Lapp Bible History (3) 
**List: Lapp: Norwegian & Swedish Ministry
**List: Lapp: Finnish & Russian Ministrythe Bible ( the Bible )
Lapp: Swedish...
LAPPONESE. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. LAPLAND, the most northerly country of Europe, comprehends under its three general divisions of
Russian, Swedish, and Norwegian Lapland, an area of about 150,000 square miles, two-thirds of which
belong to Russia, and the rest to Sweden. The population has been loosely estimated at 60,000, of
whom 9000 only are Laplanders, the rest being Swedes, Norwegians, and Russians. The Laplanders
under the sway of Russia belong to the Greek Church, and those subject to Sweden are professedly
Lutherans; but they did not, as a nation, assume the Christian name before the seventeenth century,
and in many parts of the country they are said still to retain many of their heathen customs.II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE. The Laplanders and Finns are said to have originally constituted one nation, and the Lapponese,
from its great similarity in structure to the Finnish language, affords proof of this fact. Lapponese has
been considerably changed by the number of foreign words that have been engrafted on it; for the
ignorant Laplanders had no terms of their own expressive of any objects not strictly connected with
their uncivilised mode of life. In the Lapponese version of 1 Tim. 3:16, not fewer than six of the
words are of foreign origin, and of these six not fewer than five are Swedish. Several different dialects
of Lapponese prevail in Lapland; and it has been found necessary, as will be hereafter mentioned, to
prepare a separate version of the Scriptures for the inhabitants of Norwegian Lapland.III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Laplanders were wholly ignorant of letters, and
did not possess a single book written in their language. Before the year 1619, Gustavus Adolphus
began to establish schools for their instruction, and a primer was published containing, among other
things, the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in Lapponese. A manual, containing the
Psalms, the Proverbs, the book ofEcclesiasticus, the dominical Gospels and Epistles, with several
religious tracts, was published at Stockholm in 1648. The translator and editor was John Jonae
Tornaeus, a native of Sweden, and pastor in Tornea. This work was not generally understood, on
account of the peculiarity of the dialect in which it was written, and accordingly another manual was
compiled by Olaus Stephen Graan, a schoolmaster and pastor in the Umea- Lappmark. This second
manual, written in a more generally intelligible dialect, contained extracts from the dominical and
festival Gospels and Epistles, and was printed at Stockholm in 1669.
It is unknown at what time, or under what circumstances, the New Testament was translated into
Lapponese. The first printed edition of which we have any account was published at Stockholm in
1755. A copy of this edition is in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. No further
edition appears to have been issued till 1810, when the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible
Society availed themselves of the assistance of the Evangelical Society at Stockholm to print an edition
of 5000 copies of the New Testament from the edition of 1755, which was then completely exhausted.
The bishop of Tornea undertook to superintend the publication, and it was printed at Hernosand, in
8vo., in 1811. A version of the Bible in Lapponese was published in quarto at the same place, and
during the same year; and a copy of this work (which does not appear to have been committed
a second time to the press) may be seen in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. With
the exception of a quarto edition of the Testament, likewise published in 1811, and some copies of the
Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, printed at Christiania in 1838, no further editions have appeared.
Features of striking interest in reference to the moral and religious condition of the Lapland
population have recently manifested themselves. A great religious revival appears to be in progress in
that country. "The continual and increasing awakenings in Lapland (wrote Dr. Polvsander to the
St. Petersburg Agency of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1851), particularly in the frontier
territories, through which the rivers Tornea and Muonio flow, occupy at present my greatest attention.
The Scriptures are still much sought after." In reference to the facilities for introducing into the
country a new edition of the New Testament and Psalms in the Lapponian tongue, it has been stated
that the local hierarchy would readily further the work."--1860 S. Bagster [Info only]LAPPONESE. [HERNOSANDIÆ.]--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: Gothic Character "1811" John 1:1-13 unknown.]
Lapp: Norwegian...
QUANIAN, OR NORWEGIAN LAPLANDISH. "FINMARK, or, as it is sometimes called, Norwegian Lapland, forms the most northerly portion of
Lapland, having for its northern boundary the Arctic, or Frozen Ocean. The poor wandering Quänes
who inhabit this dreary region, and who in number may amount to about 6000, were left till within
the last half century without any version of the Scriptures in their vernacular dialect. Copies of the
Finnish Testament were sent to them by the Bible Society of Finland, but the Quänes were found
totally incapable of understanding that version; and although they speak a dialect of the Lapponese,
even the Lapponese Testament is unintelligible to them. In 1822 the British and Foreign Bible
Society voted £200 to promote a version in Quänian, and the Norwegian Bible Society, in consequence,
applied to some learned friends in Copenhagen to transmit to them any MSS. that might be found in
the late Laplandish seminary. No MSS., however, appear to have existed in this uncultivated dialect;
and in 1828 the Norwegian Society made arrangements for the immediate translation of the New
Testament. The Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society agreed to bear the entire expense
of the work; and, at the suggestion of Dr. Pinkerton, it was resolved to print the new version in
parallel columns with the Danish. The execution of the translation was committed to Mr. Stockfleth,
a my. of eminent devotedness, whose efforts to preach the Gospel to this people had been greatly
blessed. He had formerly been an officer in the army, but in 1828 was labouring as a pastor among
the uncivilised tribes of Laplanders under the 71st degree of north latitude, where, during two months
of the year, the sun never rises. In 1840 the translation of the New Testament was completed, and
an edition was published at Christiania, under the superintendence of the Norwegian Bible Society.11 In evidence of the social and moral advantages that have resulted from my. labour among the previously
benighted tribes of Northern Europe, it may not be uninteresting to quote the independent testimony offered by a
recent visitor to a Lappish tribe on the Norwegian coast. They were found to be in possession "of some excellently
printed and well-cared-for books, particularly a Bible...... We found some of them also engaged in writing. This
was a matter of surprise, where we had been led to expect something approaching barbarism; and we soon had
a proof that their pretension to religious impressions was not merely theoretical, for they positively refused to taste
the spirits which were freely offered to them, and of which our party partook; though it is well known that excessive
and besotting drunkenness used to be the great sin of the Lappish tribes, and still is of those who have not been
converted to habits of order and religion, by the zealous efforts of the Swedish mies., who have indefatigably
laboured amongst them."--Norway and its Glaciers, etc. BY JAMES D. FORBES. Edinburgh, 1854."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info only]QUANIAN, OR NORWEGIAN LAPLANDISH.--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]
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