Chapter Four: The uncertainty of Christianity in Madagascar
5- The edition of the Bible, translated into the Malagasy language
5- The edition of the Bible, translated into the Malagasy
printing press and the Malagasy who helped them had not yet received any instruction for the work. As a result the printing progress was very slow at this beginning. Jones reported that on the 12th May they had only achieved the printing of the first half of the Gospel of Luke (1969:125-126).
It was not only the lack of skilled and experienced workers that slowed down the printing of the Bible. They had to print at the same time, a small catechetical book and a hymn book. They also had to print other texts for teaching in schools. These missionaries were people of courage and determination; hardships could not stop them from carrying their work of evangelisation. They did everything to make their mission successful. After a year of struggle, Baker, a specialist in the printing press, arrived on September 1828. He was sent by the LMS to replace the deceased Hovenden. He set to work the following month and took charge of the direction of the printing press. With encouraging collaboration they completed the printing of Luke's Gospel towards the end of November. The following month they distributed hundreds of copies of it. The Malagasy Christians were happy to receive the copies.
As soon as they finished the printing of Luke's Gospel, they proceeded on to Matthew, Mark and John. At that time the work of printing progressed rapidly. First of all Baker knew how to operate the machine, secondly he worked full time at the printing press.
He completed the printing of the other Gospels on 29th March 1828 (Munthe 1969:126). The following month he continued with the Acts, Paul's and the other letters and the book of Revelation. The printing of the New Testament was completed on the 26th February 1830. They printed 3000 copies of it. On the 1st March, they decided to bind four hundred copies for immediate distribution.
These were distributed towards the end of March 1830 among 'the members of the mission in England and Mauritius, compositors and pressmen, first scholars, teachers and proficient scholars, civilians and a few slaves, soldiers and officers, persons on the eastern coast, sailors of the 8th rank, women chiefly scholars and wives whose husband have taught them, youth who were learning the Arabic language, Mr Canham's apprentices, Mr Chick's apprentices, Mr Cameron including those recently appointed
by the government to learn soap making' (Munthe 1969:132-133). It is remarkably interesting that each group of people received their part during this first distribution:
soldiers, civilians, artisans, teachers, students, housewives, and even slaves. The missionaries wanted to make sure that the Word of God reached everyone in the island.
Most of the missionaries were expelled before 1835; the remnant joined their efforts together and hastened the printing of the Old Testament. They vowed not to leave the country before finishing the printing of the whole Bible: Old and New Testaments. But at that moment the queen had already declared war against Christianity. So leaving without having finished the printing of the Bible could mean the end of Christianity in Madagascar. Because when they had left, the Bible would become 'the pastor, leader, teacher, advisor and comforter'26 of the Merina Christians, which would become a shepherdless flock. After very hard work, they at last completed the printing of the whole Bible on the 21st June 1835. Before their departure in July 1836, Johns and Baker distributed clandestinely the Malagasy Bible to the Merina Christians. This is the greatest gift they left to the Merina Christians as Ridgwell argues:
The story is no less than the romance of a book, God's Book; the last and the greatest gift the missionaries gave or could give, to that shepherdless flock, before they were exiled from the country. Eleven strenuous years of passionately devoted translation, culminating in a feverish haste to finish it before the blow fell, went to the completion of the task, and then, when the human voice was silenced and men ceased speaking, God spoke, and the Word became life-the very breath in the nostrils of those hungry scattered sheep (Ridgwell 1937:33).
Having the Malagasy Bible they could experience what the early Christians experienced on the day of Pentecost: 'We hear them speaking in our own language' (Acts 2:8). From that time, it is not only the Bible that spoke to them; they too spoke to the Bible. They transacted, dialogued and conversed with it. Both they and the Bible spoke to one another just as Maluleke says 'the Bible is regarded as a "conversation
1 quote this from Rakoto Mark, the director of the FMBM, during the interview on February the 14' 2005 at Antaninarenina-Antananarivo.
partner" to be teased, sung about, laughed about, prayed around, relied upon and inquired from' (2000:92). They always moved around with their Bible under their arms or in the bags that they carried with them. The Bible became their 'fellow traveller' (2000:97), through the dark moment of persecution. Their reading of it gave them courage and strength.