Bengali Bible History (2)

**List: Bengali Ministry Bible ( বাইবেল ) Bengali... "THE SERAMPORE VERSIONS    Towards the end of the eighteenth century, in the wake of the revival of religion in Britain associated chiefly with the names of Wesley and Whitfield, concern for the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel stirred more and more profoundly the British Churches, both established and non-conformist, none more so than the congregations of Baptists.   This group of believers, which a century earlier had given the Church a John Bunyan, now added another gift of equal or greater influence in the per- son and work of William Carey and his associates, notably Joshua Marshman and William Ward.    These three men, all of lowly birth and an education chiefly self-imparted, were admirably adapted to supplement one another in their gigantic task of giving the Gospel to Asia.   When they went to India they were by no means the first Protestant foreign mies., but they were the first to lay broad foundations that endure to this day.   While their services to a worldwide Bible are here given the primary emphasis, it should not be for- gotten that India owes to Carey a great debt in the fields of education, agriculture, book and paper making, journalism and ethical reform.    The group is known as the Serampore Mission, from the Indian city near Calcutta where they established their press, schools and community.   They were the first to publish the Scriptures in no less than thirty-four of the languages of India. Translation with the help of qualified native scholars, printing as fast as approved copy could be fed the greedy presses, and repeated revision of work already published at the same time as fresh translation was being made and printed; through thirty years of Carey’s lifetime this program went forward, interrupted only by a fire which destroyed the printing-house and much valuable material but so advertised in Britain the amazing work at Serampore, that the gifts it called out far more than replaced all the losses.    The entire Bible was published in six of those thirty-four languages, and all but a fraction of the Old Testament in three languages more.   Twenty other tongues received the whole New Testament, two of these with the Pentateuch besides.   And the remaining five of the thirty-four boasted at least one complete Gospel in each.   Even this list does not take into account the aid given in preparation of versions in extra-Indian tongues, as the Burmese and Chinese.    Although vernacular Bibles for the hordes of India must be accounted the prime aim of the Serampore group, they soon felt the need of a Bible which should bring the Word to scholars in all parts of India, whatever their native dialect might be.   Thus they actually produced as one of the six complete Bibles to their credit on the above list a Bible in the classical language, the Sanskrit--an amazing performance.    During the first half of those thirty years of incredible achieve- ment the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. Through it the Serampore Mission was doubtless further stirred to multiply the number of dialects on the New Testament list by the offer made by the Society, on behalf of a wealthy member, of five hundred pounds for the first thousand copies of a Testa- ment in each new language added.*   Yet this could only have been a spur to a willing horse: it was the very thing at which Carey’s principles and practice were aimed.    Many stories from Indian missions of that period prove that, in spite of all crudities or mistakes embodied in them, these Serampore Scriptures were able to fulfil the evangelistic mission for which they were intended.   One such story, vouched for by S. P. Carey, one of William Carey’s biographers, touchingly illustrates the personal bond created between the readers of these books and him who produced them.   An English gentleman, rid- ing near Northhampton one day, overtook an Indian on foot and courteously asked him his errand in that part of the world.   The Indian replied, "I have just come from my father’s birthplace." Unable to understand so strange a statement from one obviously an alien born, he asked him to explain.   Bringing forth from his clothing an Indian Testament, with William Carey’s name in- scribed in it, the stranger declared that through that book Carey had become his spiritual father, that he had come all the way from his home in India, afoot to Bombay and then again afoot from Liverpool to Northhamptonshire, to visit the place where Carey was born, and that he now proposed to return home in the same manner.   How long must be the total roll of Carey’s spiritual sons, who by his Scripture versions have been led into the Kingdom of God!    *Between 1805 and 1815 the British and Foreign Bible Society sent more than £20,000 to aid this work and in 1822 the American Bible Society sent $1000."--1000 Tongues, 1939   [Info only]

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