Mission and Revolution in Central Asia - Svenska Missionskyrkan

Avetaranian enclosed an article about Högberg’s activities and asked Waldenström for help to
get it published in an American paper. Waldenström however refused this, but he wrote a
letter to Högberg, full of admonitions:
“I have wanted to tell you this as a reminder to be extremely cautious in order not to attract well-founded
blame which could harm the Mission… As to your disputes with Avetaranian concerning the divinity of
Christ, I hope there must be some kind of misunderstanding on Avetaranian’s side. However his words in
that respect too lend themselves to caution in word and expression.” 94
In the meantime, Avetaranian continued his work with the rest of the New Testament. After a
light revision of the Gospels he anticipated he could publish the whole New Testament in
1911. The printing was taken care of by the German Oriental Mission where Avetaranian was
employed at the time. 95 With regard taken to the mixed reception given to Avetaranian’s first
translation of the Gospels, the British and Foreign Bible Societies, responsible for the
publishing, wanted however to test his new attempts, before the New Testament was printed
in its totality. So when the Gospel of Matthew was printed, the Bible Society sent a number of
copies to Kashgar asking the missionaries there to test it in their work among the population.
They soon found some serious translation errors that they pointed out to the Bible Society.
There was however a lack of response to their remarks and the printing went on. In the
meantime the missionaries were more and more convinced that there had to be a thorough
revision of Avetaranian’s translation. Especially Högberg and Raquette were involved in this
Bible dispute. New proposals were made to the Bible Society, but this time too, no heed was
paid to the remarks.
In 1909, Waldenström entrered the linguistic battle. In several letters to the Bible Society,
he identified with great accuracy the errors and absurdities in Avetaranian’s translation. And
it was not a question of trifles. It had to do with important matters such as the concept of God.
Avetaranian had for example translated “your God” in a way that could be interpreted in the
plural, and thus meant “your Gods”. Of course this was seen as an abomination by the
extremely monotheistic Muslims. 96 The correspondence between Waldenström and the
representative of the Bible Society, Dr Lepsius, led to a Conference in Berlin, in the autumn
of 1909. Waldenström participated there together with professor Andreas from Göttingen, a
representative of the Oriental Seminary of Berlin and four members from the German Oriental
Mission. Dr Lepsius reported to the Bible Society’s Sub Committee that the majority of the
Conference had found the Högberg and Raquette themselves were not apt to translate the New
Testament into Kashgar Turkish, nor were they capable of revising Avetaranian’s
translation. 97 Waldenström reported from the Conference that Professor Andreas had taken
the academic responsibility for the accuracy of Avetaranian’s translation. The remarks made
by the missionaries had been waved aside and explained by the fact that they were due to
ignorance and misunderstanding. 98
When these discussions didn’t seem to lead anywhere, Högberg and Raquette took the
matter in their own hands and revised Avetaranian’s translation of the Gospel according to
Matthew. The printing took place in Tiflis 1910 and the Bible Society was in charge of the
94
Waldenström to Högberg, October 22nd, 1904.
95
Catalogue of the Bibelsällskapet (Bible Society), Vol II, p. 1628, nr. 9414.
96
A summary of the 50 remarks made by the missionaries, far too extensive to be accounted for here, is to be
found in a letter from Högberg and Raquette to the Mission Board in Stockholm, June 1 st , 1909. This letter was
translated into English and is to be found in the archives of the Bible Society, London. A copy is found in the
personal archives of Hultvall. Waldenström to Dr. Pepsius, Potsdam, November 1 st , 8 th , 24 th 1909. Waldenström
builds his presentation on the above mentioned summary.
97
Lepsius’s report to the Bible Society, November 16th, 1909.
98
The Missionsförbundet, 1911, p. 326 f.
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