Johann Phillip Fabricius

Last updated

Johann Philipp Fabricius (22 January 1711 – 23 January 1791) was a German Christian missionary and a Tamil scholar in the later part of his life. He arrived in South India in 1740 to take charge of a small Tamil Lutheran congregation in Madras and expanded it during his stay. During his time in Madras he wrote several Christian hymns in Tamil and published the first Tamil to English Dictionary. Of his works his translation of the Bible to Tamil is considered to be most noteworthy.

Contents

Early life

Johann Philipp Fabricius was born on 22 January 1711 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. [1] He graduated in both law and theology at Universities in Giessen and Halle, Germany. [2]

Ministry

In 1740 Johann Philipp Fabricius arrived in South India to take charge of a small Tamil Lutheran congregation in Madras. After initial setbacks, the congregation grew from 300 to 2,200 members in his 30 years of ministry. [2] Initially the foundations of dubashi infrastructure in South India were laid down by Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg. During the course of 1720 to 1849, around seventy-nine missionaries came to Tranquebar from Europe. Benjamin Schultze and Johann Philipp Fabricius were the most noteworthy among them. Fabricius was Schultze’s successor and worked in Vepery from 1740 to 1791. [3]

Literary contribution

An important area of work started initially by Ziegenbalg and then later on taken up by Fabricius was Tamil Christian hymnody. Johann Philipp Fabricius published a collection of 335 Tamil hymns, most of them translated from German. The initial compositions by Ziegenbalg were not very well done and when Fabricius came to Madras he had this field of work entirely to himself and gained quite a mastery over this art. Even today hymns by Fabricius are sung by Christians in South India. [2]

In 1761, British East India Company forces invaded Pondicherry, which was then a French colony, and acquired a printing press. When the spoils of war were brought to Madras the printing press was passed on to Fabricius to aid his missionary work as well as to be used for the East India company's publications. Thus the first printing press in Madras was installed under Fabricius's supervision in 1761. Initially Fabricius had problems with importing paper for his press from Europe, but the problem was sorted out when Indians in Madras started to manufacture their own paper, leading to first paper industry in Madras. [4]

In 1779 he published the first Tamil to English dictionary containing 9000 headwords. This work laid the foundation for his future works in Tamil literature. It was published under the title "A Malabar and English dictionary, wherein the words and phrases of the Tamil Language, commonly called by Europeans the Malabar Language, are explained in English, By the English Missionaries of Madras. Printed at Wepery in the Year M.DCC.LXXIX." [2]

Bible translation

Ziegenbalg had left behind his translations of the Old and the New Testament during his stay in Madras. As he read through the translation along with Muttu, Fabricius realized that changes had to be made to Ziegenbalg's translation. "The four qualities which Fabricius found in the originals were lucidity, strength, brevity and appropriateness; these were sadly lacking in the existing Tamil translation, but he hoped that by the help of God he had been able to restore them." [5]

In 1750 Fabricius finally completed his translation of the New Testament. He was a diligent worker and made sure that he read out his work to a lot of people in order to get their feedback and response.

By 1753 translations of the first epistle of the Corinthians had already begun, much to Fabricius' disappointment. The printing process was also in full sway. At this point Fabricius decided to go back to Tranquebar and work with his colleagues on the Corinthians and Galatians. Fabricius' colleagues immediately realized the superiority of his work and decided to print his translation instead. They held the right to make corrections and suggestions whenever required. [5]

The New Testament which emerged from the Press in 1758 was a peculiar combination; the first seven books had no sign of influence of Fabricius while the rest of the work was entirely the translation done by him. At last in 1766, Fabricius could print his translation of the New Testament from a press that the British government made available to him. [5]

On 18 October 1756 Fabricius decided to focus his attention on the translation of the Old Testament. He recognized that this would be infinitely more difficult because of the Psalms, the Book of Solomon and prophets. During the process of translation, Fabricius had to face a lot of difficulty due to the lack of enough printing paper in Tranquebar. After much effort in 1756 a version of the Psalms was finally printed. However the final translation of the Old Testament was not printed until 1798, almost a decade after Fabricius' death. [5]

The Lutheran churches in South India used Fabricius' translation for a period of over 150 years. The poet Vedanayagam Sastriar paid tribute to this work by calling it "the golden translation of the immortal Fabricius." [5]

Last days

His last days in ministry were clouded by mismanagement of the mission, unsuccessful financial transactions among other failures. In 1778 the missionaries learned that Fabricius had involved himself into quite a complex financial debt due to mismanagement of funds. Fabricius was imprisoned although his friends were allowed to visit him from time to time. At last Gericke, who had taken over his work, was able to secure a release for Fabricius, so that he could spend his last few days in peace. Johann Philipp Fabricius died on 23 January 1791 in Madras. [5]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Mission Manual
  2. 1 2 3 4 Anderson, Gerald
  3. ↑ Frykenberg, Robert Eric.
  4. ↑ Prashant More,J.B.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Neill,Stephen.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tharangambadi</span> Town in Tamil Nadu, India

Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. Tranquebar was established on 19 November 1620 as the first Danish trading post in India. King Christian IV had sent his envoy Ove Gjedde who established contact with Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore. An annual tribute was paid by the Danes to the Rajah of Tanjore until the colony of Tranquebar was sold to the British East India Company in 1845.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Uglow Pope</span> Anglican Christian missionary and Tamil scholar

George Uglow Pope, or G. U. Pope, was an Anglican Christian missionary and Tamil scholar who spent 40 years in Tamil Nadu and translated many Tamil texts into English. His popular translations included those of the Tirukkural and Thiruvasagam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Friedrich Schwarz</span> German missionary

Christian Frederick Schwarz was a German Lutheran missionary to India. He was known for his linguistic skills, with knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, Persian, Marathi, and Telugu and even used by the British to serve as an emissary of peace and sent to the court of Haider Ali in Mysore. He worked alongside the Indian royal families, tutoring the Raja Serfoji of Tanjore, and was influential in establishing Protestant Christianity in southern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Dansborg</span> Danish fort in the shores of Bay of Bengal

Fort Dansborg, locally called Danish Fort, is a Danish fort located in the shores of Bay of Bengal in Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Fort Dansborg was built in the land ceded by Thanjavur king Ragunatha Nayak in an agreement with Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde in 1620 and acted as the base for Danish settlement in the region during the early 17th century. The fort is the second largest Danish fort after Kronborg. The fort was sold to the British in 1845 and along with Tranquebar, the fort lost its significance as the town was not an active trading post for the British. After India's independence in 1947, the fort was used as an inspection bungalow by the state government until 1978 when its archaeology department took control of the fort. The fort is now used as a museum where the major artifacts of the fort and the Danish empire are displayed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg</span>

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was a member of the Lutheran clergy and the first Pietist missionary to India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">N. Samuel of Tranquebar</span> Indian theologian

Rev. N. Samuel of Tranquebar was a professor in divinity, pastor in the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (T.E.L.C.), and a hymnodist. He was a famous poet and author of many books. He was also the first member of the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission (L.E.L.M.) Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. T. E. Rhenius</span>

Charles Theophilus Ewald Rhenius was a German born missionary of the Church Mission Society (CMS). He was the first CMS missionary to arrive at India. For his missionary work in the Tirunelveli district he came to be known as the "Apostle of Tirunelveli". He was involved in the attempt to revise the Fabricius version of the Tamil Bible and also published a Tamil grammar book. Rhenius’ split from the Anglican Church in 1830 and started his own congregation. Rhenius' work was recognized in 1980 by the Reverend Daniel Abraham, the then Church of South India (CSI) bishop of Tirunelveli diocese. Rhenius's work was given official recognition by the Anglican Communion during the Tirunelveli diocese bicentenary celebration in 1980, in which, all the bishops, including Anglican bishop Stephen Neill and all the presbyters took an oath in front of the tomb of Rev Rhenius to follow the path of the resting soul, regard to evangelism.

The art of printing first entered India through Goa. In a letter to St. Ignatius of Loyola, written on April 30, 1556, Father Gasper Caleza speaks of a ship carrying a printing press setting sail for Abyssinia from Portugal, with the purpose of helping missionary work in Abyssinia. Circumstances prevented this printing press from leaving India, and consequently, printing was initiated in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Printing in Tamil language</span>

The introduction and early development of printing in South India is attributed to missionary propaganda and the endeavours of the British East India Company. Among the pioneers in this arena, maximum attention is claimed by the Jesuit missionaries, followed by the Protestant Fathers and Hindu Pandits. Once the immigrants realized the importance of the local language, they began to disseminate their religious teachings through that medium, in effect ushering in the vernacular print culture in India. The first Tamil booklet was printed in 1554 in Lisbon - Cartilha em lingoa Tamul e Portugues in Romanized Tamil script by Vincente de Nazareth, Jorge Carvalho and Thoma da Cruz, all from the Paravar community of Tuticorin. it is also the first non-European language to find space in the modern printing culture in the world.

There is a small community of Germans in India consisting largely of expatriate professionals from Germany and their families as well as international students at Indian universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Tamil</span>

The history of Bible translations into the Tamil language commences with the arrival of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg at Tranquebar in 1706.Johann Philipp Fabricius, a German, revised Ziegenbalg's and others work to produce the standard Tamil version. Seventy years after Fabricius, at the invitation of Peter Percival a Saiva scholar, Arumuka Navalar, produced a "tentative" translation, which is known as the "Navalar version," and was largely rejected by Tamil Protestants.

Tamil Lexicon is a twelve-volume dictionary of the Tamil language. Published by the University of Madras, it is said to be the most comprehensive dictionary of the Tamil language to date. On the basis of several precursors, including Rottler's Tamil–English Dictionary, Winslow's Tamil–English Dictionary, and Pope's Compendious Tamil–English Dictionary, work on a more exhaustive dictionary began in January 1913 and the first forms were printed by the end of 1923. Initially estimated at ₹ 100,000, the total cost of the project came to about ₹ 410,000. The first edition had 4,351 pages in seven volumes, including a one-volume supplement, which were printed between 1924 and 1939 and had 104,405 words, with an additional 13,357 words in the supplementary volume, totaling to 124,405 words in all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jerusalem Church, Tranquebar</span> Church in Tamil Nadu, India

The New Jerusalem Church was built in 1718 by the Royal Danish missionary Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in the coastal town of Tranquebar, India, which was at that time a Danish India colony. The church is located on King Street, and church services are conducted every Sunday. The church, along with other buildings of the Tranquebar Mission, was damaged during the tsunami of 2004, and were renovated at a cost of INR 7 million, and re-consecrated in 2006.

The Tranquebar Mission was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle namely, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau responded to the appeal of King Frederick IV of Denmark to establish a mission for the natives, living in the Danish East India Company colony of Tranquebar. The mission was responsible for the printing and publication of the Bible in the Tamil language. In 2006, the 300 years anniversary of the mission was celebrated by the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC), with many international delegates in attendance. A monument to acknowledge 300 years of the mission was raised by the TELC on this occasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zion Church, Tharangambadi</span> Church in Mayiladuthurai district, India

Zion Church is one of the oldest churches in Tharangambadi (Tranquebar), a Danish settlement in Nagapattinam district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is in the premises of Fort Dansborg, built in the land ceded by Thanjavur king Ragunatha Nayak in an agreement with Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde in 1620 and acted as the base for Danish settlement in the region during the early 17th century. The Church was built in 1701 A.D by Rev. Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg and has records from the 18th and 19th centuries. He is believed to be the first Protestant missionary in India and the Church is believed to be the first Protestant Church in India.

Heinrich Plütschau was along with Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, the first German evangelical priest to arrive in India.

Wilhelm Germann was a German Protestant theologian and missionary.

August Friedrich Caemmerer (1767–1837) was a Danish missionary in South India. He is known as the first translator of the Kural into German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Schultze</span> German missionary and orientalist

Benjamin Schultze (1689-1760) was a Christian missionary of the Danish-Halle Mission in South India who established the first Christian mission in Madras.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.