1607 December: Father Ricci sent visitors to Kaifeng
Macau native Antonio Leitao (徐必登)
In December 1607, two and a half years after the initial meeting, Father Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, 1552–1610) sent two Chinese to Kaifeng to verify Ai Tian’s (艾田) claims. One was Antonio Leitao (1578–1611), a native of Macau who was now based in Beijing. He was affiliated with the Jesuit Order as a lay brother. His travel companion was Chinese and born and raised near Kaifeng.
Found no Christians in Kaifeng
Leitao did not know much about Hebrew nor Judaism. The pair's main task was to determine whether there really were any Christians in Kaifeng.
They failed to find any Christians in Kaifeng.
Allowed to copy the Pentateuch
Their secondary task was to collect as much information as possible on the Kaifeng Jewish community, especially regarding their Torah; their work would help determine whether the Kaifeng Jewish scriptures were the same as those in the West.
They had little trouble locating the synagogue and, shortly afterwards, made contact with their rabbi (掌教), whose Hebrew name was thought to have been Abishai.
They were granted access to the ancient manuscripts and given permission to copy the beginning and ending portions of all five Books of Moses. It was later noted that the Hebrew used in the Kaifeng Torah had no vowels and was the same as the Plantin Bible, which was then widely circulated in the West at the time.
Father Ricci wrote that the Messiah had arrived
The duo delivered a letter from Father Ricci to Rabbi Abishai. The letter stated that Father Ricci had in his possession all the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, which was written at a later date; and that according to the New Testament, the Messiah (弥失诃) had already arrived, sixteen centuries ago.
Rabbi Abishai's reply to Ricci was very clear, that the Messiah had not come and will not come for at least another 10,000 years, which in Chinese culture is commonly used to represent an indefinitely long period of time.
Rabbi Abishai asked Father Ricci to be his successor
Rabbi Abishai said Ai Tian had spoken very highly of Father Ricci, a man of vast knowledge, integrity and faith; with this in mind, and the fact that Rabbi Abishai himself was old and ill, and without a competent successor, Rabbi Abishai invited Father Ricci to move to Kaifeng, give up pork, and become his successor.
It is clear from the reply that even the congregation's rabbi seemed to have no conception of the significant differences between Christianity and Judaism. Instead of seeing the conflicting view on the Messiah as a point that cannot be reconciled, the rabbi was willing to appoint a Catholic priest as his successor.
Arguably, if the Kaifeng Jewish community really did not know about Jesus Christ because they entered China before the birth or rise to prevalence of Jesus Christ, this would mean, according to certain western scholars, that the Kaifeng Jewish community had no incentive to alter the Old Testament.
Father Ricci never replied to Rabbi Abishai.
1608 March 8th: Ricci, kehillah on verge of extinction
Father Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, 1552–1610) wrote a letter to Father Claudio Acquaviva (阿瓜維瓦, 1543–1615), Superior General of the Society of Jesus in Rome. One of the letter's main points was that he believed the Kaifeng community was on the verge of extinction; it was slowly beginning to lose touch with its roots as a religious entity.