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Greenlandish Version of the Scriptures

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Greenlanders, Religion of the

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As early as 1721, Hans Egede (q.v.), a Norwegian clergyman, settled at Sodthaas (latitude 64 north), and his attention was soon arrested by the abject and deplorable condition of the natives. He applied himself to the study of their language, reduced it to writing, and translated the Psalms and the Epistles of St. Paul. His son. Paul completed the version of the New Test., portions of which were published at Copenhagen in 1744, followed in 1758 by an edition of the Gospels and Acts, and in 1766 by the entire New Test. This first attempt being very deficient, Fabricius, after the death of Egede (1789), undertook a new translation, which was printed in 1799. As this second attempt did not prove to be in any respect superior to Egede's version, Moravian missionaries undertook a third translation from Luther's German version, which was published in 1822 by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in subsequent editions by the Danish Bible Society. A new and revised edition was published at Herrnhut, under the personal superintendence of several retired missionaries from Greenland, in 1851; while of the Old Test. only some portions are published. It is said that while John Beck, one of the missionaries, was engaged in transcribing the version of the four Gospels, the curiosity; of the savages being excited to know what he was writing, he read to them the history of the Saviour's agony on the' Mount of Olives. Some of them laid their hands upon their mouths, as is customary among them when they are struck with wonder; but one of them, named Kajarnak, exclaimed in a loud and serious tone, "How was that? Tell us that once more; for I, too, would fain be saved," and finally became converted to God. Up to March 31, 1884, the British and Foreign Bible Society had distributed 20003 New Tests., and 1200 portions of the Old Test. (See ESQUIMAUX VERSION). (B.P.)