Johannes Rudolph Lauritzen (February 21, 1845 – September 26, 1923) was a German-American Lutheran clergyman.

Biography

Johannes Lauritzen was born in Bohemia, Germany on February 21, 1845. He emigrated to the United States in 1870, and became a Lutheran pastor, jail chaplain, minister to the poor, and Bible translator. He received his seminary training at the Practical Seminary of the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The L ...

, located at that time in St. Louis. He graduated in 1872, and was ordained and called to St. John's Lutheran Church in

New London, Wisconsin New London is a city in Outagamie and Waupaca counties Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1851, the population was 7,295 at the 2010 census. Of this, 5,685 were in Waupaca County, and 1,640 were in Outagamie County. The city has an annual Sain ...

. He married Louise Sophia Von-Unold in 1874. In 1875, he became pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

. In 1880, however, he was suspended by the LCMS, perhaps due to his involvement in activities outside the parish such as rescue mission, jail ministry, and Bible distribution. He later moved to

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

to become pastor of First Lutheran Church, starting in 1887. Because of his great involvement in fighting drunkenness and in establishing a rescue mission for indigents, he had to resign from the church. He then became the pastor at St. Peter's Evangelical Church, also in Knoxville, where he worked until his pastoral retirement. Among other social ministries, he worked with poor children of Knoxville, including tutoring them in school subjects. He also spent much of his time for 35 years working with prisoners in the jail. He was accompanied in this work by his wife Louise, and they organized the Mission Children's Home together in 1889. After her death in 1912, he remarried to Pearl Anna Wallace on March 14, 1915. It appears that his close contact with the uneducated and unchurched led him to begin a translation of the New Testament. His translation of the New Testament into English was published in Knoxville in 1917, the 400th anniversary of the start of the

Lutheran Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. The translation did not differ significantly from the King James Version. A committee of other Lutheran pastors revised his work and published ''The Capitalized and Revised American Lutheran Translation New Testament and Psalms'' in 1920. In two years, the Lutheran Bible Society of Knoxville had distributed 7,500 copies of this New Testament. A further thousand were sent to English prisoners during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and others were sent to US soldiers. Nonetheless, copies of this translation are relatively rare and Lauritzen is barely remembered for his Bible translation work. Johannes Lauritzen died in Knoxville on September 26, 1923.

References

External links

Link to later edition of Lauritzen's translation of the four Gospels
1845 births 1923 deaths Translators of the Bible into English Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States 19th-century American Lutheran clergy 20th-century American Lutheran clergy {{bible-translator-stub