Ga Bible History (3)

**List: Ga Ministry the Bible ( [le] Biblia ) Ga... ACCRA. ACCRA (or, more properly, Ghah) has been ascertained by recent discoveries to be the spoken language of a trading people on the Gold Coast of Africa numbering from 60,000 to 80,000 souls.   The town of Accra, in the immediate neighbourhood of which this dialect is most extensively prevalent, lies on the meridian of Greenwich, in north latitude.   Both the British and Dutch governments maintain stations at this place.    The Rev. A. Hanson, a native of Accra, translated the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John into this language; and in 1843 an edition was printed in London by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in Roman letters, with numerous diacritical marks.   On his return to Africa the following year, Mr. Hanson took the copies with him for distribution among his countrymen; and he had the satisfaction of finding, not only that the version was thoroughly intelligible to them, but also that they were able (after receiving a little information concerning the system of vowel points he had adopted) to read the printed copies for themselves with ease and pleasure.   This edition was received with much joy and thankfulness by the native population, and was speedily exhausted.   The agents of the Basle My. Society have been, and still are, diligently engaged in the same field of labour.   The Rev. J. Zimmer- mann, one of their number, has devoted himself for many years past to the task of rendering the Scrip- tures into the Ghah language, and various portions, as soon as completed by him, have been printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and transmitted to Africa for distribution.   The Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke, with a revised edition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, were among the first-fruits of Mr. Zimmermann's labours, and were completed in 1855.   Subsequently, the book of Genesis, the Epistles of St. John and St. Jude, the Revelation, and the prophets Isaiah and Daniel; together with (more recently) the Acts, the Epistles from I. Corinthians to II. Peter, and the book of Exodus, have been completed, and printed at Basle.    Much interesting testimony to the good results which have already ensued from the dissemination of the Ghah version of the sacred writings is contained in recent reports of the Bible Society.   The Word of God has struck deep root among the people of Accra, and the number of native applicants for baptism is rapidly on the increase.   The arrival of the little volume which contained the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John was welcomed, both by young and old, with lively joy, and all were anxious to begin its diligent perusal."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] ACCRA.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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