Eesti / Estonian Bible History (3)

**List: Estonian Ministry Bible ( Piibli, Piibel ) Estonian... DORPAT ESTHONIAN. "ESTHONIA is a maritime government in the north-west of European Russia, and forms one of the Baltic provinces.   It was sold by the Danes to the Teutonic Knights in 1347, was conquered by Sweden in 1561, and annexed to Russia by Peter the Great in 1710.   Its area is about 6,870 square miles, and its population amounted in 1851 to 289,800.   The lower classes only of this population are, strictly speaking, Esthonians, the wealthier inhabitants being mostly of Danish or German descent.   The lan- guage, which exhibits the same characteristics as other Finnish tongues, is spoken in two dialects, the Dorpat and the Reval Esthonian.   The former is spoken in South Esthonia, and the latter prevails in the North.   Almost all the Esthonians are of the Lutheran persuasion.   They were first put into possession of the oracles of God in the year 1686, when John Fischer, a German professor of divinity and general superintendent of Livonia, published an Esthonian version of the entire New Testament. This translation had been executed by Fischer, at the command of Charles XI.   A version of the Old Testament, made by the same translator, aided by Gosekenius, appeared in 4to. in 1689.   This was followed in the year 1700 by an edition of the Gospels and Epistles for the festival days of the church. It is uncertain in which dialect these early versions were written, but it is probable that they were understood throughout Esthonia.    A version of the New Testament in Dorpat Esthonian was printed at Riga in 1727, in 8vo.   This edition was speedily exhausted; and the Dorpat Esthonians being left without further supplies, made use of the Reval Esthonian version of 1739.   In 1810, the prosecution of certain inquiries, instituted by the British and Foreign Bible Society, concerning the state of the Scriptures in Russia, led to the discovery that the Esthonians were almost destitute of the Scriptures.   Grants in aid of a new edition were voted by the Society; and in 1815, through the exertions of Dr. Paterson, 5000 copies of the Dorpat Esthonian New Testament were completed at press.   In 1824 the Russian Bible Society reported that they had printed 8000 copies of the same version.   Another edition of the New Testament was undertaken by the Dorpat Bible Society in 1836; and during the same year a version of the Psalms, translated from the Hebrew by the Rev. Ferdinand Meyer, of Carolen, was printed by the aid of the Parent Society: this latter edition consisted of 4500 copies.   In a letter received from an Esthonian pastor, dated January, 1850, it is stated that "an edition of the Bible has just been issued at Reval and Dorpat."   The work of Scripture distribution is now extensively prosecuted from both of these towns on behalf of the American Bible Society, which has supplied considerable funds for the purpose.   An edition of 10,000 Dorpat Esthonian New Testaments was authorised by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1856, the version being first carefully revised by Dr. Kiel: the execution of this work appears, however, to have been hitherto delayed."-- The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] DORPAT ESTHONIAN.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.] REVAL ESTHONIAN. "THE Reval dialect of the Esthonian language is spoken in the north of Livonia, including the three adjacent islands of Oesel, Dagden (or Dagöe), and Mohn.   In 1811 the Moravian mies., who were labouring among this people, calculated that 2500 individuals in Reval Esthonia, and 5000 in the above islands, had been awakened to a sense of the importance of religion.    The first edition of the Scriptures in Reval Esthonian was printed at Reval in 1739, in 4to.; it was partly published at the expense of the celebrated Count Zinzendorf.   A second edition is said to have followed in 1773, and a third in 1790.   These two latter editions (if actually published, which seems doubtful) could have comprised no large amount of copies; for in 1810 it was reported that to many of the peasantry in Esthonia the Bible was unknown.   In 1815, through the zeal of Dr. Paterson, and the aid afforded by the British and Foreign Bible Society, an edition of 10,000 copies of the New Testament was printed in Reval Esthonian.   The Russian Bible Society appears to have published 5100 copies of the Old Testament in this version, prior to the year 1824, and some recent editions have been issued at Dorpat.   The most extensive aid has, however, been furnished by the American Bible Society, which in 1850 supplied the funds for printing (in Finland), an edition of 20,000 New Testaments in Reval Esthonian, 10,000 of them having the Psalms appended.   This welcome supply was transmitted to the Reval Bible Society for distribution.    The Esthonian Scriptures in both dialects have been particularly blessed to the soldiers of that nation.   The sons of the peasantry are frequently drafted into Russian regiments, and stationed at a great distance from their native land.   Here they are obliged to serve twenty-five years, without ever hearing a Protestant clergyman address them in their native language; and being thus precluded from hearing the Gospel preached, their need of the written Word of God is the more especially urgent.   It is said that the joy of these soldiers is unbounded when copies of the Scriptures are distributed among them.   They have been known to crowd around the distributor, and to fall at his knees in token of unfeigned gratitude; and they have even kissed the sacred volume, and invoked blessings on their benefactors."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only: Count Zinzendorf, ecumenist per DWC] REVAL ESTHONIAN.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1- 14 unknown.]

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