View source for Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky

{{Infobox Christian leader
| type        = Bishop
| name        = Joseph Schereschewsky
| title       = [[Anglican diocese of Shanghai|Anglican Bishop of Shanghai]]
| image       = Joseph Schereschewsky.jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = 
| church      = [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]]
| archdiocese = 
| diocese     = 
| see         = [[Anglican diocese of Shanghai|Shanghai]]
| term        = 1877–1884
| predecessor = [[Channing M. Williams]] 
| successor   = [[William Jones Boone, Jr.]]
<!--   Orders   -->
| ordination     = 28 October 1860
| ordinated_by   = 
| consecration   = 31 October 1877
| consecrated_by = [[Benjamin Bosworth Smith]]
| rank           = 
<!--   Personal details   -->
| birth_date    = 6 May 1831
| birth_place   = [[Tauroggen]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]]n [[Lithuania]]
| death_date    = 15 October 1906
| death_place   = [[Tokyo]], [[Japan]]
| previous_post = 
}}
{{Infobox Chinese|showflag=cp|c=施約瑟|p=Shī Yuēsè|mi={{IPAc-cmn|shi|1|-|yve|1|s|e|4}}|myr=Shr̄ Ywēsè|w=Shih Yüeh-se|j=Ji6 Joek3 Sat1|y=Yih Yeuk Sàt|ci={{IPA|yue|jìːjœ̄ːk sɐ̂t|}}|gr=Shy Iueseh}}
'''Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky''' (pronounced skĕr-ĕs-kūs'kĭ {{zh|c=施約瑟|myr=''Shi Yuese''}}; 6 May 1831 – 15 October 1906), also known as '''Joseph Schereschewsky''', was the [[Anglican diocese of Shanghai|Anglican Bishop of Shanghai]], [[China]], from 1877 to 1884. He founded [[St. John's University, Shanghai]], in 1879.

==Early years==
Schereschewsky was born in [[Tauroggen]], [[Russian Empire|Russian]] [[Lithuania]], on 6 May 1831. He appears to have been named for his father. His mother was Rosa Salvatha. Orphaned as a young boy, it is speculated he was raised by a half-brother who was a timber merchant in good circumstance. Having shown himself to be a promising student, he was given the best education available and it was his family's intention that he become a [[rabbi]]. From the time he left his brother's house at 15, he was obliged to support himself as a tutor and as a [[glazier]]. It was at the rabbinical school in [[Zhytomyr]] that he was given a copy of the [[New Testament]] in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] which had been produced by the [[London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews]]. The study of that gradually convinced him that in [[Jesus]] the [[Messiah|Messianic]] prophecies of the [[Old Testament]] and the age-long hopes of his people had been fulfilled. At the age of 19 years, he went to [[Germany]] where he studied for a year or more at [[Frankfurt]] and for two years at the [[University of Breslau]]. To his fluency in [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] he added [[German language|German]], which he spoke like a native for the rest of his life.{{sfnp|Eber|1999|pp=19-24}}

==Road to China==
In 1854, he decided to emigrate to the [[United States]], particularly [[New York City]], where he connected with [[Messianic Jews]] but did not enter the church until 1855 when he was baptized by immersion and associated with a [[Baptist]] congregation. For reasons unknown, he then became a [[Presbyterian]] and went to the Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at [[Allegheny, Pennsylvania]]. (Western Theological Seminary is now [[Pittsburgh Theological Seminary]]. He matriculated as Samuel Isaac Joseph, ostensibly to avoid anti-Semitism.) After more than two years, he left to enter the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]] and the [[General Theological Seminary]], where he found a mentor in the professor of Hebrew, [[Samuel H. Turner]]. His plan to complete his remaining two years of study was interrupted when he offered himself for work in China.  On 3 May 1859, the Foreign Committee voted that he be appointed missionary to China as soon as he was ordained. He was ordained as a deacon on 17 July 1859 at [[St. George's Church, New York]] by Bishop [[William Jones Boone (father)|William Jones Boone]].

==Career in China==
Schereschewsky arrived in Shanghai on 21 December 1859 on the ship ''Golden Rule'' with Bishop Boone. On 28 October 1860 Bishop Boone ordained him to the priesthood in the mission school chapel, later known as the Church of our Savior, [[Hongkew]].  He served in [[Peking]] from 1862, including on the Peking Translation Committee.{{sfnp|Eber|1999|pp=85-136}}

By 1861, Schereschewsky had begun his [[Bible translations into Chinese]]. The first was of the [[Psalm]]s into the [[Shanghai dialect]]. He later translated the [[Book of Common Prayer]] into Mandarin with English missionary [[John Shaw Burdon]].<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-no97-77154 WorldCat Listing]</ref>

He returned to the United States for health reasons in 1875, and refused a call to become missionary bishop of Shanghai, since bishop [[Channing Moore Williams]] had requested division of his huge episcopate (including both China and Japan). However, two years later, Schereschewsky accepted the call to that bishopric from the Episcopal House of Bishops, after receiving assurances of financial support for his dream of building a college to educate Chinese in Shanghai. Schereschewsky was consecrated Bishop in [[Grace Church (Manhattan)|Grace Church]], New York, on October 31, 1877<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.stsams.org/patron.htm|title =THE CYBERPARISH of SAINT SAM |access-date=15 October 2015}}</ref> and two years later founded St. John's College (later renamed [[Saint John's University, Shanghai|St. John's University]]). He served as [[Anglican diocese of Shanghai|Bishop of Shanghai]] until 1883, when he resigned his bishopric for health reasons (having become increasingly incapacitated after suffering a sun stroke in 1881).

He returned to the United States with the understanding that he could return to China as translator as his health permitted. That he did in 1895, although he became "paralysed in every limb, and with his powers of speech partly gone, sitting for nearly twenty-five years in the same chair, slowly and painfully typing out with two fingers his Mandarin translation of the Old Testament and Easy Wen-li translation of the whole Bible"{{sfnb|Broomhall|1907| p = 374}} His new translations of the [[New Testament]] and the [[Hebrew Bible]] into Mandarin were published in 1898–1899. However, Schereschewsky yearned to complete a new translation of the Bible into Wenli, China's classical language, finding the previous five attempts inaccurate and some even lapsing into paganism (1902).<ref>{{Cite Americana|wstitle= Schereschewsky, Samuel Isaac Joseph |volume= XXIV |short=1 }}</ref><ref>"[https://anglicanhistory.org/asia/china/bishops1908 BISHOP SCHERESCHEWSKY]" Project Canterbury, The Bishops of the American Church Mission in China, Hartford, Connecticut: Church Missions Publishing Co., 1906.</ref>

He continued his translation work, with the assistance of an [[amanuensis]] in Chinese and later Japanese, when he moved to Tokyo, Japan during his final decade. A contemporary called him, "[p]robably the greatest Bible translator China ever had".<ref>{{citation |page = 442 |editor-first = Marshall|editor-last = Broomhall |year = 1907 |title= The Chinese Empire: A General and Missionary Survey | place = London |publisher = Morgan and Scott |url = https://archive.org/details/chineseempiregen1907broo}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Schereschewsky died on 15 October 1906 and is buried in [[Tokyo]], [[Japan]]. St. John's University, which Schereschewsky began with 39 students, mostly taught in [[Chinese language|Chinese]]. In 1891, it changed to teaching in [[English language|English]] and the courses began to focus on science and natural philosophy.

==Veneration==
Schereschewsky is honored with a [[feast day]] on the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)|liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA)]] on 14 October.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEq7DwAAQBAJ |title=Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 |date=2019-12-17 |publisher=Church Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-1-64065-235-4 |language=en}}</ref>

{{Portal|Christianity|Saints}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* Muller, James Arthur ''Apostle of China: Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky'' (New York: Moorhouse, 1937)  [https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15433143W/Apostle_of_China_Samuel_Isaac_Joseph_Schwereschewsky  Open Library (requires key)]
* {{cite book
 |last = Eber
 |first = Irene |year = 1999
 |title = The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible: S.I.J. Schereschewsky, (1831-1906)
 |publisher = Brill
| location = Leiden; Boston
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyugx2gz6HQC&q=Eber,+Irene.+The+Jewish+Bishop+and+the+Chinese+Bible:+S.I.J.+Schereschewsky,+%281831-1906%29.+Leiden%3B+Boston:+Brill,+1999.+
 |isbn =9004112669
}}
*{{Cite web | title = This day in History 1906: The Anglican bishop of Shanghai dies | last = Green | first = David B. | work = haaretz.com | date = 15 October 2015 | access-date = 2017-10-17 | url = https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/this-day-in-jewish-history/1.680188 | language =   | quote =  }}{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky}}
* Paul Clasper, "Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky", [http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/s/schereschewsky-samuel-isaac-joseph.php ''Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity''], reprinted from Gerald H. Anderson, ed. ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions'' (Macmillan, 1998)
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Schereschewsky, Samuel Isaac Joseph |short=x}}
* "Bishop Schereschewsky", ''The Bishops of the American Church Mission in China'' (Hartford: Church Missions Publishing, 1906)  [https://anglicanhistory.org/asia/china/bishops1908/ Online Version][https://anglicanhistory.org/ Anglican History] [[Project Canterbury]]
* [http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-no97-77154 Schereschewsky, S. I. J. (Samuel Isaac Joseph) 1831-1906] [[WorldCat]] listing of works by or about Schereschewsky

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{{Succession box|title=[[Anglican diocese of Shanghai|Bishop of Shanghai]]|before=[[Channing Moore Williams]]||after=[[William Jones Boone, Jr.]]|years=1877 – 1884}}
{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Protestant missions to China}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schereschewsky, Joseph}}
[[Category:1831 births]]
[[Category:1906 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Anglican saints]]
[[Category:Episcopal bishops of Shanghai]]
[[Category:Bishops of the Episcopal Church (United States)]]
[[Category:Anglican missionaries in China]]
[[Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism]]
[[Category:19th-century Lithuanian Jews]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into Chinese]]
[[Category:Lithuanian Protestants]]
[[Category:20th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:19th-century Anglican bishops in China]]
[[Category:People from Tauragė]]
[[Category:Jewish translators of the Bible]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century American translators]]
[[Category:19th-century American translators]]
[[Category:Anglican biblical scholars]]
[[Category:American Anglican missionaries]]
[[Category:American missionary educators]]
[[Category:American expatriates in China]]
[[Category:Academic staff of St. John's University, Shanghai]]
[[Category:American missionary linguists]]
[[Category:19th-century American clergy]]
[[Category:University and college founders]]
[[Category:19th-century American educators]]