Aztec Bible History (3)

**List: Aztec Ministry the Bible ( [la Biblia] ) Aztec... MEXICAN, OR AZTEC. "AT the time of the discovery of America, the Mexican or Aztec language was spoken in the valley of Mexico, and in the country immediately adjacent on the east and south.   It still prevails in the states of Mexico, Vera Cruz, and Tabasco, of which the collective population was estimated, in 1850, at 1,300,000.   Spanish, however, is the language of the white population, and the general medium of intercourse in these states, as well as in the other provinces of the republic of Mexico, the Mexican and Otomi languages being chiefly confined to the native Indians.   The Mexican language is also still spoken in a district of New Mexico, where a colony of native Mexicans have for more than two hundred years preserved the use of their ancient vernacular tongue.    Many monuments of architectural skill still remain, to prove that at one period the Mexicans had attained to a high degree of civilisation, and had made considerable progress in the cultivation of both useful and ornamental art.   Many of their monuments, indeed, exhibit an elaborate skill and grace of design, only inferior to the similar works that distinguish Egyptian and Indian antiquity.   Yet, what- ever may have been their advance in the arts of life, it is certain that the light which can come only from above was not vouchsafed to this people; for it has been clearly proved that they offered human victims, and even their own children, to their imaginary deities.   These revolting practices have now fallen into disuse; but in other respects the spiritual and intellectual condition of the native Mexicans remains the same as at the period of the Spanish conquest.   The mass of the people are characterised by apathetic indolence, by blind subjection to their superiors, and by extreme superstition, having merely exchanged their ancient idolatrous rites for the shows and mummeries of the Romish Church.    The Mexicans, even at the brightest period of their history, seem not to have been possessed of the art of writing, unless a rude species of picture writing (consisting of figures of various animals, which are abundantly sculptured on their edifices), be worthy of that name.   Alphabetical characters they had none; but, since the Spanish conquest, the Roman letters and the Spanish system of ortho- graphy have been adopted in writing this language.   Mexican, in fact, may now be called almost a literary language; for Clavijero informs us that, during the period of two hundred and seventy years, no fewer than forty-four authors compiled Mexican grammars and lexicons, and composed treatises in Mexican on the tenets of Christianity, some of which were committed to the press.   These works afford abundant evidence in proof that Mexican possesses the same characteristic features as the other American languages, and that with respect to its internal structure it is closely allied to them.   It is, however, distinguished from all the other idioms of its class by the possession of a special form, called the "reverential," which pervades the whole language, and is found in no other language of America. "High-sounding titles (it has been observed), and certain special expressions of respect towards men in power, or superior classes, are found in every language; but this is believed to be the only one in which every word uttered by the inferior reminds him of his social position."   This peculiarity of the language is certainly an evidence of the artificial state of society that existed in ancient Mexico, and of the subordination in which the mass of the people was held by the rulers.   With respect to enunciation, Mexican is distinguished by the want of all the sounds represented by the letters b, d, f, r, and the Spanish j; and the letter g, if it ever occurs, is sounded like h.    Notwithstanding the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru, by whom, according to Robertson, 16,000,000 natives were sacrificed under Cortez and Pizarro, some feeble efforts were made by individuals of that nation to bestow on the surviving Mexicans a portion of the Word of God in their own language.   Didacus de S. Maria, a Dominican friar and vicar of the province of Mexico (who died 1579), is said to have translated the Epistles and Gospels into Mexican; and Louis Rodriguez, a Franciscan friar, prepared a translation of the Proverbs and other fragments.   These translations, however, do not appear to have been printed, and probably are not now extant.   In 1829 another translation of the New Testament was commenced by the efforts of Mr. Thomson, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society.   The Bishop of Puebla not only favoured the undertaking, but consented to superintend the work; and he appointed three persons (one of whom was professor of the Mexican language in the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Puebla, the other rector of a parish at some distance from Puebla, and the third a competent Mexican scholar), to execute the translation.   Unhappily, the bishop died in 1830, and the only portion of Scripture that has hitherto been printed in Mexican consists of the Gospel of St. Luke.   The translation was made about the year 1829, by Dr. Pazos Kanki, and a small edition of 250 copies was issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society.   The political disturbances of which Mexico has during many past years been, and still is, the theatre, render further progress in these labours difficult.   The present condition of the whole country, indeed, opposes insuperable obstacles to the extension of the agencies of peace, of any description."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only: James Thompson, a Scottish Baptist per JCT.] MEXICAN, OR AZTEC.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. Luke 6:27-38 unknown.]

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