OBITUARY OF THE REV. CHRISTIAN WILLIAM HENRY PAULI.

ANOTHER WORKMAN THAT WAS NOT ASHAMED OF HIS MASTER GONE TO HIS REST! Such was our exclamation when it was communicated to us that our dear Hebrew brother in Christ had finished the work which THE FATHER had given him to do on earth, and that his spirit had gone to one of the mansions which THE SON, THE GREAT MASTER BUILDER, had

prepared for him. The following biographical sketch of the deceased was communicated to us by a member of his family. We would add thereto that the original name of the dear object of this our notice was ZEBHI NASEE, HIRSCH PRINZ, or Prince. Under that name, as he himself has often told us, he has published, whilst yet in the synagogue, a volume of Sermons under the title Predigten für fromme Israeliten. The volume appeared in Halle, 1824, when the young rabbi was only about twentyfour years of age.

CHRISTIAN WILLIAM HENRY PAULI was born in Breslau, Silesia, on August 11th, 1800. His father was a rabbi, and he was left an orphan at the age of fourteen. He was the youngest of six children, and the only one who embraced the Christian faith. When young he used to read the law in the synagogue, and when about twenty-five years of age he began to introduce to his audiences readings from the New Testament. This innovation on the part of young Prinz subjected him to much persecution, and he was treated as of unsound mind. Shortly after this he was baptized in the Lutheran Church at Preusz-Minden, and his great friend Major Von Grabovski was present as sponsor, and also Baron Von Blumberg. More than twenty years after he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the same church, and Major Von Grabovski was present, and was visibly affected even to tears, by reason of the joy which the sermon and associations stirred up in his inmost soul.

Afterwards, on coming to England, he was for some time a student in the University of Cambridge, and enjoyed the friendship of the late Rev. Charles Simeon. While at Cambridge he received an invitation from friends in Oxford. This he accepted, and on arriving at the latter University, he was appointed Lecturer in Hebrew. This post he held for thirteen years. Many of the undergraduates also attended his private classes for the study of the Hebrew language. At this time he published the "Analecta Hebraica," which became well known, and I believe has been much used by Hebrew students. About 1840 he was strongly urged by the Committee to become a Missionary in connexion with the Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. At great pecuniary sacrifice, and from an earnest love for his Jewish brethren, and a yearning desire to make known to his kinsmen after the flesh JESUS AS THE MESSIAH, he felt constrained to undertake this work. In the same year he was ordained Deacon and Priest by Bishop Blomfield, in St. Paul's Cathedral. He was stationed for about three years at Berlin, where he had eatablished the Jewish Mission and built a chapel. His work there was attended with much success. The late King of Prussia was greatly interested in it, and on several occasions stood sponsor, by proxy, at the baptism of converts. From Berlin he went to Amsterdam, preaching at first in the New Lutheran Church, during the building of the Mission Chapel, afterwards named ZION'S CHAPEL. When he went to Amsterdam, at first, he preached in the German and English languages. Very soon he acquired an accurate knowledge of the Dutch language, and was able to preach in it fluently, which he did twice every Sunday, besides giving lectures, during the week, in Rotterdam, the Hague, Haarlem, and most of the chief towns and villages in Holland, until from

the loss of eye-sight through the damp climate and lack of physical power, with much grief to himself, he resigned his Mission into other hands, and came to England in May 1874. He retired to Luton, in Bedfordshire, where he died on the 4th of last May. He was buried in the cemetery there on the following Ascension Day.

He was the author of several works: "The Great Mystery,' ""The Translation of the Chaldee Paraphrase of Isaiah," &c. During his last illness his faith was strong and child-like, often speaking to " 'my Saviour," as he called Jesus, as though visibly present to him, and by his side. Amongst his last words these were some such :"When I have passed over Jordan, follow me. "This is the last, into God's hands I commit my spirit. I shall not live to see another day. I have lived my time." "Are the angels coming? "Am I still alive? my Saviour is nigh." "O God, assuage my pain and take me to my home, for Christ's sake." His last words were "My Saviour is nigh."

In 1854 he was visited with a heavy bereavement in the death of his eldest son Henry, who had graduated at Oxford, and taken Holy Orders in the Church of England. His death was caused by an injury to the spine. In 1866 his wife died, after being together nearly forty years. He leaves four sons and three daughters to

mourn his loss.

The Jewish Intelligence, the monthly publication of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, is enriched by many valuable contributions from Mr. Pauli's pen. In one of his latest letters to us, he wrote as follows:-"I do not know how soon our Beloved Redeemer may call me home. I am very busy, when my defective eyesight permits me, in writing the life of 7-once an enemy and an injurer, a chief of sinners; but blessed be our God for His free and sovereign Love, now a sinner saved!" &c., &c. We sincerely trust that it will not be long before the autobiography is published.

A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO HEBREW.

BY PROFESSOR DR. FRANZ DELITZSCH.

THE Easter No. of Saat auf Hoffnung-a Quarterly published at Erlangen, and edited by DR. DELITZSCH, one of the most. eminent Professors at Leipzig-for this year, contains a report of the learned Editor's efforts to produce and to publish an authorized version of the New Testament in the Sacred Tongue; an achievement which DR. DELITZSCH has aimed at, more or less, these forty years. The report is very interesting from various points of view. We hope to be able to reproduce it in extenso, in English, in our next QUARTERLY. We have read it over and

over again, under the most conflicting feelings. Press of matter compels us to be brief and seemingly abrupt at present.

With all deference to, and admiration for Professor DELITZSCH we cannot conceal from ourselves, or our readers, that the learned Editor of Saat auf Hoffnung has somewhat overrated the result of his labours, as regards his translation of the NEW TESTAMENT into Hebrew. We confess that our anticipations on the subject have not grown more sanguine than they were twelve years ago about this time. On the 24th of July, 1865, we-in the capacity of a private individual-ventured to express, in a letter to that great and good man, our misgivings about the success of so responsible an enterprise. The following is an extract from that letter:

"I understand that you are engaged upon a new translation of the New Testament into Hebrew. I should very much like to see a specimen of the work, I take a very great interest in such an undertaking. To be candid, however, I think the responsibility too great for a couple of individuals-be they ever such eminent scholars-to bring out such a work as an authorized Hebrew Version of the New Testament. I am of opinion that the LXX. should supply us with a wholesome hint touching such an enterprise.3

"I should venture to suggest that the work be undertaken by a conference of bonâ fide Hebrew Scholars, who understand the Sacred Tongue, not only to the extent of its etymology, but to the extent of the whole range of Hebrew literature, ancient as well as modern," &c. &c.

We may probably make ourselves somewhat more intelligible on this vexed question in our present cramped pressure for space, if we reproduce here a letter which we were recently called upon to address directly to the far-famed Scholar.

The Easter No. of the Saat auf Hoffnung, which contained the learned Professor's interesting report of his work in that HOLY FIELD, to which we allude, contains strictures on two papers which appeared in our January No. Those strictures bear witness that they are not the product of

3 The modern English revision companies, no matter whether they were selected or not-using a Gladstoneism-"for their unacquaintance with the genius of the method in which they were to work," have to a certain extent followed the example of the LXX.

Our valued

Dr. Delitzsche's powerful mind or ready pen. Hebrew Christian Brother, Mr. Bernstein, saw proper to animadvert on the criticism indulged in, against some remarks in one of his articles, in a letter to us.' We wrote direct to the Editor of Saat auf Hoffnung. We give our letter here in

extenso:

"LITTLE LINFORD VICARAGE,
"NEWPORT PAGNELL, BUCKS,

"May 1, 1877.

"MY DEAR DR. DELITZSCH.-The current number of Saat auf Hoffnung has been forwarded to me by my bookseller; from which I learn, indirectly, that, at least, the January number of the HEBREW CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND PROPHETIC INVESTIGATOR has reached you safely. This I learn by the strictures which the present No. of your Quarterly contains on two articles which appeared in the January issue of the ANGLO-HEBREW CHRISTIAN QUARTERLY. It is a matter of considerable regret to me that your valuable time is so much taken up that you must needs delegate to inferior hands the treatment of subjects which they neither appreciate nor understand. For instance, the would-be critic of the first Number of the new series of the ANGLO-HEBREW CHRISTIAN QUATERLYof which I have the honour to be the originator and editorbegins by announcing that the Magazine is under the editorship of Dr. Alfred Edersheim. Please correct the mis-statement in your next issue. Dr. Edersheim never was, and probably never will be, the editor of the HEBREW CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND PROPHETIC INVESTIGATOR. This careless piece of information tells the reader at once the amount of reliability to be accorded to such a hap-hazard critic, and is at the same time proof positive that you yourself could not possibly have seen, much less have written the remarks on the two articles criticized. I shall briefly

See pages 366, 367.

5 This Magazine is conducted, pur et simple, as a labour of love, with a single eye to bear witness to THE TRUTH. Hitherto the founder cum Editor has been a great loser in health and wealth by the work. The only gain which he covets, and which he now and then realizes, is winning souls for Christ. In the course of the year 1875, when the health of the Editor was greatly undermined by reason of arduous work in connexion with this Magazine, and it was proposed to Dr. Edersheim to undertake the editorship of the Magazine, but he declined to do so; first, because literature was with him a profession; secondly, because he deemed the founder of the Magazine to be the most competent editor of the same.

notice for the crtic's remarks are refuted by one another and do not require my doing so at any length-your contributor's strictures on my short paper, entitled The pros and cons on the Etymology of certain words in the now obsolete Cornish Language, in my larger work on the subject, to be entitled THE UNCERTAINTIES OF MODERN PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCE AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE PROS AND CONS ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF CERTAIN WORDS IN THE NOW OBSOLETE CORNISH LANGUAGE. At present, however, I would suggest to the adventurous critic to make good use of the advice which he was kind enough to tender to me, mutatis mutandis, to circumscribe within narrower limits than he has hitherto done the range of his criticisms, and confine his essays to the German language, and leave Hebrew and Archaic Cornish to those who know more about those languages than even his authorities have ever dreamt of. In other words, let your contributor give heed to the wholesome and time honoured proverb, Ne sutor ultra crepidam.

Your own two articles-Vier weissagende Gräber, and Der Stand des Neutestamentlichen Uebersetzungswerks-I have read, as I read everything which comes from your pen, with much. interest and pleasure. If I have space the former may be reproduced, and the latter noticed at some length in the next issue of the ANGLO-HEBREW CHRISTIAN QUARTERLY. I shall then quote, in connexion with the Position of the New Testament translation operation, a paragraph from a letter which I ventured to address to you in 1865, on the important undertaking. I have since then carefully examined your Hebrew translation of ST. PAUL'S Epistle to the Romans. I candidly and frankly own the result of my analysis of your Hebrew version of that Apostolic Letter to be confirmatory of the view which I espoused in July, 1865. Though I admit, as every Hebrew Scholar must, its great superiority to the version which you condemn.

With affectionate Christian esteem, I am, as ever,

Yours most sincerely,

MOSES MARGOLIOUTH.

P.S. This communication will appear in the July number of THE HEBREW CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND PROPHETIC INVESTIGATOR.

See pages 63, 64 in our January No.