NARRATIVE OF A MISSION OF INQUIRY TO THE JEWS FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND IN 1839

Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1845. Third Edition. Hardcover. Good Plus. Octavo. Quarter-bound dark-blue pebbled cloth over simple leather spine, with gilt lettering. Wear to extremities -- particularly edges of leather, but solidly bound. Some occasional pencil bracketing within and light age- toning to pages. Two fold-out Maps and one Plan, all printed on bank-note paper. The first map, a frontispiece opposite title page, is entitled: "Map to Illustrate The Route of The Church of Scotland's Deputation". The blue (coloured) lines mark the Homeward Route of Drs. Black and Keith, and red lines indicate the route. The second map, of Palestine, shows in a red coloured line, the map of the route. The third "map" is a non-folding Plan of Jerusalem. Throughout the book are numerous in-text engravings and a handful of full-page engravings as well. 555 pp., including Appendices and Index.

This Narrative was purported to be one of the best known travel books ever published...besides being an acclaimed source of statistical, historical, geographical, and social information about the Jeish communities in the Middle East and Europe at the time. The story was first published in 1842 and went through multiple editions throughout the nineteenth century."

The book was written "in an engaging and popular vein, recounting incidents and observations in a realistic, anecdotal way. (John
This "Mission of Inquiry", was essentially reconnaissance work for future missionary work amongst the Jews for purposes of eventual conversion to the Christian believe that there was only onetrue way to God, that being through Christ. John W. Keddie in his article in the Scottish Reformation Society's Historical Journal, 9 (2019), 154-171 entitled "Missionary Inquiry to Israel in 1839 and its Consequences", explains the belief about the Jews. Keddie writes of the 19th century Presbyterian and Reformed Scots attitudes about the Jews: "...Whilst their rejection of Christ and what they inflicted on him was indeed grievous, that was not, at least generally, seen to be incompatible with an appreciation that they were after all the ancient people of God. As much as any poor lost or apostate Gentile souls, they needed to be faced up with the gospel of a gracious God and Saviour through whom alone there is any peace with God, and of course, true understanding of the Old Testament itself and its claims..."

The "Deputation" ultimately consisted of four men: Dr. Alexander Black, Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Cheyne and Dr. Alexander Keith, amongst whom were brilliant scholars, highly schooled in Divinity, Linguistics (fluent in a number of languages, including of course Hebrew). Bonar and M'Cheyne compiled the travelogue which comprises the book, which is to say *(Dr. Keddie notes) "...little or nothing of Dr. Black's and Dr. Keith's researches are to be found in print...no letter or report containing their thoughts on the suitability of Pesth as a mission station was ever published..." The point here, ion the opinion of Keddie is that Pesth was chosen as a future mission station largely due to several mishaps along the way, not the least of which was a serious fall from a Camel by Dr. Black. "This work was undertaken at the desire of the Committee of the General Assembly of the church of Scotland for the Conversion of the Jews. The writers had only one object to view during their journey, namely to see the real condition and character of God's ancient people, and to observe whatever might contribute to interest others in their cause...¶ We have had specially in view the people of the parishes of Scotland, feeling it our duty and our privilege, as ministers of Christ in the Church of Scotland, to promote the cause of the Jews among our brethren." (from Preface).