Joseph Wolff

About the time that Edward Irving went to London, Joseph Wolff (1795-1862), a Jewish Christian, later to be known as “missionary to the world,” was launching his eventful career. Wolff was born in Bavaria, but soon he was taken to Prussia. His father, a rabbi, began a strict program of Hebrew training for his son when the boy was four. He was taught that Christians were idolatrous worshipers of wooden crosses, and that Jews generally were anticipating the soon coming of the Messiah (His first advent, of course, since the Jews did not accept Jesus). The youth began to wonder about Christ. When he was eight, he was favorably impressed with Christianity through contacts with Speiss, the village barber-surgeon, who also supplied the Wolff family with milk. Joseph was sent to watch the milking and check that nothing forbidden was added to the milk. He discussed with Speiss the subject of the Messiah. Through the reading of Isaiah 53, Wolff was fully persuaded that Jesus was the promised Messiah. In his early years the lad received a thorough education, with particular emphasis on the study of languages. At the age of seventeen he was baptized a Roman Catholic. His studies continued, with further emphasis on language study; and by the time he was twenty he was lecturing on Hebrew at the University of Landshut. Later conflicts with Catholic leaders over theology drove him from Catholicism, and at the age of twenty-three he began special training under the sponsorship of the London Society for the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews. In 1821 he went to Palestine to begin missionary work.APAY 178.2

Between 1821 and 1826, Wolff worked in Palestine, Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Persia, Crimea, Georgia, and the Ottoman Empire. From 1826 to 1830, he traveled through England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, the Mediterranean, Malta, the Greek Islands, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Cyprus. Between 1831 and 1834 his itinerary covered Turkey, Persia, Turkestan, Bokhara, Balkh, Afghanistan, Cashmere, Hindustan, and the Red Sea area. The years 1835-1838 were spent in Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, Mount Sinai, Jiddah, Masowah, Hamazien, Tigre, Abyssinia, India, Saint Helena, and finally the United States and England. In the United States he preached in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. In December, 1837, Wolff preached before a joint session of the Congress of the United States, and he also addressed the legislatures of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.APAY 179.1

Joseph Wolff’s preaching was constantly centered on the second advent. Here are a few sentences from one of his sermons:APAY 179.2

“Let this be our sincere prayer. ‘Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.’ ... What a beautiful song we shall hear, from a whole ransomed creation, when He shall come! ... THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH. He cometh! He cometh! ‘He cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity.’”APAY 179.3

As a result of his study of the prophecies, Wolff came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ would return in 1847, and that His coming would mark the beginning of the millennium. He believed that Christ would reign at Jerusalem. As one of the most widely traveled individuals of his time, Wolff preached the advent message to tens of thousands of listeners, and at the same time he distributed tracts and Bibles in the language of the people to whom he spoke. At times he fittingly signed his name, “Joseph Wolff, missionary to all the nations.” Attesting to the quality of Wolff’s preaching, John Quincy Adams, former President of the United States, proposed a motion to the effect that Wolff be permitted the use of the hall of the House of Representatives for a lecture, and said that he had never heard “a more profound, closely reasoned, and convincing argument upon the proofs of Christianity,” than in one of Wolff’s lectures to which he had listened.APAY 179.4

Despite the widespread influence of his ministry, the voice of Joseph Wolff was only one of the chorus proclaiming the soon advent of the Saviour.APAY 180.1