Johann Christoph Wagenseil

Johann Christoph Wagenseil (born Nuremberg, November 26, 1633; died Altdorf, October 9, 1705) was a German Christian Hebraist.

In 1667 he was made professor of history at Altdorf, and was professor of Oriental languages at the same university from 1674 to 1697, after which he occupied the chair of ecclesiastical law until his death. For his knowledge of Hebrew he was chiefly indebted to the Sabbatean Behr Perlhefter and Enoch Levi, who had come from Vienna to Fürth about 1670.

Wagenseil devoted his learning to publishing anti-Christian works of Jewish authors, and undertook long journeys to gather his material. The fruit of this work is the collection entitled Tela Ignea Satanæ, sive Arcani et Horribiles Judæorum Adversus Christum, Deum, et Christianam Religionem Libri (Altdorf, 1681), which includes the apologetic Ḥizzuḳ Emunah of the Karaite Isaac Troki.

Becoming convinced by the Toledot Yeshu that the Jews were guilty of blaspheming Jesus, Wagenseil addressed to all high potentates his Denunciatio Christiana de Blasphemiis Judæorum in Jesum Christum (Altdorf, 1703), in which he implored them to restrain the Jews from mocking at Jesus, Mary, the cross, the mass, and Christian teachings. Although he would have been pleased to see the Protestant princes show greater zeal in the conversion of the Jews, Wagenseil was opposed to forcible baptism and similar measures, and devoted a special treatise to the refutation of the charge of ritual murder.

Wagenseil wrote, besides the above-mentioned books, Hoffnung der Erlösung Israels (Leipzig, 1705), which appeared in a second edition (Altdorf, 1707), augmented by a number of smaller works under the general title Benachrichtigungen Wegen Einiger die Gemeine Jüdischheit Betreffenden Sachen. This collection contains the following treatises:

1. "Quomodo cum Judæo in Colloquio, Forte Fortuno Nato, Agendum"
2. "Judæos non Uti Sanguine Christiano"
3. "Quomodo Usura Judæorum Averti Possit"
4. "De Precatione Judaica Olenu"
5. "Denunciatio Christiana de Blasphemiis Judæorum in Jesum Christum"
6. "Apologia"
7. "Denunciatio ad Magistratus Christianos de Juribus Eorum a Judæis Violatis"
8. "An Christianus Salva Religione Judæo Die Sabbati Inservire Possit."

He wrote also:

• "Exercitationes Sex Varii Argumenti" (Altdorf, 1698)
• "Belehrung der Jüdisch-Deutschen Red- und Schreibart" (2d ed., Königsberg, 1699)
• "Disputatio Circularis de Judæis" (Altdorf, 1705)
• "Rabbi Moses Stendal's nach Jüdischer Rede-Art Vorlängst in Reimen Gebrachte Psalmen David's" (Leipzig, 1700);

as well as an edition and Latin translation of the Talmudic treatise Sotah (Altdorf, 1674).

References

• Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. ii.1046;
• Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., x.274-276;
• Julius Fürst, Bibl. Jud. iii.489;
• Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 2711-2713
• Riemer, Nathanael: Zwischen Tradition und Häresie. ´Beer Sheva` – eine Enzyklopädie des jüdischen Wissens der Frühen Neuzeit. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 31-59 (on Wagenseil and his Jewish friends).
• Riemer, Nathanael: Zwischen christlichen Hebraisten und Sabbatianern - der Lebensweg von R. Beer und Bila Perlhefter. In: Aschkenas. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden. 14 (2004) Heft 1, S. 163-201 (article on the relationship between Wagenseil and Perlhefter).
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.