Nathan Brown
Nathan Brown, We are blessed to have Bible in our hands in our mother tongue. But many out there didn’t have that privilege and many men of God came forward to meet their needs.Nathan Brown was an American Baptist missionary who was well-known for his works on the Assamese language. Born in New Ipswich, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Biography:
Birth: 22-06-1807
Death: 01-01-1886
Native Place: New Ipswich, New Hampshire
Country : America
Place of Vision : Assam (India), Japan
At the age of 25 he, along with his wife sailed to Burma to serve as a missionary. There, for some period he helped Adoniram Judson in translation works. Later he was put on a mission to serve in the Indian state of Assam.
The Bible that was available by then in the Assamese language was the translation of William Carey which contained many Bengali and Sanskrit words. Brown committed himself to bring out the Bible in pure Assamese and published the New Testament in 1848.
Nathan Brown ministry in Assam & Japan
In the same year, he published a book on Assamese grammar also. He also translated prayers, edited an Assamese-English dictionary, and published several other historical and scholarly works. His extensive efforts in literary works of the Assamese language, which then was not a recognized language, played a great role for the language to gain its recognition.
Later he returned to America where he joined the abolitionist movement and fought to end slavery in the country. At the age of 65, once again he was on his overseas missionary journey to Japan. In the Japanese city Yokohama, he joined Jonathan Scobie (also known as Jonathan Goble), the first Baptist missionary to Japan.
Joining hands together, they established the first Japanese Baptist church in Yokohama in 1873. Brown toiled to bring out the Japanese Bible print in a simple readable text to make the Bible accessible to the less educated people. In 1886, he breathed his last in the same country far away from his homeland.
Beloved, will you use your intellect to bring the Word of God nearer to people?
Take Away from the article
“Lord, grant me the grace to properly explain the Bible to the less educated people. Amen!”
Word of Prayer
