Adolph Saphir

Rev Dr Aaron Adolph Saphir DD (26 September 1831 – 4 April 1891) was a Hungarian Jew who converted to Christianity and became a Jewish Presbyterian missionary.

Adolph Saphir and his Teacher, by Hill & Adamson, 1840s.

Life

He was born in eastern Budapest (Pest) on 26 September 1831, the son of Israel Saphir, a Jewish merchant[1] and brother of the poet, Moritz Gottlieb Saphir. Adolph's mother was Henrietta Bondij.[2]

In 1843, his family converted to Christianity through the Jewish mission of the Free Church of Scotland.[3] In the autumn of 1843 his father sent him to train as a Christian minister for the Free Church of Scotland at New College, Edinburgh. This proved impractical due to his age and lack of English. He attended a Gymnasium in Berlin from 1844 to 1848 much improving his English. From 1848 he studied at Glasgow University graduating MA in 1854.[2]

Saphir travelled to Edinburgh with Rabbi Duncan and Alfred Edersheim.[4] He then studied at the Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1854, Saphir was appointed a missionary to the Jews.[2] He worked briefly in Hamburg before moving to England where he served in South Shields, at St Mark's in Greenwich's South Street, and Notting Hill. Saphir became a minister of the Presbyterian Church of England, and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Glasgow in 1878.[5]

He died of Angina pectoris on 3 April 1891.

Publications
  • The Hidden Life
  • The Divine Unity of Scripture
  • Jesus and the Sinner
  • Christ and the Church
  • The Jews as Custodians and Witnesses
  • Christ and the Scriptures
  • Christian Perfection: An Address
  • Christ Crucified
  • The Epistle to the Hebrews (1874)
  • The Sinner and the Saviour
  • The Lord's Prayer (1872)

Family

Adolph Saphir's siblings were also involved in the Hebrew Christian movement and missionary activities: Philipp, whose letters and diaries Adolph edited, ran a mission school in Budapest;[6] Johanna taught at the school and later married Charles Andrew Schönberger, co-founder of the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel;[7] and Maria Dorothea married the noted Hebrew Christian preacher Carl Schwartz.[8] In 1854 Adolph married Sarah Owen from Dublin. They had one daughter who died young; Sarah died four days before Adolph.[2]

References
  1. Kovács, Ábrahám: The History of the Free Church of Scotland’s Mission to the Jews in Budapest and its impact on the Reformed Church of Hungary 1841-1914 Frankfurt am Main; New York; Berlin; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Wien: Peter Lang Verlag, 2006.
  2. Carlyle, Edward Irving (1897). "Saphir, Adolph" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. Carlyle, Rev. Gavin (1893). "Mighty in the Scriptures." A Memoir of Adolph Saphir, D.D. London: John F. Shaw. pp. 17–18. OCLC 681298716.
  4. Larsen, David L. (1998). The Company of the Preachers: Volume 2. Kregel Publications. p. 570. ISBN 9780825494345. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  5. "Adolph Aaron Saphir". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  6. Saphir, Adolph, ed. (1852). Letters and Diaries of Philipp Saphir. Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter. OCLC 867543229.
  7. Meyer, Rev. Louis, ed. (January 15, 1904). "Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel". Jewish Missionary News from All Lands and All Societies. The Jewish Era. Vol. 13 no. 1. Chicago.
  8. Licht, Agnes (June 30, 2017). "geboren worden in Amsterdam" [born in Amsterdam]. Maarten Maartens Lezen [Reading Maarten Maartens] (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-05. This article contains considerable biographical detail about Maria Dorothea Saphir, the first wife of Maarten Maartens's father Carl Schwartz.
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