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


Life

He was born in eastern
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
(Pest) on 26 September 1831, the son of Israel Saphir, a Jewish merchant and brother of the poet,
Moritz Gottlieb Saphir Moritz Gottlieb Saphir, born Moses Saphir (8 February 1795 in Lovasberény near Székesfehérvár – 5 September 1858 in Baden bei Wien) was an History of the Jews in Austria, Austrian-Jewish satirical writer and journalist. Life Saphir was the ...
. Adolph's mother was Henrietta Bondij. As a child he was reportedly of a delicate constitution, and there were initially concern that he would not survive infancy. In 1843, his family converted to Christianity through the Jewish mission of the Free Church of Scotland. 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 New College is a historic building at the The University of Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious studies, R ...
. This proved impractical due to his age and lack of English. He attended a Gymnasium in
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from 1844 to 1848 much improving his English. From 1848 he studied at
Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...
graduating MA in 1854. Saphir travelled to
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with Rabbi Duncan and Alfred Edersheim. He then studied at the
Marischal College, Aberdeen Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has been the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. The building was constructed for and is on long-term lease fr ...
. He took his theology course at New College, Edinburgh. In 1854, Saphir was appointed a missionary to the Jews. He worked briefly in
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before moving to England where he became a minister of the
Presbyterian Church of England The Presbyterian Church of England was a late-19th-century and 20th-century Presbyterianism, Presbyterian denomination in England. The church's origins lay in the 1876 merger of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian ...
, and served at Laygate Church in
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, at St Mark's in
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, and at Trinity Church South Street,
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. In 1880 he was forced to resign his pastorate at Notting Hill due to ill health. A measure of recovery followed, so that he was able preach for a while at St. John's Church, Kensington, and to supply the vacant pulpit of Belgrave Presbyterian Church, West Halkin Street, for six months. This was followed by a call to become Pastor there, and he was inducted to the ministry of Belgrave on 28 June 1882. As he was not quite able to undertake all of the duties of the pastorate, a generous donor provided money to pay an assistant minister. He resigned from Belgrave Church in May 1888. Saphir received an honorary
Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...
from the
University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...
in 1878. Following his retirement, Dr. Saphir continued to preach as his health permitted. He spent the winter of 1890–91 at Bournemouth, where he supplied the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Saphir died of
angina pectoris Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease. Angina is typically the result of part ...
on 3 April 1891, just three days after the death of his wife on 31 March.


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) *''The Compassion of Jesus'' *'' The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation'' (Edinburgh, 1874), being a translation of Karl August Auberlen (''Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung Johannis'', (Basel, 1854) *


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; Johanna taught at the school and later married Charles Andrew Schönberger, co-founder of the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel; and Maria Dorothea married the noted Hebrew Christian preacher
Carl Schwartz August Ferdinand Carl Schwartz DD (1817–1870) was a Hebrew Christian clergyman and minister of the Free Church of Scotland serving in Amsterdam and London. Life He was born on 20 January 1817 in Meseritz in Prussia, now Międzyrzec Podlaski i ...
. This article contains considerable biographical detail about Maria Dorothea Saphir, the first wife of Maarten Maartens's father Carl Schwartz. In 1854 Adolph married Sarah Owen from Dublin. They had one daughter who died young; Sarah died four days before Adolph.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saphir, Adolph 1831 births 1891 deaths People from Pest, Hungary Converts to Calvinism from Judaism Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Protestant missionaries in England 19th-century Presbyterian ministers Presbyterian missionaries in Europe Hungarian Presbyterian missionaries Hungarian Jews