Shabtai Rohold was one of the first Sabra missionaries to the people of Israel!  He was raised in Jerusalem, in an orthodox family, son of Rabbi Naphtali Rohold.  According to his testimony in Bernstein's Jewish Witnesses for Christ (Keren Ahvah Meshichit, 1999) he was saved after a "divine appointment" with two believers who pointed him to the promises of Messiah in the prophets:

"It was in the year 1893 that I had conversation for the first time with Christians. In that beautiful spot, the so-called Garden of Gethsemane, I one evening met two servants of God, who began speaking to me. At the time it seemed that I had gone into the Garden merely by accident, but now, as one looks back over the past, it can be clearly seen that a loving unseen hand was guiding me. These two Christians explained to me from the Scriptures how that Jesus of Nazareth is in very deed the promised Messiah, Israel's greatest hope. As they reasoned with me, there was one passage of Scripture which I could not get over, that 'the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.'

With this new light upon the Word of God I was given to understand that the promised regarding the coming One told not only of His glory and majesty, but also of His suffering and death (Isaiah 53 and Pslam 22).

Slowly I began to see how great and true Jehovah is, and how that His divine word regarding the Messiah has been literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ. I saw my helpless condition, and realised as never before that my own righteousness was as filthy rags. And oh, what joy came to me, when the gracious promise of God was fulfilled, a promise which came to me now wich such a new meaning. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit ill I put within you; and I will tke away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you." (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Rohold's father, Naphtali, was a respected rabbi in Jerusalem.  Both he and his wife were descended from a long line of rabbis and took their religion and their heritage seriously.  Shabtai received the best rabbinical education possible, and became a proficient Talmudic scholar.

Naphtali sought to give his children a broad education, and hired a tutor to teach them German.  However, the tutor was under strict instructions not to speak to them of Christianity!  This did not mean, however, that the Bible could not be used as a base for translation studies.  It was in this way that Shabtai first read Isaiah 53, which puzzled and confused him.  He thought it may refer to the Jesus of the Christians, but pushed the thought away.

He was a mischievous boy.  He and other boys played tricks on an elderly missionary in the city - but this man was always kind to them, never losing his temper or cursing them for their unkindness.  The boys began to respond to his invitations to visit him in his home, and began to discuss with him passages in the Bible that refer to the Messiah. Rohold thought his interpretations were strange, however, as he began to study himself he had to acknowledge that the messianic passages did seem to speak of Jesus of Nazareth!  Thus the seed was planted, so that it was no sudden thing that Rohold, after meeting with believers in his adulthood and talking with them of the messianic scriptures, surrendered himself to his Messiah.  He paid a tremendous cost, for his distinguished family could not tolerate the disgrace of their son becoming a Christian.  He lost all that was near and dear to him.

Rohold took himself to the United Kingdom and graduated from the University of Glasgow and from the Free Church College in Edinburgh. Between the years 1897 to 1906, he served as the Superintendent of the Boner Memorial Mission to the Jews in Glasgow. In 1908 he accepted a call to the Toronto congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, where he helped found the first Hebrew Christian Synagogue. He also participated in the founding of the Hebrew-Christian Alliance of America.

Shabtai joined the work of the British Jews Society (CWI today) in Israel in 1919, assisting elderly Mr Joseph to found a medical clinic and mission center, in association with the Plymouth Brethren.

Mr Joseph proposed to give the building he owned on the slopes of Mount Caramel to Rohold but the latter thought it wiser for Joseph to deed the property to the British Jews Society.. Two years later, Rohold offered his services to the BJS for work in Palestine and the Free Church of Scotland invited BJS to become its agent for missionary work among the Jews.

Sources:

Bernstein, A.  Jewish Witnesses for Christ.  London, 1909.  or - Keren Ahvah Meschichit, 1999
Gartenhaus, Jacob.  Famous Hebrew Christians. International Board of Jewish Missions, Inc, Chattanooga Tenn. Baker Book House Company, 1979.
www.cwi.org.uk

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