Robert Morrison (missionary)

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Robert Morrison

Robert Morrison (born January 5, 1782 in Bullers Green, England, † 1834 in Macao ) was a Scottish Presbyterian .

Life

Even as a teenager, Morrison studied the Bible a lot and learned the ancient languages ​​of Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He was also very impressed by William Carey's work in India . In 1804 he began a missionary training in London against the will of his family.

He started learning the Chinese language . In 1807 he left for Canton via Macau . His main goal was to translate the Bible into Chinese. He also started wearing Chinese clothes and a braid of hair. In 1808 he had completed a Chinese grammar . In 1809 he married Mary Morton and got a post at the British trading post. In 1810 he published a small edition of the Acts of the Apostles in Chinese under a pseudonym . At that time, the death penalty was imposed on printing or publishing Christian literature .

In 1813 he had already translated the New Testament in full. In 1814 he was able to baptize the first converted Chinese. In 1819 he had also completed the translation of the Old Testament . However, he did not translate everything himself, but also made use of existing partial translations. His colleague William Milne translated parts of the Old Testament. Nevertheless, the publication of the Chinese Bible is due to him. He could then also complete the Chinese dictionary. In 1821 his wife Mary died and in 1826 he remarried. In 1834 he returned to his Chinese homeland.

His epitaph is in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao / China, right behind the Morrison Chapel named after him.

Together with Karl Gützlaff , his ideas were one of the decisive pioneers of Hudson Taylor .

literature

Web links

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