What is it about?
Adoniram Judson's 1840 translation of the Bible is still the most widely used version among Protestants in Myanmar. This article traces Judson's 24 year journey of translation and examines his scholarly background. Judson was part of the biblical studies movement that flourished in New England in the first half of the nineteenth century. He made use of the latest in biblical scholarship in his work and as a result produced what was for its time a sophisticated translation of the Bible.
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Why is it important?
There has not been much detailed work on the scholarly and exegetical background of the Judson Bible. This article places the translation in its historical context of early modern biblical scholarship and shows the scholarly depth behind the translation.
Perspectives
When I first moved to Myanmar in 2005, like most other western Christians there, I was dismissive of the Judson Bible as an out of date translation (even though I couldn't read it!) I assumed that Judson had turned up in Myanmar with a set of Matthew Henry's commentaries and hobbled together a wooden translation of the Bible (that's one of the uninformed criticisms of the Judson Bible). As my Burmese developed over the years - and I started to actually read the Judson Bible - I was surprised and impressed by the sophistication of the translation. It revealed interpretive skill and expertise, and while it is, at nearly 180 years old, an unavoidably an outdated translation, it is one that looks forward, not backward, in terms of biblical scholarship. This article represents part of my own journey in exploring Judson's Bible translation.
Dr John Hans de Jong
Laidlaw College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Nineteenth-Century New England Exegete Abroad: Adoniram Judson and the Burmese Bible, Harvard Theological Review, July 2019, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0017816019000142.
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