Robert Moffat

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Robert Moffat

Robert Moffat (born December 21, 1795 in Ormiston , East Lothian (Haddingtonshire) , Scotland , † August 8, 1883 in Leigh , Kent , England ) was a Scottish Evangelical missionary and Bible translator in South Africa.

Life

Moffat was a son of Robert and Ann Gardener. After training as a gardener in England, he was awakened at a Methodist congregation around 1813 , and he joined the Congregational London Missionary Society in 1816 , which first sent him to Namaqualand in South West Africa in 1818 . There he made friends with the former local rebel leader Jager Afrikaner , who had become a Christian, and accompanied him to a confession to the South African police. In 1819 he went back to Cape Town , where he married Mary Smith (1795-1870), the daughter of a former employer in England. They had 10 children together.

From 1820 Moffat expanded the Kuruman station into the most important mission center in southern Africa during the 19th century. Here he learned the local African language Setswana and was the first to translate the Bible into this language, then it was printed in Kuruman in 1857 and in London in 1842 and 1872. The Gospel of Luke was already translated in 1830, the New Testament in 1840 and the Old Testament in 1857 . By 1840 he also translated John Bunyan's pilgrimage into the Setswana language. In order to be able to read and understand the Bible, the first converts learned to read and write, and Kuruman became an educational center. The first Africans who had adopted the Christian faith were baptized as early as 1829, and in 1834 the local church consisted of 350 people.

Moffat also maintained good relations with the Matabele King Mzilikazi and visited him several times. Only in 1839 did the family travel to England on a home leave. His daughter Mary married David Livingstone in Kuruman on January 2, 1845 , who had arrived with Bibles printed in London.

In 1870 Moffat returned to Great Britain , where he worked as a lobbyist for the overseas mission .

Fonts

  • A life's labor in South Africa. The story of the life-work of Robert Moffat, apostle to the Bechuana tribes . John Snow, London 1871.
  • Missionary labor and scenes in Southern Africa 1842 Digitized

literature

  • John Smith Moffat: The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat . T. Fisher Unwin, London 1885.
  • C. Northcott: Robert Moffat: Pioneer in Africa . Lutterworth Press, London 1961.
  • JPR Wallis (Hrgr): The Matabele Journals of Robert Moffat . Chatto & Windus, London 1945.
  • William Walters: Life and Labor of Robert Moffat, DD, Missionary in South Africa. With additional chapters on Christian missions in Africa and throughout the world . Scott, London 1882.
  • Moffat, Robert . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 18 : Medal - Mumps . London 1911, p. 645 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Robert Moffat  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ype Schaaf: L'histoire et le rôle de la Bible en Afrique , CETA, HAHO et CLE, Lavigny 2000, ISBN 9-966-886-72-9 , pp. 85-92
  2. ↑ Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on February 23, 2014
  3. ↑ https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorpmoffat.html
  4. ^ Robert Moffat DD (1795-1883) , website John Gray Center, London (English)
personal data
SURNAME Moffat, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish evangelical missionary and Bible translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1795
PLACE OF BIRTH Ormiston , East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Scotland
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1883
Place of death Leigh , Kent, England