Steeped in Jewish learning, Joseph Samuel Frey was able to fluently read the Torah in Hebrew by the age of six. From six years and upwards, he was personally instructed in the Talmud, the rabbinic commentary on the Scriptures. At the young age of twenty-one years he became a leader in one of the local synagogues in Germany. Frey battled with the theological ideas of Christianity and underwent several years of internal struggle. Finally, in the year 1798, Frey was born again at the age of 27, accepting the Lord Jesus as his Messiah and Saviour.