Father Antoine Gaubil (1689–1759) was a French Jesuit. In 1704, he joined the Society of Jesus and was sent to China. He arrived in Beijing in January 1723 and spent the rest of his life there. He worked as the head of a school and taught Latin to the ruling class Manchurians.

Father Gaubil was known as the best astronomer and historian amongst the French missionaries in China.

Father Gaubil was hosted by the head of the Jesuit Mission in the city, Father Jean-Paul Gozani (1647–1732), who helped introduce him to the Kaifeng community’s elders; Father Gozani also helped to translate for Father Gaubil.

The purpose of his stay in Kaifeng was to find out as much as possible about the Jewish community.

The Kaifeng Jewish community consisted of seven distinct clans, roughly a thousand individuals.

Father Gaubil reported that the Kaifeng Jews still performed circumcision (割礼). In addition, they observed festivals such as Sabbath (安息日), Passover (逾越节), Purim (普珥节).

The rabbi was very excited to meet Father Gaubil, who was well versed in Hebrew.

According to Father Gaubil, the Kaifeng Jews “start learning how to read Hebrew from childhood, and many of them also know how to write it; I have seen them reading and writing with my own eyes.” The community asked Father Gaubil to clarify certain grammatical uncertainties regarding the conjugation of verbs and the declension of nouns.

The community's rabbi chose the best Hebraists to meet Father Gaubil; he nevertheless noted that the community could not adequately interpret their own scriptures. According to Father Gaubil, “these two Jews, and their rabbi as well, were absolute ignoramuses.”

The local Jewish community told Father Gaubil that their ancestors arrived in China about 1,650 years ago, from Xiyu (西域), a region west of China. This would have been during the reign of Emperor Ming-di (汉明帝, reign 57–75) of the Han Dynasty.

The Kaifeng Jews did not know why their forefathers moved to and settled down in China; they were also uncertain regarding the books and scriptures they had on them when they immigrated.

According to the Kaifeng Jewish community, the synagogue was destroyed by a fire during the reign of Emperor Wan-li (万历帝, 1572–1620). Although this event was not recorded on any of the stone inscriptions, when Father Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, 1552–1610) met Ai Tian (艾田) in 1605, Ai did mention that the synagogue was only recently rebuilt, on a very lavish scale. Therefore, it is possible that the synagogue was re-constructed because of this fire.

The fire would have been the second time that the congregation suffered the almost complete destruction of its Holy Books. Everything was destroyed except one Torah, which was given to them by co-religionists from Xiyu (西域), the land west of China. All the other Scrolls were copied from this one.

Shortly after Father Gaubil left Kaifeng, in January 1724, Emperor Yong-zheng (雍正皇帝, reign 1722–1735) expelled most missionaries from China. As a result, father Gozani was forced to leave Kaifeng before the transcribed copy of the Torah was ready.

Father Gaubil was granted permission to stay in Beijing when most missionaries were expelled; nevertheless, he never received the transcribed Torah.

It would be another century before Christendom would have access to the Kaifeng Scrolls.

On 24th March 1723, when Father Gaubil visited the Kaifeng community, the Jews told him that they had been living in China for 1,650 years; this dates their ancestors’ arrival to around 73 CE, which was during the reign of Han Dynasty’s Emperor Ming-di (汉明帝, reign 57–75).

According to Book of the Latter Han (后汉书), which was written by Fan Ye (范晔, 398–445), Buddhism was officially introduced to China after Emperor Ming-di dreamed of a “tall golden man,” who was later revealed to be the Buddha by his advisers.

It is possible that Emperor Ming-di was exceptionally welcoming to foreign religions.

This theory was later supported by Father Jerome Tobar (管宜穆, 1855–1917) and Professor Paul Eugene Pelliot (伯希和, 1878–1945).

Father Antoine Gaubil (1689–1759) wrote to Father Etienne Souciet (1671–1744) about his findings in Kaifeng.

Father Antoine Gaubil (宋君荣, 1689–1759) wrote to Father Jean-Baptiste Du Haldeon (杜赫德, 1674–1743), “Father Matteo Ricci found that the content of the Pentateuch of the Kaifeng Jews that he saw was exactly like that of the Hebrew Pentateuch that he had.”

Father Antoine Gaubil wrote to Father Etienne Souciet from Beijing, claiming that he just asked his superior, Father J.P. Hervieu, to let him return to Kaifeng for 15 days. “I plan to bring some presents to the Jews,” he said, “and to give them some rules written out in Chinese which they have asked for covering the conjugation and declension (of Hebrew verbs and nouns), and we will then have what we want.”