TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Chasidim Rabbi
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 wth an uncle, the lad being brought up strictly. At the age of twenty, Mr. Bergmann arrived in England, and established 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 three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself.”
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 synagogues. 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 He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He 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 transgressions and bruised for his iniquities, that the chastisement of (or with the view to) his peace was upon Him, and with His stripes he was healed” (Isa. 53. 5).