His first appointment was as missionary to the Jews in Edinburgh, where he became a student at Divinity Hall.

[2] He served his church as a missionary in various towns, including Presburg, and finally settled in Vienna in 1876.

Salkinson was encouraged to translate classical Western literature into Hebrew by C. D. Ginsburg, who "thought that the Jews, who love the Hebrew language, would read [...] classical Christian work[s], though they would refuse to read an ordinary Christian religious book.

"[2] Though many of his translations were clearly intended for missionary purposes, others were done for purely artistic reasons,[1] and he maintained a relationship with the Maskilic writer Peretz Smolenskin.

[4] Among his early translations was James Barr Walker [Wikidata]'s Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, published under the title Sod ha-yeshuʻah (Altona, 1858).