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Audiobook edition · 15 h 40 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does changing faith mean when family, learning, and belonging are bound together?
In Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ, Aaron Bernstein gathers testimonies of people born Jewish who embrace Christianity. These accounts present faith through personal experience. They belong to a tradition in which believers describe changes in conviction and explain what those changes mean to them.
First published in 1909, the collection reflects the hopes of Christian missions to Jewish communities. Its purpose is persuasion, not neutral history. Reading it with that purpose in mind opens a window onto devotional writing and one side of the long, often painful relationship between Christians and Jews.
What you’ll discover
- Lives told as testimony Meet accounts that frame a change of faith as something to share with others.
- The meaning of witness Explore how Christian testimony connects personal experience with the desire to persuade.
- Jewish learning and belief Consider the place of Hebrew Scripture and Jewish upbringing in conversion narratives of this period.
- The cost of conviction Reflect on the family ties and community bonds that changing faith can strain.
- A perspective in context Read with attention to the missionary hopes and devotional habits that shape the collection.
Who will love it
Readers who love church history and personal accounts of faith will enjoy this book, especially those drawn to meetings of Jewish and Christian worlds, Hebrew scholarship, missions, and belief under pressure.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The first Christians were Jews, and many were priests
- Early converts paid a real price for faith
- After the Talmud, the gap between neighbours widened
- In the East, a few lives stand out
- Medieval Spain gave the church scholars and bishops
- Not every convert treated his people kindly
- The Reformation opened church doors to Jewish seekers
- Isaiah fifty-three opens many hearts
- Converts became missionaries, bishops, and translators
- Converts served learning, art, law, and their own people
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Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
by Aaron Bernstein · 1909
A boy shut in a furnace, a rabbi made bishop, a prisoner in Abyssinia: Bernstein gathers their remarkable stories.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
Who stood in Jerusalem at Pentecost, and who filled the first church? Almost every name among Christ's disciples in the Gospels is Jewish.
Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ at a glance
- Reading time
- About 9 h 5 min7 h 15 min fast, 10 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 130,300 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1909by Aaron Bernstein
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The first Christians were Jews, and many were priests
The apostolic age begins at Pentecost, when one hundred and twenty disciples gather in Jerusalem. Peter preaches, and about three thousand people are added that same day. Soon a large number of priests also obey the faith.
Acts names few of these converts. Bernstein reads this silence as a sign that Luke wrote early and had no wish to boast of numbers. A second century writer named Hegesippus tried to fill the gap. What survives of his work is a list of Hebrew Christian bishops of Jerusalem, beginning with James, the brother of the Lord.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 10 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Bernstein, Aaron. Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-jewish-witnesses-for-christ.
Bernstein, A. (2026). Some Jewish witnesses for Christ. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-jewish-witnesses-for-christ (Original work published 1909)
Bernstein, Aaron. Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-jewish-witnesses-for-christ.
@book{bernstein2026some,
author = {Bernstein, Aaron},
title = {Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-jewish-witnesses-for-christ},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ about?
It is a collection of short and long biographies of Jewish people who became Christians, from the first century to the early 1900s. Many entries include the convert's own account of how faith came to them and what it cost.
Who wrote Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ and when?
Aaron Bernstein, a Jewish convert and missionary born in Galicia, wrote it. He drew on the Jewish Encyclopedia and mission histories. It records events up to about 1908, so it belongs to the early twentieth century.
Who are the best-known people in the book?
They include Bishop Michael Alexander of Jerusalem, the historian August Neander, Isaac Da Costa, Henry Stern, Joseph Wolff, Alfred Edersheim, Paul of Burgos, and Bishop Schereschewsky, who translated the Bible into Chinese.
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