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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2024
Adoniram Judson is widely perceived as the pioneer Bible translator in Burma. His translation of the entire Bible into Burmese, however, built upon three centuries of Roman Catholic missionary outreach. Catholic priests had arrived as chaplains for Portuguese immigrants to Burma in the early sixteenth century, but an indigenous Burmese Catholic church was established within a generation through intermarriage. Barnabite missionaries arrived in the early eighteenth century and engaged in a dynamic hundred years of missionary work. These Catholic missionaries developed key Christian terminology and discourse that Judson drew upon in his translation work. British Baptists were also in Burma for several years before Judson arrived and made their own contribution to Burmese Bible translation. An analysis of the Burmese translations of the Lord's Prayer by Barnabite missionary Giovanni Maria Percoto (1776), British Baptist James Chater (1812), and Judson (1817 and 1832) demonstrates how Judson both drew upon and developed the work of his predecessors in his immense project of translating the entire Bible into Burmese (1840). The Judson Bible, still the most widely used and highly esteemed version in modern-day Myanmar, is an intertextual production. Literary and oral texts, all shaped by their historical settings, intersected multiple other texts over a period of three hundred years before flowing into Judson's translation.
1 Even though other Bible translations in Burmese exist, including the Burmese Common Language Bible (UBS, 2005); The Holy Bible in Myanmar BFBS (1927, revised by UBS 2012); New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs and Deuterocanonical Books (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, 2012). Most Christian ethnic minorities have the Bible in their own languages but default to the Judson Bible if using a Burmese translation. See further Smalley, William A., “Language and Culture in the Development of Bible Society Translation Theory and Practice,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 19, no. 3 (1995): 61–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Brackney, William H., “The Legacy of Adoniram Judson,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 22, no. 3 (1998): 125–126CrossRefGoogle Scholar. “During his own lifetime, Adoniram Judson became a mythic figure, but even more so in his death” (125).
3 For example, Anna Sui Hluan, Silence in Translation: 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 in Myanmar and the Development of a Critical Hermeneutic (Carlisle: Langham Monographs, 2022); David Thang Moe, “Adoniram Judson: A Dialectical Missionary Who Brought the Gospel (not God) and Gave the Bible to the Burmese,” Missiology 45, no. 3 (2017): 264–282; K. M. Y. Khawsiama, “Phayālogy: A Study of Adoniram Judson‘s Naming God as Phayā from a Christian-Buddhist View in Myanmar Context,” The Asia Journal of Theology 28, no. 1 (2014):16–34; May May Latt, “The Open and Hidden Legacy of Adoniram and Ann Judson: A Burmese Christian Woman’s Perspective,” in Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things, ed. C. C. Allen Yeh (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2013), 84–92; Khoi Lam Thang, “‘Eagle’ in the Myanmar Bible,” The Bible Translator 60, no. 4 (2009): 195–200; La Seng Dingrin, “The Conflicting Legacy of Adoniram Judson: Appropriating and Polemicizing Against Burmese Buddhism,” Missiology 37, no. 4 (2009): 485–497; John de Jong, “An Analysis of Adoniram Judson‘s Translation of Zephaniah,” The Bible Translator 68, no. 1 (2017): 64–87; Todd A. Scacewater, “Adoniram Judson’s Understanding and Appropriation of Buddhism,” Churchman 130, no. 3 (Fall 2016): 201–211; Laura Rodgers Levens, “Reading the Judsons: Recovering the Literary Works of Ann, Sarah, Emily, and Adoniram Judson for a New Baptist Mission History,” American Baptist Quarterly 32, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 37–73; Bill Leonard, “‘Wild and Romantic in the Extreme’: Ann Hasseltine Judson, (Her Husband), and a Duty to Go to the ‘Distant and Benighted Heathen’,” American Baptist Quarterly 32, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 74–95; C. C. Allen Yeh, ed., Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things: William Carey and Adoniram Judson, Missionary Pioneers, Studies in World Christianity (Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2013); Molly Truman Marshall, “Extending the Judson Legacy: Conquest, Conversation, and Contextualization,” American Baptist Quarterly 32, no. 1 (Spring 2013); Graham B. Walker, “Building a Christian Zayat in the Shade of the Bo Tree,” American Baptist Quarterly 32, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 96–103; Phyllis Rodgerson Pleasants, “Beyond translation: the work of the Judsons in Burma,” Baptist History and Heritage 42, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 19–35; Brackney, “The Legacy of Adoniram Judson.”
4 Allen Yeh, “Adoniram Judson and Orlando Costas: American Baptist Missions over Two Centuries,” in Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things: William Carey and Adoniram Judson, Missionary Pioneers, ed. C.C. Allen Yeh (Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2013), 70.
5 Barnabite missionary Sangermano, in Burma from 1783 to 1806, wrote of “about 2000 Christians, who are scattered up and down the [Burmese] Empire.” Father Sangermano, A Description of the Burmese Empire, Compiled Chiefly from the Native Documents by the Rev. Father Sangermano, trans. William Tandy (Rome: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 1833), 86. https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs4/A_Description_of_the_Burmese_Empire-Sangermano.pdf (accessed February 24, 2022).
6 La Seng Dingrin, “Is Buddhism Indispensible in the Cross-Cultural Appropriation of Christianity in Burma?,” Buddhist-Christian Studies 29 (2009): 3–22.
7 Julia Kristeva, “Word, Dialogue and Novel,” in Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 64–91.
8 Kristeva, “Word, Dialogue and Novel,” 66.
9 For an overview of Judson's Bible translation project, see John de Jong, “A Nineteenth Century New England Exegete Abroad: Adoniram Judson and the Burmese Bible,” Harvard Theological Review 112, no. 3 (2019): 319–339.
10 Aung Myo Tun, “Arrival of Early Catholic Chaplains in Myanmar before Nyaungyan Period,” University of Mandalay, Research Journal 11 (2020), https://meral.edu.mm/records/5598?community=um (accessed February 15, 2022); Me Me Shwe, “History of Founding Roman Catholicism in Myanmar,” University of Mandalay, Research Journal 11 (2020), https://meral.edu.mm/record/5603/files/History%20of%20Founding%20Roman%20Catholicism%20in%20Myanmar.pdf (accessed February 15, 2022).
11 Vivian Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma (Rangoon: Guardian, 1964), 2. I thank the staff at Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (MEGST) for access to Ba's rare book.
12 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 3. In this period, there was no such political entity as “Burma.” The kingdom of the ethnic Burmese/Bama, known as Ava, was based in what is now called “Upper Burma,” where the famous city of Mandalay is found. The southern areas of Burma were known as Pegu, the domain of the Mon ethnic group. In the period under review, these two kingdoms were rivals; and the Burmese eventually dominated the Mons, the region thus becoming known as “Burma,” modern-day Myanmar (“Myanmar” is the original and correct pronunciation). Numerous other ethnic groups lived, and continue to live, in the wider region, namely the Rakhine, Karen, Kayah, Shan, Kachin, and Chin.
13 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 6.
14 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 5.
15 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 3–7. All of these works were handwritten manuscripts that no longer exist.
16 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 9. It is now unclear where Monhla was.
17 Phongyi [pronounced pone-ji] is the Burmese word for Buddhist monk.
18 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 10.
19 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 10.
20 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 8–9.
21 Adoniram Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London. Rangoon, March 30, 1817,” The Baptist Magazine 10 (1818): 74–75, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129165&view=1up&seq=9&skin=2021 (accessed February 2, 2022).
22 Giovanni Maria Percoto, Compendium Doctrinae Christianae Idiomate Barmano Sive Bomano, (Rome: 1776), held at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Bavarian State Library, https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/search?query=metadata%3Absb10397806. My thanks to Digitale.Bibliothek[at]bsb-muenchen.de. for providing me with high resolution images of the entire Compendium in June 2017.
23 See Dingrin, “Is Buddhism Indispensible?” 7–8.
24 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 7–8.
25 Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma, 10. See also Gracie Lee, “Early Printing in Myanmar and Thailand,” Biblioasia 17, no. 5 (2020), https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-16/issue-2/jul-sep-2020/earlyprinting, who has slightly different dates for Carpani's departure and arrival.
26 Percoto, Compendium, 8. 
Burmese negates verbs in a similar manner to the French “ne-VERB-pas,” here မ-VERB-လင့်. Although the final လင့် is present, it is the မ that primarily signals negation in Burmese.
27 James Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater and Mr. Felix Carey, Rangoon, July 31st, 1809,” The Baptist Magazine 2 (1810): 584–586.
28 Shwe, “History of Founding Roman Catholicism in Myanmar.” 283. Ba, The Early Catholic Missionaries in Burma. 16
29 Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater and Mr. Felix Carey, Rangoon, July 31st, 1809.”
30 James Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater, Missionary to the Burman Empire to Mr. I------ of London. Prince of Wales’ Island, 4th July, 1811,” The Baptist Magazine 4 (1812): 225–26, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129108&view=1up&seq=245&skin=2021 (accessed February 21, 2022).
31 Adoniram Judson, “Letter from Mr. Judson to Mr. Ward. Rangoon, Jan. 18, 1816,” The American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer: New Series 1 (1817): 28–29, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015039721751 (accessed February 21, 2022).
32 D.G.E. Hall, “Felix Carey,” The Journal of Religion 12, no. 4 (1932): 473–492 (477).
33 Ann Judson, “Interesting Letter from Mrs. Judson. Rangoon, April 23, 1814,” The Baptist Magazine 8 (1816): 35–37 (35), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129140&view=1up&seq=50&skin=2021 (accessed February 18, 2022) .
Ann writes, “It is now almost a year since he [Carey] was first ordered up to Ava, which time has been wholly occupied in the king's business.” For the smallpox vaccinations, see Hall, “Felix Carey,” 481.
34 Hall, “Felix Carey,” 483–491.
35 Hall, “Felix Carey,” 491.
36 James Colman, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. Colman, to One of the Editors. Serampore, June 25, 1818,” American Baptist Magazine 2 (1819): 54–56 (54). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721769&view=1up&seq=62&skin=2021 (accessed Janurary 24, 2022). “Mr. Felix Carey has lately arrived at Serampore, and has generously offered to instruct us in the Burman language until an opportunity offers for our conveyance to Rangoon.” See also Hall, “Felix Carey,” 492.
37 James Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater to the brethren at Serampore. Rangoon, Sep. 29, 1808,” The Baptist Magazine 1 (1809): 504–505, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129074&view=1up&seq=519&skin=2021 (accessed January 26, 2022).
38 Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater, Missionary to the Burman Empire to Mr. I------ of London. Prince of Wales’ Island, 4th July, 1811,” 225.
39 William Carey, “Missions in India. Review of the Mission at the Close of the Year 1811: The Burman Mission” Panoplist and Missionary Magazine 10 (1814): 40–41, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433068275191&view=1up&seq=61&skin=2021 (accessed March 1, 2022).
40 Joshua Marshman William Carey, William Ward, “Interesting Letter from Messrs. Carey, Marshman and Ward, to the U.S. Baptist Board of Missions, dated Serampore, June 25, 1816,” American Baptist Magazine 1 (1817): 185–186, 189 (186), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721751&view=1up&seq=188&skin=2021 (accessed March 3, 2022).
41 Hall, “Felix Carey,” 473.
42 Ann Judson, “Interesting Letter from Mrs Judson,” 35.
43 Chater, “Letter from Mr. Chater to the brethren at Serampore,” 504.
44 Felix Carey, “Letter from Mr. Felix Carey to Mr. Ward; dated Rangoon, March 6, 1809,” The Baptist Magazine 1 (1809): 584, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129074&view=1up&seq=519&skin=2021 (accessed January 17, 2022).
45 Felix Carey, “Extracts of a letter from Mr. F. Carey to his brother William, dated Jan. 28, 1808,” The Baptist Magazine 1 (1809): 250–251, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129074&view=1up&seq=267&skin=2021 (accessed January 26, 2022).
46 James Chater, “Extract of a Letter from Mr. Chater to Mr.____ of London. Rangoon March 14th, 1810,” The Baptist Magazine 3 (1811): 171–172, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129090&view=1up&seq=194&skin=2021 (accessed January 18, 2022).
47 “Translations of Scripture: XVI. Burman,” The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine 5 (1813): 296–297, https://archive.org/details/panoplistandmis01unkngoog/page/n318/mode/2up (accessed April 5, 2022).
48 Carey, “Missions in India,” 40-41.
49 “Religious Intelligence: Rangoon in Burmah,” The Baptist Magazine 5 (1813): 349, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129116&view=1up&seq=419&skin=2021 (accessed March 23, 2022).
50 “Translations of Scripture: XVI. Burman,” 297.
51 “Extracts from a Memoir of the State of the Translations, in a Letter to the Society: Relative to the Burman,” The Baptist Magazine 2 (1810): 621, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129082&view=1up&seq=524&skin=2021 (accessed January 26, 2022).
52 James Chater and Felix Carey, “Extract of a Letter from Brethren Chater and F. Carey at RANGOON,” The Baptist Magazine 1 (1809): 338, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129074&view=1up&seq=11&skin=2021 (accessed January 13, 2022).
53 “Religious Intelligence. Baptist Mission. Rangoon,” The Baptist Magazine 1 (1809): 503–504, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129074&view=1up&seq=11&skin=2021 (accessed March 14, 2022).
54 My thanks to Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian Dr Eric Johnson-DeBaufre of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, for providing me with a digitized copy of their partial volume of Chater's 1812 Gospel of Matthew in Burmese, which consists of Matthew chapters 1–9.
55 My thanks to Shelly Buring and Dalton Alves of the GWU Gelman Library's Special Collections Reference, for their assistance and providing me with a digitized copy of their volume of Chater's 1815 Gospel of Matthew in Burmese.
56 “Missionary Retrospect and Foreign Intelligence: Baptist Mission,” The Baptist Magazine 7 (1815): 519, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433069129132&view=1up&seq=4&skin=2021 (accessed February 22, 2022).
57 Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.”
58 Judson, “Letter from Mr. Judson to Mr. Ward. Rangoon, Jan. 18, 1816.”
59 Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.”
60 E. D. Potts, British Baptists in India: The History of Serampore and its Missions (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 79.
61 Potts, “British Baptists in India,” 79–91; H. L. Richard, “Some Observations on William Carey's Bible Translations,” International Bulletin of Mission Research 42, no. 3 (2018): 241–250.
62 See further John de Jong, “‘I Have Nothing Yet That I Can Venture to Use’: Adoniram Judson’ Rejection of James Chater's Gospel of Matthew in Burmese,” The Bible Translator 74, no. 2 (2023): 284–298.
63 Francis Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev Adoniram Judson, vol. 1 (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1853), 121, https://archive.org/details/amemoirlifeandl03waylgoog/page/120/mode/2up (accessed February 8, 2022).
64 Adoniram Judson, “Extract of a letter from Rev. Mr. Judson, to Dr Staughton, dated Rangoon, August 3, 1816,” The American Baptist Magazine 1 (1817): 180–181, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721751&view=1up&seq=185&skin=2021 (accessed January 10, 2022).
65 Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.”
66 Ann Judson, “Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Judson, dated Rangoon, Aug. 20, 1817,” American Baptist Magazine 1 (1817): 410–412, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721751&view=1up&seq=414&skin=2021 (accessed January 20, 2022).
67 Adoniram Judson, “Letter from Mr. Judson to the Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. Rangoon, March 7, 1817,” American Baptist Magazine 1 (1817): 329–31, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433068272016&view=1up&seq=339 (accessed January 18, 2022).
68 Dana L. Robert, “The Mother of Modern Missions,” Christian History and Biography 90 (2006): 24.
69 Levens, “Reading the Judsons,” 46.
70 Robert, “The Mother of Modern Missions,” 24; Ann Judson, “Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Judson to Friend in this Country. Rangoon, Feb. 10, 1818,” The American Baptist Magazine 2 (1819): 14–15, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015039721769 (accessed January 18, 2022).
71 Adoniram Judson, “Mr. Judson's Tract,” The American Baptist Magazine 1 (1817): 403–406, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721751&view=1up&seq=7&skin=2021 (accessed February 9, 2022).
72 For more detail on the Pali and Burmese Buddhist background of these terms see Dingrin, “Is Buddhism Indispensible?”
73 Adoniram Judson, Gospel of Matthew in Burmese, 1817, Hartford Trinity College, CT, Rare Books and Special Collections, Watkinson Library, Rangoon. My thanks to Dr Eric Johnson-DeBaufre of the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, for making a copy of this rare manuscript available to me. Another copy is also held at Carey Library and Research Center of Serampore College, India. My thanks to Peter de Vries, voluntary consultant at the Carey Library and Research Center, for his bibliographic assistance in this research project.
74 See further https://www.brandeis.edu/library/archives/essays/special-collections/burmese-texts.html (accessed March 16, 2022).
75 Adoniram Judson, The New Testament in Burmese (Maulmein: 1832). https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=UylKAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed February 28, 2022).
76 Adoniram Judson, “Mr. Judson's Journal, Continued from November 18, 1821,” American Baptist Magazine 4 (1823): 98, https://archive.org/details/sim_baptist-missionary-magazine_1823-05_4_3/page/98/mode/2up (accessed March 2, 2022).
77 Ann Judson, “Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Judson, dated Rangoon, May 10, 1816, to a Lady in Beverly,” American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer 1 (1817): 97, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039721751&view=1up&seq=101&skin=2021 (accessed March 7, 2022).
78 Dingrin, “Is Buddhism Indispensible?”
79 J. Marshman W. Carey, W. Ward, “Third Memoir of the Translations Carrying on at Serampore, in a Letter Addressed to the Society. Serampore, Aug. 20, 1811,” The Christian Guardian and Church of England Magazine 4 (1812): 456, https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=r_oDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA456&lpg=PA456&dq=Maguda+language&source=bl&ots=486ehg8vHc&sig=ACfU3U05iZb0muFC-nyNklLfYFEzQzdNNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiM24P0tcb2AhUSwTgGHaFSBkkQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=Maguda%20language&f=false (accessed April 5, 2022).
80 Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev Adoniram Judson, vol.1, 174–175.
81 See Matt 6:9–13 in Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs and Deuterocanonical Books (Myanmar: Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, 2012), 11; LanPyaTarYar (Catholic Prayer Book) (1989).
82 See Jong, John de, “Early Burmese Translations of the Lord's Prayer,” Lamp: MEGST Journal of Christian Thought and Praxis 2 (2022): 1–21Google Scholar.
83 I thank Burmese teacher Zin Mar Myo Swe for her help in analyzing these texts.
84 Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.”
85 Judson, “Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.”
86 Okell, John and Allott, Anna, Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical Forms (Surrey: Curzon, 2001), 54Google Scholar.
87 A. Judson, “Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Judson, dated Rangoon, May 10, 1816, to a Lady in Beverly.”
88 Dingrin, “Is Buddhism Indispensible?”
89 See further Jong, John de, “Textual Criticism, the Textus Receptus, and Adoniram Judson's Burmese New Testaments,” Pacific Journal of Baptist Research 13, no. 2 (2018): 51–60Google Scholar.
90 See the contemporary review “The New Testament in the Common Version, Confirmed to Griesbach's Standard Greek Text,” Book Review, The North American Review 31, no. 68 (1830): 267–275.
91 Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev Adoniram Judson, vol.1, 166.
92 Not to mention the input of Judson's second wife, Sarah Hall Boardman, who translated Christian literature into both Mon and Burmese, see Levens, “Reading the Judsons,” 51–52.
