Eskimo: Greenland [Greenlandic] Bible History (3)

**List: Greenlandic Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Eskimo: Greenland [Greenlandic]... GREENLANDISH. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. GREENLAND is the general name given to an immense tract of land lying adjacent to the north-eastern coasts of the American continent, and which recent discoveries have shown to extend from the latitude of 60° northward to beyond the 80th parallel--a length of more than 1300 miles.   In its southern portion, the breadth is limited, but further northward its dimensions in this direction are between six and seven hundred miles.   Perhaps, however, the whole of this vast region is not continuous land, but may embrace several tracts, divided by arms of the sea.   The interior is still wholly unknown, and the explorations of such portions of its coasts as have been visited is in great measure due to the numerous efforts made in the search after a north-west passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean.    The western coasts of Greenland, which are the seat of my. labour, are those best known to us.   Like other portions of the Arctic archipelago, they exhibit a naked, dreary, and forbidding aspect. Steep rocks rise immediately above the surface of the water, and are backed towards the interior by a high and ice-covered mountain-range--the fruitful source of vast glaciers which descend thence to the sea and form the huge ice-bergs, or floating ice-islands, of Baffin Bay.   Numerous deep and narrow islets, resembling the fiords of Norway, or the lochs of the western shores of Scotland, indent the general coast-line and penetrate far into the interior; and the shores of these islets contain the only cultivable spots of ground.   The sovereignty of this portion of Greenland belongs to the Danish crown, which possesses several small settlements there.   The most northern of the Danish factories is Tosiursak, in lat. 73° 18'.   The amount of population included within the Danish possessions is stated to be about 8000, among whom are perhaps 150 Europeans.   Some trade is carried on with Denmark at each of the different stations, from which are exported small quantities of whale oil, together with skins of the bear, rein-deer, seal, and other animals.   The eastern coasts of Greenland are ice-bound and desolate in aspect, and are rarely visited.    The native tribes of Esquimaux are stated to frequent the shores of Baffin Bay to as high a latitude as 76° or 77°.   Their range appeals to have formerly reached much further, both to the north- ward and westward, than it does at present.   Recent visitors have found abundant remains of Esquimaux habitations in the newly discovered lands adjacent to the shores of Wellington Channel, in localities which are now never visited by their tribes.    The native language of Greenland, as before mentioned, is a dialect of Esquimaux; it aboands in harsh sounds, and the consonants r, k, and t, predominate.   It appears to be spoken with some pro- vincial varieties by the different tribes of Greenlanders; for Ross relates that the natives of North Greenland were unable to converse intelligibly with the natives of the southern districts of the island. II.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.    As early as the beginning of the eleventh century, the Norwegians established a colony on the coast of Greenland; and we have a list of their bishops during the three following centuries.   Nothing, however, has been heard of them since the fifteenth century; and this circumstance, combined with the loss of all intelligence concerning another Norwegian colony, said to have been established at a still earlier period on the opposite coast of Greenland, forcibly awakened the sympathy of Hans Egede, a clergyman of Norway, in behalf of the descendants of these early colonists.   Egede addressed a memorial on the subject to the bishop of his diocese, in 1710; in 1718 he relinquished his benefice, with the view of taking still more active measures in the cause; and in 1721 he effected a voyage to Greenland.   It appears he was unsuccessful in discovering traces of his countrymen; but his attention was arrested by the abject and deplorable condition of the natives.   He applied to the study of their language, reduced it to writing, and translated the Psalms and the Epistles of St. Paul.   The version of the New Testament was completed by his son, Mr. Paul Egede, author of a Greenlandish dictionary. Some portion of this version was published at Copenhagen in 1744, followed in 1758 by an edition of the Gospels and Acts, and in 1766 by the entire New Testament.    This translation, the first that had been made into this rude, uncultivated language, was found to be but little intelligible to the ignorant people for whom it was designed.   Another attempt to translate the Scriptures for their benefit was therefore undertaken after the death of Egede, by Fabricius, who had formerly laboured like an apostle among them.   His version of the New Testament was printed at Copenhagen in 1799, but it did not prove to be in any respect superior to Egede's version.   A third translation was therefore undertaken by the Moravian mies.: they commenced a Greenlandish harmony of the Gospels shortly after their arrival in the country, in 1733, but their translation of the New Testament was not completed till the year 1821.   They were eminently qualified for the execution of this important work, some of them having persevered in their arduous labours among the natives of this inclement region for the long space of thirty, forty, and fifty years.   Their version of the New Testament is a literal translation of Luther's German version: the first edition, consisting of 1000 copies, was printed in London, in 1822, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and some subsequent editions have been bestowed on Greenland by the Danish Bible Society.    A version of the Old Testament has been during several years in progress, under the auspices of the latter Society.   The work was commenced by Fabricius, but was interrupted by his lamented decease. The Rev. Mr. Wolf, chaplain to the citadel of Copenhagen, and formerly my. in Greenland, was appointed to continue the translation: he was esteemed, next to Fabricius, the first Greenlandish scholar. On his demise, the work was transferred by the Danish Society to Pastor Kragh, who had married a Greenlander, and had resided for ten years as a my. in Greenland, where he was respected as a second Egede or Fabricius.   It may be hoped that this version, if not already completed, will soon be ready for the press; and the British and Foreign Bible Society have agreed to furnish aid towards its publication.   A version of the Psalms, prepared by the Rev. Valentine Müller, one of the Moravian mies., from Luther's German version, and carefully compared with the original, was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1842: the edition consisted of 1200 copies.   In 1850, authority was given by the same Society to the United Brethren to print a revised edition of the New Testament, at Herrnhut, under the personal superintendence of several retired mies. from Green- land, who now reside in that settlement and its neighbourhood.   The work was completed in the follow- ing year, and the edition, consisting of 1000 copies, was at once placed at the disposal of the mies., for distribution among their stations on the coast of West Greenland."--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only] GREENLANDISH.   [VERSION OF 1799.]--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: "1799" John 1:1-14 unknown.] GREENLANDISH.   [VERSION OF 1822.]--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: "1822" John 1:1-14 unknown.] "III.--RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.    No visible effects attended the labours of the first mies. in Greenland.   Mr. Paul Egede, after fifteen years of extreme suffering and privation, sorrowfully admitted that his efforts for the conversion of the natives had been to all appearance without avail; and, on his departure from their inhospitable shore, he preached to them, for the last time, from the affecting words, "I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God."   And the experience of the Moravian mies., during the first five years of their sojourn in Greenland, was similar to that of Egede: during that period they had chiefly confined their ministrations among the natives to instruction on moral duties, and on the abstract tenets of Christianity,--thus virtually withholding from them direct and immediate access to the pure, unadulterated Word of God.   But a change was wrought in their teaching, and in its results. This happened when John Beck, one of the Moravian mies., was engaged in transcribing the version of the Four Gospels.   The curiosity of the savages was excited to know what he was writing. He read to them the history of the Saviour's conflict on the Mount of Olives.   Then the Spirit of God began to work: some of them laid their hands upon their mouths, as is customary among them when they are struck with wonder, and a man named Kajarnak exclaimed in a loud and anxious tone, "How was that?   Tell us that once more, for I too would fain be saved!"   Such words had never been heard from a Greenlander before.   From that time Kajarnak visited the brethren frequently, and gave abun- dant evidence, by the subsequent tenor of his life and conversation, that he was truly converted to God The simple exhibition of the Word of God was blessed in a similar manner to other natives; and the mies. had no longer to deplore that their labour was in vain.    The most happy results have attended the recent distribution of the Scriptures; and at the present moment almost all the Greenlanders within reach of the four Moravian stations make at least an out- ward profession of Christianity.   Nor is this change unaccompanied by improvement in the moral and social condition of this previously benighted race, as is shewn by the independent observations of recent visitors.   Striking testimony is borne by Dr. Sutherland (Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay in 1850, 51, etc.) to the improved condition of the native Greenlanders within the neighbourhood of the Danish settlements, and within the reach of my. influences."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only]

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