C. W. H. Pauli
Quick Facts
Biography
Zebi Nasi Hirsch Prinz (Hebrew Tzvi Nassi) in German Heinrich Prinz, and later Rev. Christian William Henry Pauli (11 August 1800 in Breslau – 4 May 1877 in Amsterdam) was a convert to Christianity, missionary for the London Jewish mission, and Hebrew grammarian.
He was born as the youngest of six children, and orphaned at 14. Although he is referred to as "Rabbi Tzvi Nassi" in some Messianic Jewish reprints of his proof of the Trinity from the Zohar, there is no indication that he was ever a rabbi. At the age of 21 he published in German, under the name Heinrich Prinz Sermons for pious Israelites. He was converted by L. A. Petri.
In England as Rev. Christian William Henry Pauli he became a missionary for the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews of Joseph Frey, first in Berlin, then at Amsterdam. In 1839 as C. W. H. Pauli he published Analecta Hebraica, a Hebrew grammar. It is frequently incorrectly claimed that Pauli was a lecturer in Hebrew at Oxford University, but he was never a member of Oxford or any other university.
In 1844 as Rev. Christiaan Wilhelm Hirsch Pauli he moved to the Netherlands, Zion's Chapel where he worked for 30 years. In 1844 he reported on an outrage committed on the Jews at Weesp, near Amsterdam.
Works
- 1824 Heinrich Prinz Predigten für fromme Israeliten zur Erbauung und zur wahren Aufklärung in Sachen Gottes. in Jahrbücher der Theologie und theologischer Nachrichten, Volume 2 Friedrich Heinrich Christian Schwarz
- 1839 Christian William Henry Pauli Analecta Hebraica Oxford 1839
- 1871 The Chaldee Paraphrase on the Prophet Isaiah of Jonathan ben Uzziel translated by C.W.H. Pauli. - Targum Isaiah.
- 1863 The Great Mystery, or How can Three be One (London, 1863) - an endeavour to prove the doctrine of the Trinity from the Zohar, in which he made further critical comments against Gesenius including that he had misunderstood the grammar and perpetuated a hoax concerning the pluralis excellentiae of Elohim.
- "which some modern grammarians, who possess more of the so- called philosophical than of the real knowledge of the Oriental languages, call a pluralis excellentiae."