Joseph Wolff

Background

Wolff's father David Wolff (b. 1760), by 1790 rabbi in Weilersbach, then in Kissingen, Halle upon Saale und Uehlfeld, served as rabbi in Jebenhausen, Württemberg between 1804 and 1807, and sent his son to the Lutheran lyceum at Stuttgart.

Education

Wolff was a keen Oriental scholar and pursued his studies at Tübingen and at Rome, where he was expelled from the Collegio di Propaganda in 1818 for attacking the doctrine of infallibility and criticizing his tutors. After a short stay in the monastery of the Redemptorists at Val Sainte near Fribourg, Switzerland, he went to London, entered the Anglican Church, and resumed his Oriental and theological studies at Cambridge.

Career

In 1821 he began bis missionary wanderings in the East by visiting Egypt, the Sinaitic peninsula, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Mesopotamia, Persia, Tiflis and the Crimea, returning to England in 1826, when Edward Irving introduced him to Lady Georgina Walpole, 6th daughter of Horatio 'Walpole, earl of Orford, whom he married in February 1827.

In 1828 Wolff set out to search for the ten tribes, travelling through Anatolia, Armenia, Turkestan and Afghanistan to Simla and Calcutta, suffering many hardships but preaching with enthusiasm. He visited Madras, Pondicherry, Tinncvclly, Goa and Bombay, travelling home by Egypt and Malta.

Achievements

• In 1836 he found Samuel Gobat in Abyssinia, took him to Jiddah, and himself visited Yemen and Bombay, going on to the United States, where he was ordained deacon in 1837, and priest in 1838.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Narrative of a mission to Bokhara : in the years 1843-1845, to ascertain the fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843-1845, to Ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, Volume 1

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843-1845: To Ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, Volume 1

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843-1845: To Ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly (Cambridge Library Collection - South Asian History) (Volume 1)

    (Born in Franconia, the son of a rabbi, Joseph Wolff (1795...)

  • Missionary Journal and Memoir, of the Rev. Jeseph Wolf, Missionary to the Jews

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • Researches and Missionary Labours Among the Jews, Mohammedans, and Other Sects (Classic Reprint)

    (Researches and Missionary Labours Among the Jews Mohammed...)

  • Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara

    (This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book publ...)

  • Narrative of a mission to Bokhara: in the years 1843-1845, to ascertain the fate of Colonel Stoddart

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara, in the Years 1843-1845

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Missionary Journal and Memoir, of the Rev. Jeseph Wolf, Missionary to the Jews

    (Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic boo...)

  • Travels And Adventures Of Joseph Wolff...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Travels and Adventures of the REV. Joseph Wolff, D.D., LL. D, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Travels and Adventures of the Rev. Joseph Wo...)

  • Travels and Adventures of the Rev. Joseph Wolff (Classic Reprint)

    (PREFACE OF DR. WOLFF. W01JFF lays now before the public, ...)

Religion

He was converted to Christianity through reading the books of Johann Michael von Sailer, bishop of Regensburg, and was baptized in 1812 by the Benedictine abbot of Emaus, near Prague.

Views

Quotations: In his writings the following story is told of his early conviction that Jesus is the Messiah: "When only seven years old, he was boasting to an aged Christian neighbour of the future triumph of Israel at the advent of the Messiah, when the old man said kindly, “Dear boy, I will tell you who the real Messiah was: he was Jesus of Nazareth, whom your ancestors crucified, as they slew the prophets of old. Go home and read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and you will be convinced that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. ” Conviction at once fastened upon him. He went home and read the scripture, wondering to see how perfectly it had been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Were the words of the Christian true? The boy asked of his father an explanation of the prophecy, but was met with a silence so stern that he never again dared to refer to the subject. This however only increased his desire to know more of the Christian religion. "

Connections

He met his first wife in 1826 through Edward Irving, who introduced him to Lady Georgiana Mary Walpole, a descendant of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain; the couple were married on 26 February 1827.

After the death of his first wife on 16 January 1859, in May 1861 he married Louisa Decima, daughter of James King, rector of St. Peter-le-Poer, London. He was planning another great missions tour when he died at Isle Brewers on 2 May 1862.

Wolff named his son Henry Drummond-Wolff; the boy grew up to be a noted diplomat and Conservative politician who founded the Primrose League.

Father:

David Wolff

1st wife:

Lady Georgiana Mary Walpole

2nd wife:

Louisa Decima

Son:

Henry Drummond-Wolff

References

• Joseph Wolff