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**List: Malagasy Ministry Holy Bible ( Soratra Masina )
MALAGASSE.--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.] |
Malagasy Bible History (3)
**List: Malagasy Ministry
Holy Bible ( Soratra Masina )
Malagasy...
MALAGASSE. "Several attempts have been made by the French, but without success, during the last two centu-
ries, to colonise this island. Their efforts have never been directed towards the translation of the
Scriptures into this dialect; but Flacourt in his History of Madagascar gives a version of the Lord's
Prayer, and of what he calls the Ten Commandments, from which the second commandment is excluded.
The Gospel was not proclaimed to the people of Madagascar till 1818, when the Rev. Messrs. Jones
and Bevan were sent to labour among them by the London My. Society. The translation of
the Old and New Testaments occupied the greater part of the time of the mies. during eleven
years. The three principal translators were Messrs. Jones, Griffiths, and Johns. The New Testament
was completed in 1825, and after passing thrice through the process of revision, 1500 copies of the
Gospel of St. Luke were printed in 1828, and 3000 copies of the Testament in 1830, on paper furnished
by the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1832, 800 copies of the Old Testament, as far as the
first book of Samuel, and 3000 copies of the Psalms, were printed in Madagascar; and on Mr. Baker's
visit to this country the following year, the British and Foreign Bible Society printed under his
superintendence a second edition of the Psalms, consisting of 5050 copies. This was followed in 1835
by an edition of 10,000 New Testaments, and of 5000 copies of the books of Genesis, Proverbs,
Isaiah, and the Psalms, published by the Society in London. During the same time the whole of the
Old Testament was being printed in successive portions in Madagascar; and it seems a special
indication of the blessing of God upon this version, that at the very period of the cruel persecution
of Christians in this island, circumstances were so ordered that the mies. were enabled
for a time to remain unmolested, and continue their labours until the completion of this important
translation.
The history of this persecution, which lasted for a period of seventeen years (1834-51), and is one
of the most remarkable of modern times, is unstained by the record of a single instance of apostasy.
Many of the native Christians were called to suffer imprisonment and confiscation of property, while
others were permitted to seal their testimony with their blood. God so upheld the faith and patience
of his servants in the hour of trial, and so sustained them by the consolations of the sacred volume,
that they looked at terrors without dismay, and emulated the examples of the confessors and martyrs
of primitive ages. During the whole period that the edicts against Christianity remained in force, and
while death was the legal penalty of an open confession of faith in Jesus, the number of believers in
the divine word still increased; and, even while no mies. were allowed to remain on the island,the converted natives read the word of God in secret, and continued to meet privately for worship,
A Malagasse church was at the same
often assembling for this purpose on the mountains or in caves.
time planted in Mauritius, consisting of those who had been compelled, on account of their belief in
the Christian religion, to flee from their native island.
The Revs. Messrs. Freeman and Jones (formerly mies. in Madagascar) had, in anticipation
of the day when they might be enabled to resume their labours, employed themselves since their return
to England in the complete revision of the Malagasse Scriptures. This revision has been accomplished,
and, in the immediate prospect (through political changes) of the island becoming again open to the
efforts of the Christian my., it was recently determined by the British and Foreign Bible Society
to print an edition of 5000 copies of the Malagasse Bible from the revised MS. This work was accord-
ingly commenced, under the editorial care of the Rev. Mr. Griffiths (formerly a my. in the
island) with the aid of the Rev. T. W. Meller; but, after advancing as far as the completion of the
New Testament, with the Old Testament as far as the 10th chap. of Judges, it has been deemed
advisable to suspend further progress--there appearing, on later inquiry, to be little probability of any
immediate opportunity for its distribution in the island. The revision of the text had advanced as far
as the end of Job."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info only]MALAGASSE.--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]
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