William Yates | |
|---|---|
 William Yates | |
| Born | 15 November 1792 |
| Died | 3 July 1845 At sea |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Bengali bible translation |
William Yates (15 November 1792 - 3 July 1845) was an English Baptist missionary and orientalist. He created a Bible translation into Bengali.
Yates was born in Loughborough, he was the second son and third child of William Yates, a shoemaker, and his wife Ann, ardent members of the Baptist communion. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, where he showed an aptitude for Latin and Greek. In 1812 he went to Bristol Baptist college where he decided to become a missionary. [1]
Yates set sail as a missionary on the Earl Moira on 24 October 1814 and landed at Calcutta on 16 April 1815. There he worked with William Carey on translations of The Bible into Bengali and various other languages. Yates was at Serampore when the missionaries there fell out with the British society and Yates moved to nearby Calcutta as a result of the schism. [1]
Yates became the centre of a controversy that helped to found the Bible Translation Society charity. The British and Foreign Bible Society refused to fund the publication of the new translation. [1] The pivotal case was the translation of the Bible from Greek into Bengali made by Yates and Carey after a decade of study. [1] When Yates made the translation he had chosen to translate the word "Baptise" as "Immerse". [2] This aligned with the Baptist beliefs, but not necessarily with every denomination's values. The new society was formed by the Baptists but the formation of new Bible translation societies proved divisive and expensive and they were eventually de-merged. [2]
On 13 January 1816, he married Catherine Grant, the daughter of a deceased missionary.
In 1827 he returned to England via America but soon returned to India.
Brown University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on 4 September 1839. Catherine died in 1838. In 1841 Yates married Martha Pearce, the widow of a colleague, William Hopkins Pearce. [3]
He set sail for England in 1845, but died en voyage, three days from Suez. [1]
Adoniram Judson was an American Congregationalist and later Particular Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years. At the age of 25, Judson was sent from North America to preach in Burma. His mission and work with Luther Rice led to the formation of the first Baptist association in America to support missionaries.
William Carey was an English Christian missionary, Particular Baptist minister, translator, social reformer and cultural anthropologist who founded the Serampore College and the Serampore University, the first degree-awarding university in India.
Christians in Bangladesh account for 0.30% of the nation's population as of 2022 census. Together with Judaism and Buddhism, they account for 1% of the population. Islam accounts for 91.04% of the country's religion, followed by Hinduism at 7.95% as per 2022 census.
Hannah Marshman was an English missionary who founded a school at Serampore, India.
Andrew Fuller was an English Particular Baptist minister and theologian. Known as a promoter of missionary work, he also took part in theological controversy.
BMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society. The headquarters is in Didcot, England.
Nathan Brown was an American Baptist missionary to India and Japan, Bible translator, and abolitionist. He is noted for his works on Assamese language, grammar and script.
Fort William College was an academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, located within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Wellesley started the Fort William College to train the European Administrators. He backdated the statute of foundation to 4 May 1800, to commemorate the first anniversary of his victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. Thousands of books were translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu into English at this institution.
William Ward (1769–1823) was an English pioneer Baptist missionary, author, printer and translator.
Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu majority country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram& Nagaland and significant minorities in Konkan division, Bengal, Kerala& Tamil Nadu, with various communities in east coast and northern states. Protestants today trace their heritage back to the Protestant reformation of the 16th century.
Hana Catherine Mullens (1826–1861) was a European Christian missionary, educator, translator and writer. She was a leader of zenana missions, setting up schools for girls and writing what is arguably the first novel in Bengali. She spent most of her life in Calcutta, then the capital of British India, and was fluent in the Bengali language.
The Serampore Mission Press was a book and newspaper publisher that operated in Serampore, Danish India, from 1800 to 1837.
Assamese is part of the easternmost group of the Indo-Aryan languages. History of Assamese literature can largely be classified into three periods, including: Early Assamese period, Middle Assamese period and, Modern Assamese.
Nathaniel B. Halhead of the East India Company published a Bengali grammar for British officials in 1776 to aid interaction with the local Bengali population. William Carey of Serampore translated the Bible into the Bengali language and published it in 1793 and 1801. The high language Bengali translation in use in Bangladesh is derived from Carey's version, while "common language" versions are newer translations. Fr. Christian Mignon, a Belgian Jesuit, finished a revised version of the Bible in Bengali, named Mangalbarta, which has copious footnotes. Missionaries have also translated the Bible into "Musalmani Bangla", as well as the Chittagonian and Sylheti dialects.
Jeremiah Phillips(1812–1879) was an American Baptist missionary to the Santals under the Free Baptist Missionary Society in India.
Samuel Pearce was an English Baptist minister, known as a hymn-writer.
Edward Bean Underhill (1813–1901) was an English missionary secretary, known as a Baptist historian and biographer.
Edward Steane (1798–1882) was a British Baptist minister who founded the Evangelical Alliance. He was pastor in Camberwell.
Translation of the Bible into Sanskrit is among the first wave of Bible translations into Indian languages.
David Brown (1763–1812) was an English chaplain in Bengal and founder of the Calcutta Bible Society.
