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Title page of the first part of the
Tamil New Testament, printed in Tranquebar in 1714. The revised text is based
on the first complete translation of the Tamil New Testament in 1711.
The 1711
manuscript inscribed on palm leaves in kept in the Royal Library, Copenhagen.
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This year sees the Three Hundredth anniversary of the translation of the
New Testament into Tamil. To mark this event Daniel Jeyeraj, Professor of World
Christianity at Liverpool Hope University, will present a paper examining the
Hindu religious traditions, Tamil cultural habits and linguistic factors that
influenced the translation of the New Testament into Tamil in 1711. He writes:
The first Lutheran Pietist missionaries
to Tranquebar, India believed that each person should be able to read and
understand God's Word in their mother tongue and their love for the Tamil
people enabled them to engage in a co-operative endeavour. They learned and
borrowed a great deal of translated bible passages from the Jesuits. In their
report to European readers they denied this fact. However an examination of
their Tamil translation betrays how much they depended on the previous works of
the Jesuits. Again the missionaries were unwilling to openly acknowledge the
linguistic help rendered to them by Tamil Lutheran converts.
5.30 pm, Tuesday, 1st November. Venue: Room ST273, Stewart House, 2nd floor. Stewart House
is part of the Senate House complex, London WC1. It is most conveniently entered
from Russell Square.
For map see http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/home/map.pdf
All Welcome
Rosemary
Seton, Christian Missions in Global History Seminar, Institute of Historical
Research, Email: rosemary@seton.demon.co.uk
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