WELCOME TO THE MESSIANIC ARCHIVE PAGE OF JORGE QUIÑÓNEZ

This web page is dedicated to preserving and disseminating the writings of important Jewish-believers in Yeshua from the 19th-century such as: Isaac Lichtenstein, Yedidyah haMatzliakh (Theophilus Lucky), Joseph Rabinowitz, Paul Phillip Levertoff, Joseph Immanuel Landsman, Paul Phillip Levertoff, Joachim Biesenthal, and Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein.

Below are the latest updates/entries:

Update 1-8-2008:
I wanted to note several things since my last update. First, to my surprise, someone is selling Isaac Lichtenstein's "An Appeal to the Jewish People" on lulu.com. It is available for free on this website. Next, I highly recommend people visit lcje.net and click on the link to the papers from the 2007 International Conference. There you will find very informative papers about Lucky and both Lichtensteins
by Dr. Kai Kjaer-Hansen. Below are my new offerings:

1)Google Book Search and Archive.org have lots of books available to download that may be of interest to you. Click here to download a book list I compiled of available titles. Also available: under the "History Project" link at lcje.net, you will find a large library of digitized book relating to Jewish missions.

1) Selections from Berit Am by various authors (Rabinowitz, J. Z. Lichtenstein, et al.). Berit Am was the missionary journal of the Instititum Judaicum Delitzschianum that was published from 1893 to 1924 practically all in Yiddish. This collection I put together only includes the Hebrew language material (articles and poetry) that is very comparable to the type of stuff you would see in Lucky's Edut LeYisrael. My thanks to Juan Morales Cano for all the work he did to make the copies and to the library of the modern Instititum Judaicum Delitzschianum located in Muenster, Germany, for making the periodical itself available to Mr. Cano. It is 110 pages (note that some of the articles may be duplicated in this scan). Download here.

2) Die religiöse Denkweise der Chassidim (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1918) by Paul Levertoff. This is the German original is what Love & the Messianic Age is based on and is twice as long. It expounds on how Hassidic Judaism sheds light on the writings of the New Testament. Download here.

3) St. Paul in Jewish Thought / Three Lectures (London: Diocesan House, 1928). by Paul Levertoff. The three lectures are: 1) "St. Paul and His Jewish Contemporaries"; 2)  "Claude Montefiore's Criticism and Appreciation of St. Paul"; and 3) "A Jewish Dramatist's Presentation of St. Paul." Download here.

4) Or haOlam by Ben Zion Friedmann (1897). It is a short tract in Hebrew ("Light of the World") that was praised by A. Lukyn Williams. Download here.

Update 11-4-2006. Three items:

1) Love & the Messianic Age by Paul P. Levertoff. This work is a discussion of Hassidic writings and the Gospel of John. The book is in English. Very interesting stuff. Download here.

2) Rabbi David Kimchi's Commentary upon the Prophecies of Zechariah by Alexander McCaul. (London: James Duncan, 1836-1837). McCaul was not Jewish. He was Irish. However, like Franz Delitzsch who also wasn't Jewish, McCaul had a great interest in Jewish literature and Jewish evangelism. In this work, he translates Rabbi David Kimchi’s Zechariah commentary into English providing his own comments. Part of the discussion involves reviewing differences between medieval Jewish commentators and the New Testament in how they approach scripture that relates to the Messiah, e.g., that the angel mentioned in Zechariah is the Messiah or Malachi’s “Angel of the Covenant.” Download here.

3) The Book of Common Prayer... translated into Hebrew. (London, 1836). It was the prayer book that Michael Solomon Alexander used in Jerusalem in 1838 for his Hebrew services and McCaul in England with the London Jews Society in 1837. Decades later, it would serve as a model for Joseph Rabinowitz's prayer book, Tefila. Despite its shortcoming, the Hebrew translation of the Book of Common Prayer served as the first proto-Messianic siddur. Download here.

Update 12-1-2005. Messianic Jewish version of the "Thirteen Principles or Articles of Faith" in Hebrew by Maimonides. It includes a clean Hebrew transcription I did on my Hebrew word processor. Around 1913, Joseph Immanuel Landsman wrote a Hebrew Messianic Jewish version of the Maimonides "Thirteen Principles or Articles of Faith," that is now standard in the siddur (Jewish prayer-book). Its Hebrew title is Ikarei Emunatenu Hakedosha (Hebrew for "The Principles of Our Holy Faith"). The Landsman piece is a pastiche or parody (depending how you look at it; imitation is the best form of flattery as they say) of the Rambam's original. It is virtually unknown to modern Messianic Jews. The version in the PDF file includes a nearly century-old English translation by David Baron from The Scattered Nation (1914) and the Hebrew original of Landsman's "Thirteen Principles" with a Yiddish translation at the bottom of each page. At the end, it includes a transcription I made of the Hebrew part so you can print out a legible copy. Download here.

Update 11-24-2005. THANKSGIVING UPDATE (11-24-2005): It is massive: over a thousand pages of new material! Download works by some of the most significant figures in Messianic Jewish history of the 19th century: A) SHEVA HOHMOT: In 1883, Lichtenstein published Sheva Hohmot (“Seven Wisdoms”) with the German subtitle, “Geography of the Talmud.” He wrote it under the name of Jechiel Zebi Herschensohn (his original Jewish surname). This book was later reprinted in 1912 by a Jewish publisher. It is a collection of rabbinic sayings on geography (and science in general). Over a Download SHEVA HOHMOT.

B) OTHER WORKS - (includes- Limudei haNeviim, Derekh haKodesh, Toledot Yeshua, Yeshua veHillel): This includes several works in one file: 1) Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein’s (hereafter L) earliest known work, Limudei haNeviim (“The Teachings of the Prophets”), was published in 1868 or 1869. According to Franz Delitzsch, L worked on Limudei haNeviim for 12 years. Later, Harling said that Delitzsch had called the work “the most scholarly and curious work, which a Jewish-Christian had written.” Limudei haNeviim tried to combine the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah and the New Testament as it presents itself as a type of Bible commentary. One of L’s former pupils, Landsman, explains it: “L undertook to harmonize the New Testament with the doctrines of the Cabbala, and the fruit of his studies was... [Limudei haNeviim].” 2) Derekh haKodesh, is a briefer version of Limudei haNeviim cut off at pg. 158 (only includes the title page and introduction or forward. Thus, only the intro/forward is included. 3) Toledot Yeshua (“The Life of Yeshua”) that L published under the pseudonym “Even Tzehar.” The title, of course, a response to the rabbinic polemic commonly known as Toledot Yeshu. 4) L’s Hebrew translation of Franz Delitzsch’s Yeshua veHillel, a response by Delitzsch to Jewish writers’ comments comparing Jesus to Hillel (viz. Rabbi Abraham Geiger). Download OTHER WORKS.

C) L's REVISED MATTHEW COMMENTARY- Jechiel Zebi L’s revised commentary on Matthew [Beur lesifre berit haHadashah /Kerech [aleph]: Matai. Paul Levertoff & Heinrich Laible (eds.), Leipzig, 1913] in Hebrew which is a substantial revision of his original 1891 edition [Matthäus. Leipzig, 1891]. Lichtenstein died before it could be published. Download REVISED MATTHEW COMMENTARY.

D) Theophilus Lucky's EDUT LEYISRAEL- The true founder of modern Messianic Judaism. This 600 page (all in Hebrew) file of all of the extant issues of his Haskalah era periodical Edut LeYisrael published both in the USA and Eastern Europe. One of the first Hebrew periodicals published in America! Hundreds of articles in Hebrew on Torah, rabbinics, the holidays, book reviews, letters, etc. For example, pgs. 7-8 has Hebrew liturgy by Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein. Along with Lichtenstein's NT commentary, this has to rank as one most unique and interesting publications by 19th century Jewish Yeshua-believers. It still awaits modern scholars' analyses. Download EDUT LEYISRAEL.

E) An ANTHOLOGY of WORKS by Joseph Rabinowitz- It includes the following works of Rabinowitz (R hereafter) with English translations: 1) Tefila (R’s congregational prayer book) along with an English translation edited by myself. Note that this includes a Messianic version of Lekha Dodi. 2) R’s Passover or Easter Service including a complete English translation. This is an interesting experiment. 3) A collection of articles from Peculiar People that include English translations of part of Tefila, an introduction on R by Deliztsch and R’s own autobiography, and R’s view on Zionism. 4) English translations by James Adler and others of some of R’s sermons and liturgical material from Tefila. 5) A tract of two sermons in Hebrew. 6) R’s Hebrew sermon anthology, Devarim Nekhumim. 7) R's dialogue between two Jews. Download R's ANTHOLOGY.  [updated Aug 8, 2006]

Update 6-18-2005. The Sephardic version of Adon Olam ("Lord of the Universe") has several extra lines compared to the regular Ashkenazi version including one that refers to the Messiah.  Adon Olam is a common synagogue prayer frequently employed in Jewish services and printed at the beginning of Jewish prayer-books (siddurs) in the daily (morning) prayer section. This is a case of a major difference between an Ashkenazi and Sephardic version of supposedly the same prayer. Download.

Update 4-25-2005. Work by Hungarian Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein or RIL (1824-1908), a famous JBJ from the late 19th century. Below is a link to download his An Appeal to the Jewish People. An abstract: This text is entreats Jewish readers to take an unprejudiced and impartial look at the claim that Yeshua is the Messiah and that believing in Jesus is not anti-Jewish. He asks people to reserve judgment on the matter until the finish reading his Appeal. What unfolds is a passionate yet predictable apology. RIL connects together biblical passages, one after the other, at times as part of the actual text (e.g., Ps 39:9-12 followed by Rm 10:13-15 on page 9). This is a common literary technique in rabbinical writings. As well, RIL tries to demonstrate to his audience that Christian doctrine is not so alien or different to that of Judaism. He says "I will not speak of the Christian doctrine of the Godhead Father, Son, and Spirit although our Chassidim, who claim to be successors of the heroes of the Talmud believe in a tenfold godhead, in ten emanations, who with En-Sof (the Eternal) form one absolute, inseparable unity, with ten sides and ten faces." (pg. 15) He also connects Yeshua with the malakh berit (Angel of the Covenant) from Malachi 3:1 (pg. 5) that noted medieval rabbinic commentators such as RaDaK (i.e., Rabbi David Kimchi) equate with the Messiah. Near the end, RIL tries to break Jewish stereotypes of Christian antijudaism by gives saying that not all Christians are anti-semites (pg. 15). He finishes his Appeal by assuring his readers in the Jewish people accepting Yeshua as their Messiah they will not lose their people-hood and assimilate: G-d will finally be put into action all those prophetic promises he gave to Israel and that they will at the head and not the tail among the nations (p. 21)." [I expect that sometime in 2008, an anthology of RIL's writings (translated into English) that I edited will be published.] Download here.

Emanuel Yispe (probably a pseudonym) in 1892 had his collection of songs/poem entitled Shirei haYeshuah, Hebrew for "Songs of Salvation", published in Eastern Europe. I don't have any other information on this person or his work. The titles are Cyrillic and Hebrew. It is probably Russian, but could be some other Eastern European language such as Ukaranian. Yeshua the Messiah appears to be a central topic of the poetry. Any song-writers want to put music to this Hebrew verse? Download here.

Paul Phillip Levertoff (1878-1954), translator of the Zohar into English for Socino Press and early Messianic Jewish pioneer, wrote a Hebrew liturgical service, called Meal of the Holy King, in the 1920s that he probably employed all the way towards the end of his life. It that can be downloaded here .

A Hebrew NT commentary by Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein (1830/31(?)-1912). Originally published between 1891 and 1904 in multiple parts, Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein's Beur leSifre Berit HaHadashah (Commentary on the New Testament) is one of the more interesting Hebrew writings by JBY to have come out of the 19th century. Download Lichtenstein’s Commentary.

Contact Information:
 
Jorge Quiñónez   (jorgequinonez at yahoo.com)
12621 Lewis St., #37
Garden Grove, CA 92840
USA.