Johann Philipp Fabricius (22 January 1711 – 23 January 1791) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

and a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

in the later part of his life. He arrived in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

in 1740 to take charge of a small

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

congregation in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

and expanded it during his stay. During his time in Madras he wrote several Christian

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

in Tamil and published the first Tamil to English

Dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

. Of his works his translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

to Tamil is considered to be most noteworthy.

Early life

Johann Philipp Fabricius was born on 22 January 1711 in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

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.Mission Manual He graduated in both

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at Universities in Giessen and Halle, Germany.Anderson, Gerald

Ministry

In 1740 Johann Philipp Fabricius arrived in

to take charge of a small Tamil

congregation in

. After initial setbacks, the congregation grew from 300 to 2,200 members in his 30 years of ministry. Initially the foundations of ''dubashi'' infrastructure in South India were laid down by

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (24 June 1683 – 23 February 1719) was a member of the Lutheran clergy and the first Pietist missionary to India. Early life Ziegenbalg was born in Pulsnitz, Saxony, on 24 July 1683 in a devout Christian family. His ...

. During the course of 1720 to 1849, around seventy-nine missionaries came to

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar (, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. It wa ...

from Europe. Benjamin Schultze and Johann Philipp Fabricius were the most noteworthy among them. Fabricius was Schultze’s successor and worked in

Vepery Vepery is a neighbourhood in the north of Chennai, India. Abutting the transportation hub of Park Town, Chennai, Park Town, the neighbourhood covers a rectangular area north of the Poonamallee High Road. History Vepery is among those oldest nei ...

from 1740 to 1791.Frykenberg, Robert Eric.

Literary contribution

An important area of work started initially by Ziegenbalg and then later on taken up by Fabricius was Tamil Christian hymnody. Johann Philipp Fabricius published a collection of 335 Tamil

, most of them translated from German. The initial compositions by Ziegenbalg were not very well done and when Fabricius came to Madras he had this field of work entirely to himself and gained quite a mastery over this art. Even today hymns by Fabricius are sung by Christians in South India. In 1761,

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

forces invaded

Pondicherry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...

, which was then a

French colony The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas Colony, colonies, protectorates, and League of Nations mandate, mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "Firs ...

, and acquired a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

. When the spoils of war were brought to Madras the printing press was passed on to Fabricius to aid his missionary work as well as to be used for the East India company's publications. Thus the first printing press in Madras was installed under Fabricius's supervision in 1761. Initially Fabricius had problems with importing

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

for his press from Europe, but the problem was sorted out when Indians in Madras started to manufacture their own paper, leading to first paper industry in Madras.Prashant More, J.B. In 1779 he published the first Tamil to English dictionary containing 9000 headwords. This work laid the foundation for his future works in Tamil literature. It was published under the title "A Malabar and English dictionary, wherein the words and phrases of the Tamil Language, commonly called by Europeans the Malabar Language, are explained in English, By the English Missionaries of Madras. Printed at Wepery in the Year M.DCC.LXXIX."

Bible translation

Ziegenbalg had left behind his translations of the Old and the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

during his stay in Madras. As he read through the translation along with Muttu, Fabricius realized that changes had to be made to Ziegenbalg's translation. "The four qualities which Fabricius found in the originals were lucidity, strength, brevity and appropriateness; these were sadly lacking in the existing Tamil translation, but he hoped that by the help of God he had been able to restore them."Neill, Stephen. In 1750 Fabricius finally completed his translation of the New Testament. He was a diligent worker and made sure that he read out his work to a lot of people in order to get their feedback and response. By 1753 translations of the first epistle of the Corinthians had already begun, much to Fabricius' disappointment. The printing process was also in full sway. At this point Fabricius decided to go back to Tranquebar and work with his colleagues on the Corinthians and Galatians. Fabricius' colleagues immediately realized the superiority of his work and decided to print his translation instead. They held the right to make corrections and suggestions whenever required. The New Testament which emerged from the Press in 1758 was a peculiar combination; the first seven books had no sign of influence of Fabricius while the rest of the work was entirely the translation done by him. At last in 1766, Fabricius could print his translation of the New Testament from a press that the British government made available to him. On 18 October 1756 Fabricius decided to focus his attention on the translation of the Old Testament. He recognized that this would be infinitely more difficult because of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, the Book of Solomon and prophets. During the process of translation, Fabricius had to face a lot of difficulty due to the lack of enough printing paper in Tranquebar. After much effort in 1756 a version of the Psalms was finally printed. However the final translation of the Old Testament was not printed until 1798, almost a decade after Fabricius' death. The Lutheran churches in South India used Fabricius' translation for a period of over 150 years. The poet Vedanayagam Sastriar paid tribute to this work by calling it "the golden translation of the immortal Fabricius."

Last days

His last days in ministry were clouded by mismanagement of the mission, unsuccessful financial transactions among other failures. In 1778 the missionaries learned that Fabricius had involved himself into quite a complex financial debt due to mismanagement of funds. Fabricius was imprisoned although his friends were allowed to visit him from time to time. At last Gericke, who had taken over his work, was able to secure a release for Fabricius, so that he could spend his last few days in peace. Johann Philipp Fabricius died on 23 January 1791 in Madras.

Notes

References

* Phines Rice Hunt - Fabricius' editor in India. *Johann Philipp Fabricius". Mission Manual. 15 April 2007. http://www.missionmanual.org/w/index.php?title=Johann_Philipp_Fabricius&printable=yes&printable=yes. Retrieved 2009-01-23. *Anderson, Gerald (1999). ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions''. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 207. . https://books.google.com/books?id=oQ8BFk9K0ToC. *Prashant More, J. B. (2004). ''Muslim Identity, Print Culture, and the Dravidian Factor in Tamil''. Orient Blackswan. pp. 80. . https://books.google.com/books?id=11FYACaVySoC. Fabricius published the Tamil grammar in English which was only sixty three pages long. This was published in 1778, and fifteen years later a revised edition came out. Fabricius also made excellent use of the work already done by Ziegenbalg in bringing out the Tamil-English lexicon. *Robert, Dana L. (2007). ''Converting Colonialism''. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 24. . https://books.google.com/books?id=EFwSuuwM-EsC. *Neill, Stephen. ''A History of Christianity in India (1707–1858)''. Cambridge University Press. 43-45. *Frykenberg, Robert Eric. (2008) ''Christianity in India:from beginnings to the present''. Oxford University Press. pp. 152 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fabricius, Johann Philipp 1711 births 1791 deaths 18th-century German Lutheran clergy German Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in India Translators of the Bible into Tamil Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Clergy from Frankfurt German expatriates in India 18th-century German translators German missionary linguists 18th-century German linguists