MARCUS BERGMANN translated the Scriptures into
Yiddish, which is understood by
most European
Jews. Mr. Bergmann's conversion, as told by himself,
is exceedingly interesting. Born in Germany, his father
belonged to the strictest sect of Jews,
the Chasidim, and
died when Marcus was but a year old. Six years after his
father's decease, his mother and he went to reside with an
uncle, the lad being brought up strictly. At the age of
twenty, Mr. Bergmann arrived in England, and estab-
lished a small synagogue in the city of London, where he
officiated for a time. Owing to an attack of illness, he
went to the German hospital to be treated. One day he
found a Hebrew Bible in the ward, and commenced to
study it. Whilst reading the ninth chapter of the book of
Daniel, his eye caught the prophecy contained in verse
twenty-six: "And after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, but not for [H]imself[.]"
He had never noticed that expression, as the Rabbis
discouraged the reading of the Messianic prophecies, the
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah not being read in the syna-
gogues. Mr. Bergmann threw down the Book saying to
himself, "Oh, this is one of the mission Bibles."
But do
what he might, he could not get rid of the words, "Messiah
shall be cut off, but not for Himself." Why, then, would He
be "cut off[?]" Why
should He die if not for Himself?
And the thought was suggested by the Holy Spirit: "Might
not Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah?" He did his utmost
to get rid of the words, "Messiah shall be cut off,
but not
for Himself," but they would not be buried. One morning
he took up the Bible, and as he read
part of the fifty-third
chapter of Isaiah, his eye fell on the words, "for [H]e
was cut off out of the land of the living: for the trans-
gression of [M]y people was [H]e stricken" (v. 8). The soul-
saving truth of the Gospel was laid
hold of, and for the
first time he understood that the Lord Jesus Christ was the
promised Messiah; that "He was wounded for his trans-
gressions and bruised for his iniquities, that the chastise-
ment of (or with the view to) his peace was upon Him, and
with His stripes he was healed" (Isa. 53. 5).