Johann Christoph Wagenseil (b. Nuremberg, 1633; d. Altdorf, 1705) earned his Dr.Phil. in 1665 from Altdorf Academy, the forerunner of the University of Altdorf, and taught history, law and Near Eastern languages from 1668 until the end of his life. His book Tela Ignea Satanae (The Flaming Arrows of Satan, Altdorf, 1681), from which the portrait is taken, is an anthology of Jewish anti-Christian polemics containing many of the most important medieval and early modern Jewish anti-Christian polemics: the Toledot Yeshu, the Hebrew accounts of the 13th century Paris Talmud trial and the Barcelona disputation, the Sefer Nizzahon Yashan, and Isaac Troki's Hizzuq Emunah. These appeared here in their first printed editions, with Latin translations and scholarly commentary Wagenseil's historical and philological awareness in the book are acute and prescient; but it was openly inspired by pointed anti-Jewish intent, as is evident from its title, in which the "flaming arrows of Satan" (cf. Ephesians 6:16) are Jewish ones aimed against Christendom.
After publishing Tela Ignea Satanae, Wagenseil came into contact with Jewish scholars. This made him aware of the hardships of the status of the Jews in Europe and of the absurdity of the accusations of ritual murder. Toward the end of his life, according to the historian Peter Blastenbrei, Wagenseil "began to sketch a design for peaceful coexistence of Jews and Christians through legal demarcation, humane treatment of the minority, and closer mutual acquaintance." He took a stand against the ritual murder libel in an essay called "Judæos non Uti Sanguine Christiano" ("The Jews Do Not Make Use of Christian Blood") published in his book Benachrichtigung wegen einiger die gemeine Jüdischheit betreffenden wichtigen Sachen (Information against Some Important Things Concerning the Jewish Community, Leipzig, 1705). At the same time, he remained convinced that the Jews blasphemed against Jesus, Mary and Christian dogmas and symbols (Denunciatio Christiana de Blasphemiis Judæorum in Jesum Christum, A Christian Condemnation of Jewish Blasphemies against Jesus Christ, Altdorf, 1703), and promoted Christian missionizing to the Jews (Hoffnung der Erlösung Israels, Hope in Israel's Redemption, Leipzig, 1705).
