Faroe Bible History (3)

**List: Faroe Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Faroe... FAROESE. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. THE Faröe or Feröe Islands belong to Denmark, and lie in the Northern Ocean, between the Shetland Isles and Iceland.   They are twenty-two in number, but only seventeen are inhabited. Their total area amounts to 495 square miles, and the population is about 7000.    The islanders are of Scandinavian origin, and speak a dialect of the Old Norse, or Icelandic language.   All mercantile, judicial, and ecclesiastical affairs are carried on in Danish, but the natives employ their own dialect as the common medium of colloquial intercourse. II.--VERSION OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW IN THIS DIALECT.    About the year 1817, the Rev. Mr. Schrœter, rector of one of the churches in the Faröe Isles, offered to produce a translation of the New Testament into the Faröese dialect, provided that the directors of the Danish Bible Society would undertake to print an edition.   He urged, among other reasons for engaging in this work, that the islanders are so situated that they cannot attend their churches more than from four to six times a year; and that most of them, especially the younger part of the community, are so little acquainted with Danish, that they are unable to read the Danish Bible.   The Gospel of St. Matthew was accordingly prepared by Mr. Schrœter, but as there was some difficulty in writing in a dialect in which neither grammars nor even printed books existed, the publi- cation was delayed, in order that greater accuracy might be ensured.   The Danish Committee at length found a learned pastor in Jutland, the Rev. Mr. Lyngbye, who during his botanical rambles in the Faröe Isles had acquired a familiar acquaintance with the dialect.   He was employed to correct the press, and under his superintendence 1500 copies of St. Matthew's Gospel were printed in Faröese, at Randers in Jutland, without any assistance from the British and Foreign Bible Society apart from the grants made for the general purposes of the Danish Society.   It does not appear that any other books of the New Testament have been printed, or even translated into Faröese."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] FAROESE.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: Gothic Character   n.d. Matthew 5:1-13 unknown.]

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