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| ISS: Information Services and Systems |
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Case 5 : The Missionary Bible
Exhibition curators: Hugh Cahill and Jennifer Alder
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| Title page of: Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament : Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttinneumoh Christ ... Translated by John Eliot. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Printenoop nashpe Samuel Green, 1680-1685. [Marsden Collection R6/9] |
Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament : Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttinneumoh Christ ... Translated by John Eliot. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Printenoop nashpe Samuel Green, 1680-1685.
[Marsden Collection R6/9]
John Eliot (1604-1690), a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, who had gone to America in 1631, translated the Bible into the Algonquin language in order to be able to bring the Gospel to that nation. As early as 1658, the Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England was in contact with the New England Commissioners about printing Eliot's Bible translation. The colony's printer, Samuel Green, worried about his ability to print the Bible due to shortages of paper and type, wrote to the Corporation asking for help. In April 1660 the Corporation wrote to Green with the news that they were sending him a supply of paper and an assistant named Marmaduke Johnson. They also supplied a new press, a new fount of type and money towards the production of the Bible.
Green and Johnson were able to produce a complete New Testament in 1661, in an edition of 1,500 copies. Of these, 1,000 were kept back to be bound up with the Old Testament when it was finally ready. This was finally done in 1663. This Bible was the first complete Bible to be printed in the New World and the first translation of the Bible into any new language for the use of missionaries.
The second edition (shown here) was started in 1680 but the printing of the Old Testament was not completed until 1685. This copy was formerly owned by Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Bishop of Salisbury.
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| Title page of : Cutaönåakiya caöruvåecuraönåayirukkiör Ecukkiörå¸òsttu nåataråaönavar ... putu eörpåaòtòtiönuòtaiya mutalåam vakuppåakir aéncu våeta posttakam. [Tranquebar] : Kirå¸òsttu piöranta åayirattu clutåuttu ppatiönåalåam varusamåakira potu yitu taraçnkaönpåatiyilerakkiöra påatirimåarkalutaiya accilåe patikkappaòtòtatu, [1715]. [Marsden Collection R4/7] |
Cutaönåakiya caöruvåecuraönåayirukkiör Ecukkiörå¸òsttu nåataråaönavar ... putu eörpåaòtòtiönuòtaiya mutalåam vakuppåakir aéncu våeta posttakam. [Tranquebar] : Kirå¸òsttu piöranta åayirattu clutåuttu ppatiönåalåam varusamåakira potu yitu taraçnkaönpåatiyilerakkiöra påatirimåarkalutaiya accilåe patikkappaòtòtatu, [1715].
[Marsden Collection R4/7]This New Testament in Tamil was the first to be printed in any of the languages of India. It was translated by Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) and the text was revised with the help of Johann Ernst Gründler (1677-1720). Ziegenbalg and his fellow missionary, Heinrich Plütschau (1677-1752), had been sent to the Danish possession of Tranquebar at the southern tip of India at the behest of King Frederick IV of Denmark. They arrived in 1707 and Ziegenbalg immediately set about learning the local languages and had soon begun translating the New Testament into Tamil. Frederick's brother, Prince George of Denmark, who was married to Queen Anne of England, became interested in the project. Through George, the SPCK became aware of Ziegenbalg's work and, through a public subscription, raised enough money to have a printing press and a supply of paper sent to Tranquebar. Ziegenbalg completed his translation by 1711 and began to revise it with Gründler. By the summer of 1714, the Gospels had been completed but the large typeface that had been used meant that the supply of suitable printing paper was running low. A new, smaller typeface was cast and the complete New Testament, which was dedicated to Frederick IV, was issued in 1715.
This copy was given by the author to Joseph Collet (1673-1725), who was Governor
of Madras from 1717 to 1725.
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Title page of: New Testament. Serampore: [The Mission Press], 1801. [Marsden Collection R4/30] |
New Testament. Serampore: [The Mission Press], 1801.
[Marsden Collection R4/30]
William Carey (1761-1834) was the first Baptist missionary in India. He arrived in Calcutta in 1793 but initially had little success in converting the local population. After being joined by two other missionaries in 1799 he moved from Calcutta to the Danish colony of Serampore about 12 miles away where they established a printing press in 1800. By the time of Carey's death over 200,000 Bibles or portions of it had been issued by the press he had founded into 34 new Asian languages and dialects, including Chinese, Hindustani, Asami and Gujarati.
In 1800 the press at Serampore issued a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew
in Bengali in an edition of 500 copies. The next year the whole New Testament
in Bengali (shown here) was issued in an edition of 2,000 copies. This was the
first New Testament to be printed in a language of north India. The translation
of the Old Testament into Bengali was completed in 1809. Many of Carey's translations
were paid for, or heavily subsidised by, the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Jang ampat Evangelia derri Tuan kita Jesu Christi, daan Berboatan derri jang apostoli bersacti, bersalin dallam bassa Malayo : that is, The four Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Acts of the Holy Apostles, translated into the Malayan tongue. Oxford : Printed by H. Hall, 1677.
[Marsden Collection R6/8]
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Dedication to Robert Boyle from: Jang ampat Evangelia derri Tuan kita Jesu Christi, daan Berboatan derri jang apostoli bersacti, bersalin dallam bassa Malayo : that is, The four Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Acts of the Holy Apostles, translated into the Malayan tongue. Oxford : Printed by H. Hall, 1677. [Marsden Collection R6/8] |
As with a number of other translations featured in this exhibition, Robert Boyle helped finance the production of this book. He gave £200 in 1677 to Bishop John Fell for the sponsoring of missionaries to the East Indies or for the production of the translation of scripture into the language of that area. The gift was used to produce this book. It is not a new translation, however, but is a reprint of the Malay text of a Dutch-Malay edition of the Gospels and Acts published in Amsterdam in 1651. The original translation was done by a team led by Justus Heurnius (1587-1651), who had worked in Batavia as a missionary.
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| Nativity scene, from: The Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England ... To which is added the Gospel according to St. Mark, translated into the Mohawk language by Captn. Joseph Brant, an Indian of the Mohawk nation. London : Printed by C. Buckton , 1787. [Marsden Collection R6/22] |
The Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England ... To which is added the Gospel according to St. Mark, translated into the Mohawk language by Captn. Joseph Brant, an Indian of the Mohawk nation. London : Printed by C. Buckton , 1787.
[Marsden Collection R6/22]
In 1712 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent William Andrews to work among the Mohawk Indians. Andrews, with the help of a translator, Lawrence Claesse, published The morning and evening prayer : the litany, church catechism, family prayers, and several chapters of the Old and New-Testament (New York, 1715). This prayer book was revised and enlarged in 1769 and 1780. This edition, the fourth, contains substantial additions and revisions and also contains the whole text of St. Mark's Gospel, the first complete book of the Bible to be translated into Mohawk. The translation had been completed in 1774, by the Mohawk chief and soldier Captain Joseph Brant (1742-1807).
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