Johann Christoph Wagenseil (born Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, November 26, 1633; died Altdorf

Altdorf bei Nürnberg

Altdorf bei Nürnberg is a town in south-eastern Germany. It is situated 25 km east of Nuremberg, in the district Nürnberger Land. Its name literally means Altdorf near Nuremberg, to distinguish it from other Altdorfs.-History:...

, October 9, 1705) was a German Christian Hebraist

Christian Hebraist

A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians , but Christians have occasionally taken an interest in the Talmud, and...

.

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

Behr Perlhefter

Beer Shmuel Issachar Leyb ben Judah Moses Eybeschuetz Perlhefter was a Jewish scholar and rabbi. His educated wife Bella bat R. Jakob Perlhefter , corresponded in Hebrew and wrote the preface on the Yiddish book “Beer Sheva”...

 and Enoch Levi, who had come from Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to Fürth

Fürth

The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....

 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

Isaac b. Abraham of Troki

Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Karaite scholar and polemical writer Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Karaite scholar and polemical writer Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Karaite scholar and polemical writer (b. Trakai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, c. 1533; d. Trakai, c. 1594 (or eight years earlier for both...

.

Becoming convinced by the Toledot Yeshu

Toledot Yeshu

Sefer Toledot Yeshu is a medieval version of the story of Jesus from a Jewish perspective. The book concerns Yeshu, son of Joseph and Mary, born in Bethlehem, but also makes this Yeshu a contemporary of Queen Salome Alexandra...

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

Blood libel

Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...

.

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

Sotah

Sotah deals with the ritual of the Sotah - the woman suspected of adultery as described and prescribed in the Book of Numbers in...

(Altdorf, 1674).