Johan Christian Jacob Kemper (1670–1716), formerly Moshe ben Aharon of Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

, was a Polish Sabbatean Jew who converted from Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 to Lutheran Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

. His conversion was motivated by his studies in Kabbalah

Kabbalah

Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...

 and his disappointment following the failure of a prophecy spread by the Polish Sabbatean prophet Tzadok of Gordno, which predicted that Sabbati Zevi would return in the year 1695/6, It is unclear whether he continued to observe Jewish practices after his conversion.

In March 1701 he was employed as a teacher of Rabbinic Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 at Uppsala University

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

 in Sweden, until his death in 1716. Some scholars believe that he was Emmanuel Swedenborg's Hebrew tutor.

During his time at Uppsala

Uppsala

- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...

, he wrote his three-volume work on the Zohar

Zohar

The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...

entitled Matteh Moshe (The Staff of Moses), (1711). In it, he attempted to show that the Zohar contained the Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 doctrine of the Trinity

Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...

.

This belief also drove him to make a literal Hebrew translation of the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 from Syriac (1703). He also wrote Me'irat 'Enayim (The Enlightenment of the Eyes), (1704) a Kabbalistic

Christian Kabbalah

The Renaissance saw the birth of Christian Kabbalah/Cabbalah , also spelled Cabbala/Cabala...

 commentary on Matthew, which emphasized the unity of the Old and New Testaments and used elements from the Sabbatean and non-Sabbatean Kabbalistic traditions to derive Christian beliefs and meanings from traditional Jewish beliefs and practices.

In his commentary on polemical treatment of Christianity in rabbinical literature he was one of the first Lutherans to comment on the connection between the form of the name "Joshua" used for Jesus in the Talmud

Jesus in the Talmud

The Talmud contains passages that some scholars have concluded are references to Christian traditions about Jesus.The history of textual transmission of these passages is complex and scholars are not agreed concerning which passages are original, and which were added later or removed later in...

, Yeshu instead of the normal Yeshua used for other figures, and connected the dropping of the final ayin

Ayin

' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet...

 with the ancient curse yimakh shemo

Yimakh shemo

The Hebrew phrase yimakh shemo "May his name be obliterated" is a curse placed after the name of particular enemies of the Jewish people. A variant is yimakh shemo ve zikhro "Obliterate his name and his memory." Yimakh shemo is one of the strongest curses in the Hebrew language.-Usage:The term...

.
After his death, Kemper's student Andreas Norrelius (1679–1749) translated the commentary into Latin as Illuminatio oculorum (The Light of the Eyes),(1749).

Works

• Hebrew Translation of Matthew's Gospel, (1703)
• Meriat Enayim, (1704)
• Matteh Moshe, (1711)