in one verse, and principal constitution deduced from two verses. 4. From comparing a general description with its specified particular. 5. From a particular text followed by a general one. 6. Precepts treated of first in general, then in particular, then again in general. Thou must not adjudge but according to that which is similar to the particular. 7. From a general description that requires a particular or specific text to explain it; and from a particular text that requires a general one,” etc. We might continue much more along this same line. You can judge from this quotation how the Jews are taught to understand the Scriptures. All of these different ways are first to be expounded by the wisdom of the sages.

12. Another rabbi, Rabbi Judah, the prince who collected all the Jewish writings from the fourth century before Christ till the second century after Christ, and formed the work called the Talmud, claimed that the Bible may be interpreted in thirty-two different ways, and each interpretation is as valuable as every other. These different ways of explaining the Bible have largely been the cause of the Jews’ rejecting so many of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiahship of Jesus.

^(p133)13. Many of the Jewish people claim that, inasmuch as the rabbis have taught that you may interpret the Scriptures in four ways, in thirteen ways, in thirty-two ways, you have the right to explain them in as many ways as you wish. One time I was having a conversation with a learned Jew about the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, trying to show him that the chapter must refer to Jesus as the Messiah. After I finished translating the chapter, he said to me:

“Gilbert, let me translate it for you. I will show you a good way to interpret the Scriptures, and I will show you how it cannot have anything to do with Jesus.” He introduced the subject with many of the stories of the rabbis, and then proceeded with his interpretation.

14. After listening attentively I asked him, “But what do you do with a number of the verses which absolutely contradict what you say? You claim that the chapter refers to the Jewish people. You say the chapter explains the condition of the Jewish people. God regards the Jews as He would one person. In this way you infer He looks upon their sufferings. But are not the Jews God’s people? Do you not claim that the Jews are the chosen people of God? What do you think then that the text meant when it says, ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all?’ Whose iniquities did God lay on him, and who are the ‘us all’ referred to in the text?”

Getting rather excited, he said to me: “But look here, Gilbert, this is only one way of explaining this chapter. I can give you a thousand more interpretations just like this one. They are all the same. You cannot say it means just one thing. You can have anything you want.”

15. When an opportunity is given the Jews to ask questions, you must be prepared to hear almost anything. ^(p134) It would not be so hard if there was just one who would ask a question, but the hands of all generally go up at the same time. Everybody has the most important question, every one has the most learned question. It was a Babylon. The man who conducted the service to which I have alluded, did not have very good control of the Jews, and it made the work of laboring for them much more difficult. The Lord always stood by us, and helped in answering the questions.

16. Being so young in the work, I greatly felt my inability. Frequently we had present at the services rabbis, teachers, and cantors. (a) These classes would generally conspire against us. To illustrate the questions we would be asked, I will here mention one question.

“Mr. Missionary, you believe the T’nach, the Bible?”

“Yes.”

“Here is a question for you. You said that Jesus was the Son of man, didn’t you?”

“ Yes.  But I said also that He is the Son of God.”

“ Never mind about that. But you said He is the Son of man?”

“ Yes, but I said too He is the Son of God just as much as He is the Son of man. You must remember that both are what I said.”

“ But didn’t you say that Jesus is the Son of man?”

“Yes.”

“Now, didn’t you say, too, that only in Jesus can we have salvation?

“Yes.”

^(p135) “Now   you   say   you   believe the   Bible?”

“Yes.”

“Now I will show you from the Bible itself that you do not believe, from what you yourself have admitted. Here is the text. It says in Psalms, one hundred forty-six, and fourth verse, ‘Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation.’ You said that Jesus is the Son of man, and in Jesus only is there salvation. Now the T’nach, the Bible, says there is no salvation in the son of man. What do you do with that?”

17. Immediately the entire audience clapped their hands, and everybody was in glee. Ah, beloved reader, could you be in such a place at a time like that, you would the better understand what the Saviour endured when He was here on earth, and what the apostles had to meet with in their work.

18. I then asked him if he believed the Bible; if so, I would answer his question from the word of God. Everybody listened, for the Jews will as soon clap for one side as for the other. I felt then, as I have felt in every service, that there were honest souls present who were hungry for the light, and, for the sake of these honest ones, we must put up with this irritation and aggravation.

19. I called his attention to Jeremiah 23: I said to him, “Now you will remember that I said in my address today that Jesus was the Son of man, and he was also the Son of God. It was because He was the one that He was the other. The reason why I said that He only could save the people, was because the Son of God as well as the Son of man was centered in Him. ^(p136) Now let us hear what the word of God says.  ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch.’ Who was this Branch? Was He the Son of man? He must be, because he came from David, and David was a man. ‘And a king shall reign and prosper.’ Then this man who was to come from David was to be a King. ‘In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.’ Then this Branch of David, this Son of man, when He did come would save Judah and Israel. He was to bring salvation to Judah and Israel. Then there would be a Son of man who was to bring salvation — ‘And this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,’ — here you have it. Here is the Son of man who is also the Son of God, and His name is Y-HO-VA TS-ID-KAA-NOO. All this was fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is the Son of man, and He also is the Son of God. Therefore He, and He alone, can give salvation.”

20. The audience saw the force of the reply, and the man asked no more questions that day. This is but a sample question, similar to what we expected to hear every time we had a service. I used to remark to the leader that to teach the Bible in such a way did not accomplish much good. After laboring hard for nearly an hour in teaching the word of God, so much discussion arose that nearly all the good influence of the teaching was lost by these arguments.

21. At times the Jews would become so angry as to commit violence, and at different times my life was endangered. One day, at the close of the service, I knew there were some of the Jews following me with the purpose of doing me bodily injury. ^(p137) So I walked between two elderly ladies, thinking perhaps they might desist from their evil course. I had not gone far when suddenly a bottle came whizzing toward me, and hit me on the left side of the head, almost stunning me. There was a stone in the bottle, and it came with great force. I should have dropped to the ground but for one of these mothers in Israel at my side, who saved me from falling. I nearly fainted. I was indeed grateful to God that my life was spared, and I managed to get to the house.

22. When I reached my room, my heart was drawn out after the young man who threw the missile, and after all those poor Jews. How I plead with God to open their blind eyes, for the more they persecuted me, the more I felt to pity them. I had the same feelings once, and I could appreciate their situation. I longed to bring to them the light of this blessed gospel, for I knew that it would do for them what it had done for my soul. For nearly a week after this, I was hardly able to open my mouth wide enough to allow a cracker to enter it. I loved the young man, however.

23. At another time, as I was leaving the church, a New Testament came flying at my head, and hit me with such force that the book broke, and the leaves dropped to the floor. I thought it was a blessed thing to get the Word with such force, and I felt that if that young man got it as hard in his heart as he threw it at my face, something would certainly strike his soul. There was hardly a week passed but that something came in the way of opposition. It seemed as though little could be accomplished.

^(p138) 24. After studying the situation, I concluded that there would have to be a different method pursued with the Jews, in order to influence them with the gospel. I connected with this work after it was under way, and I concluded that the best methods were not used to help the Jews. The gospel should soften them rather than harden them; that is, some of them ought to be changed by the preaching. The trouble was that there was another man preaching in this same place besides me. He had certain views of the Bible, and I had other views. The Jews soon recognized this, as they discerned it in our preaching. The leader of the meeting being a Gentile, he did not understand Yiddish, and so he could not understand what was being taught. The other man would talk to them about Jesus’ rising from the dead on the first day, how much of the Old Testament was done away with and changed. I sought to impress them that the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week had nothing to do with changing the word of God. The Lord Jesus simply came to live out in His life what Moses and the prophets declared concerning the Messiah. Naturally, the Jews did not have respect for the work of God, in view of such conditions, and this had the tendency to harden them.

25. I felt that I should have to change this manner of working, and teach the truth of God on proper lines. It is impossible to do successful work while mixing the pure truths of God with error. So after about two years’ work with this mission, I left the Jewish work for a time, and entered evangelistic work among the Gentiles. While the work went hard, while there was bitter opposition, still I had received a taste of the work, and was better acquainted with it than I had been before. ^(p139) I had the pleasure of seeing one man baptized, and there were several other believers who had not been baptized.

26. I sought also to reach the higher class of Jews, the so-called liberal, or reformed, and I found they were much harder to meet than the orthodox. (b) About this time, shortly before I left the work for the evangelistic field, there was a great deal of persecution among the Jews in different parts of the country on account of the Sunday closing crusade which raged at that time.

27. In Montana, a Jew who refused to close his store on Sunday, was arrested. Not having money enough to pay his fine, he was sent to jail. He was commanded to work on the Sabbath, Saturday, as all other prisoners worked. He refused. He was persecuted bitterly while in jail, which was an outrage against the rights of conscience. There was also a bitter contest raging in Boston, and it seemed as though it was a good opportunity to present the gospel to the liberal Jews as well as to the orthodox Jews.

28. The Jews said that America was not much better than Russia; the time would come when America would eventually take the last step in persecution as surely as it had taken the first step. This persecution did much to hurt the work. So one day while visiting the Massachusetts Legislature, to appear at a hearing concerning the running of Sunday trains, I met a number of men who seemed to be the leaders in the movement in compelling the Jews to close their shops on Sunday, even though they observed the Sabbath of the Lord.

^(p140) 29. Among them were Christian ministers, and all were considered good, Christian men. Being acquainted with several, I laid the case before them, hoping that they might see that the work of preaching the gospel to the Jews was being hindered by compelling the Hebrews to close their stores on Sunday, after they observed the Sabbath of the Lord as they believed they should keep it. It being a free country, as long as a man conducted himself as a good and respectable citizen, he was amenable to God alone for his religious views. I explained to them that the Jew said there is no liberty in American Christianity, for it compels him to lose one-seventh of his time, compels him to observe two days in the week, and enforces on him a religion in which he does not believe. These men appreciated the situation, and finally asked me what I could offer as a solution to the problem. I told them there was a solution which would help the Christians as well as the Jews, as it would do for religion what should be done, it should stand on its own merit. I said,

“The only thing that should be done is to wipe out every Sunday law which exists on the statute-books of Massachusetts, and let every person, before God, act as he thinks right concerning the observance of the Sabbath.”

One of the ministers turned to me, and closing his right fist brought it down with great force on his left hand, and remarked,

“I don’t care for Jefferson, I don’t care for Washington, I don’t care for the Jews, I don’t care for anybody. This is a Christian nation, and we are going to have Sunday laws, it does not make any difference whom it hurts.”

^(p141) 30. I felt then that the poor Jew could not look for much help or have much hope from that kind of Christianity. If the Jew ever should get his eyes enlightened with the gospel of Jesus, it would have to be with a different kind of Christianity from that. I felt pained and heartsick, as it seemed to me this was going to hurt the work. I had not learned then, so fully as I should have known, that God is able to work out His own plans, and to do His own will.

31. In consultation with a dear, Christian brother minister, the late Pastor G. B. Wheeler, I decided to write a tract entitled, “Hebrews, and the Rights of Conscience,” and scatter it broadcast among the Jews. I intended to show what the Bible said concerning this country, that it was a subject of prophecy, that the government was rapidly changing its principles of civil and religious liberty, and the time would come, as outlined in the book of Revelation, that this country would persecute those who worshiped God according to the dictates of their own conscience. I felt that I must appeal to the Jews in view of what they saw coming, to accept Christ, the Messiah, as their only hope. The Lord blessed me in preparing the matter, and soon it was ready for the press. But there was no money with which to print the tracts, and if the Jews ever read them, they would have to be furnished without charge.

32. So Pastor Wheeler went with me into the Boston church the next Sabbath, and in about twenty minutes sufficient funds were raised to print one thousand copies of this tract. I felt very thankful that a fund had been raised to pay for these tracts, and I saw there were some persons who certainly were interested in the Jews. ^(p142) I had wondered whether there were many of the Gentile  Christians who really were interested in the Jews, and this was a great encouragement to me.

33. We sent these tracts to some of the most prominent rabbis, doctors, lawyers, judges, and business men of Boston and vicinity, and to the same class of people in different parts of the country. We also sent them to the leading Hebrew journals of the land. One of the most prominent Hebrew papers wrote a long editorial on the tract. After commenting very favorably on its merit from a religious-liberty standpoint, the editor said that it was too bad that it was turned into a conversion tract, as though the Jews needed such a thing as conversion. It is evident that the editor had forgotten that David was a converted man, and King Saul was once given a change of heart. Psalms 51; 1 Samuel 9. [1 Samuel 10:6,10?]

34. I was becoming acquainted with some of the prominent rabbis of Boston, and occasionally I visited them to talk over the gospel of Christianity. Through a mutual friend, I was introduced to one of the leading rabbis of the city, and nearly every Friday evening I called at his home, and spent several hours studying the New Testament about Jesus. Down in his soul, I believe he knew that Jesus was the Christ, but position and popularity had too strong a hold on him to let him yield to the Spirit. Occasionally I attended his synagogue, and I was surprised one Sabbath morning to hear him read Isaiah 53, and say that the Christian people claim this chapter refers to Jesus as the Messiah. He did not deny it.

^(p143) 35. While on a visit at his home, I met two Jewish ladies, beautiful characters indeed. I talked to them freely of my faith in Christ, and their hearts seemed much touched. One of them turned to me, and said:

“ Mr. Gilbert, I would give anything in the world if I had a faith such as you have. I recently lost a dear little child, and laid it away. Oh, it seemed hard to do so, as there was no comfort, no faith, no hope. If I only had a faith like yours, what comfort it would give me!”

The rabbi saw that her heart was being impressed with the gospel, and he labored hard to destroy this good influence. May God pity the poor man, and have mercy on his soul.

36. At another time while visiting the rabbi’s house, I met a number of Jewish people. Various topics were being discussed, among them the subject of religious liberty. One of the persons present seemed intelligent upon the subject, and expressed his views very freely. To my surprise, I learned that he believed and favored the idea that this country had a right to compel conformity to its laws, even though they were oppressive. If the country commanded that its citizens should desist from labor at any time other than the day they kept as sacred, they would have to do so. This was indeed astonishing to me. I argued for the Jew from the standpoint of the Jew. It seemed a strange position in which I found myself. Here was I, an apostate Jew, supposed to be hateful to the Jews, arguing for the rights of the Jew; and here was a Jew, considered a good Jew, who was denying the rights of his own people.

^(p144) 37. I soon learned that the gentleman was a lawyer, and
before we broke up that night, he asked me if I would debate the subject with him before the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of ————. He turned to the rabbi and asked him what he thought of the proposition, and the rabbi answered favorably. I thought, what a blessed thing it would be if the truth of the word of God could be brought before these hundreds of Jewish young men. I called to see the lawyer several times to arrange for the discussion, but I learned from him that he was too busy, and could not devote the time to it. I concluded that the rabbi and the Hebrew people were not yet prepared to let an apostate occupy the platform of their association. But, thank God, opportunity was given to bring the truth to many of the parishioners of this rabbi. The leaven was planted, and God would take care of His word.

38. While it was with sadness that I left the work for the Jews for a time, I thanked God for the privileges I had enjoyed. It made my heart long for them the more, and I thought that perhaps I had not yet received the preparation I needed to carry on this work. In God’s own time I felt sure that He would bring it to pass.

On to chapter thirteen

^(p145) EXPLANATORY   NOTES.

PARAGRAPH 16 (a). — The cantor is the man in the synagogue corresponding to the minister referred to in Luke 4: 20.  Back

PARAGRAPH 26 (b). — The Jewish people are divided now into two branches, Orthodox and Reformed. The Orthodox Jew is practically the Biblical, or Traditional Jew, the Jew who comes in line of succession from the Pharisees of the days of Christ. The Reformed Jew is the man who has cast aside the Bible as the word of God, has laid aside all hopes of a literal Messiah coming, and who regards the country in which he lives as his home and his hope. He is practically the Sadducee of ancient times. The Bible to him is a good book, and so there are other good books. With all his bitter opposition, and all his persecuting spirit, there is much more hope in working for the Orthodox Jew than for the Liberal, or Reformed, Jew. See also chapter 23. [XXIII.] Back