By Myint Zan
13 July 2026 was the 213th anniversary of the arrival of American Baptist Missionary Dr (Doctor of Divinity) Adoniram Judson (9 August 1788-12 April 1850) and his then wife (who turned out to be his first of three wives), Ann Heseltine Judson (22 December 1789-5 October 1826), in Rangoon, Kingdom of Burma, on 13 July 1813.
Adoniram Judson lived about 36 years in Burma, making one visit to the United States and died at sea in April 1850 on the way for his second visit.
The Wikipedia website on Adoniram Judson states:
When Judson began his mission in Burma, he set a goal of translating the Bible and founding a church of 100 members before his death. When he died, he left the Bible, 100 churches, and over 8,000 believers. In large part due to his influence, Myanmar has the third largest number of Baptists worldwide, behind the United States and India. The majority of adherents are Karen and Kachin.
I want to be clear that I am mentioning Judson’s arrival two hundred and thirteen years ago in Burma is not to positively commemorate or alternatively bemoan it.
Judson, who already knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, immediately began studying the Burmese grammar but took over three years learning to speak it. This was due, in part, to the radical difference in structure between Burmese and Western languages. He found up to three different tutors and spent twelve hours per day studying the language. He and his wife firmly dedicated themselves to understanding it.
Just over 20 years after his arrival 1835, Judson had translated and published the entire Bible into Burmese.
I have read parts of the Burmese translation, which was written in classical and excellent Burmese. The translation is not from the English but either the Greek or the Hebrew versions, with perhaps consulting the English translation as well.
JUDSON’s EXCELLENT TRANSLATIONS OF TWO BIBLICAL PHRASES
I want to comment (and praise) on his translation skills by giving two examples of Biblical phrases which he had translated. (Again, I want to make myself clear that I do praise his superb translation and his dedication, skills and determination in learning and mastering the Burmese language and NOT on his theology, metaphysics or religion).
“Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ was translated by Judson thus: ‘Give us food (or victuals) (just) to make a living this day’. Not a literal translation of bread since bread is not the staple food of the Burmese. Also, Judson, in his translation, did not use the staple food of the Burmese, which is rice. He did not translate (retranslating from the Burmese) ‘Give us this day our rice and curry’; Judson did state ‘to make us a living’, which was not in the English translation, but the addition of that phrase is appropriate, right on the mark and compelling.
Second, the phrase in Ecclesiastes ‘Vanities of Vanities, all is Vanity’ (Eccles. 12:8) is translated as All in this world is ANATTA (non-self) ANATTA and ANATTA.
ANATTA is a Pali term which is proximately translated as “non-self”. I have read a succinct elaboration in English which reads (with emphasis) ‘There IS no self’ (the emphasis is on the IS)
It is one of the three signata of Buddhism: ANICCA (non-permanence), DUKKHA (suffering or the state of being awry) and ANATTA (non-self). It is significant that Dr Judson appropriated the Pali Buddhist term ANATTA and deployed it to proximately translate ‘Vanities of Vanities, all is Vanity’; by using the Pali word ANATTA. I mentioned this translation to my high school teacher, the late M A Williams, who taught us English at Saint Peter’s High School in Mandalay several decades ago. Saya (teacher) M A was a Catholic. Saya M A said in response that Judson translation was Ma Hsoe Boo (not bad), which I think was an understatement.
‘BURMA THROUGH ALIEN EYES’
It was in the University of Michigan Library in 1982 that I found the book Burma Through Alien Eyes by Helen Trager. Ms Trager reported and critiqued the very uncomplimentary remarks about Buddhism, if not by Judson himself but then by one of his wives. They wrote: ‘how lucky American children were when they have Christ as their Saviour and worship the only true god and Burmese children bow down to idols’. In the year 2001, in a sermon in a Methodist Church in Fiji, I also heard similar denigrating comments about ‘heathen idols’.
In relation to the relative ease with which Dr Judson converted the non-Burman ethnic groups to become Buddhists, he had some explanations. It is with some, if not considerable, difficulty that he was able to convert relatively few Burmans in contrast to the ethnic groups and hill tribes. The Burman Buddhists had a well-established religion of Buddhism for about eight centuries before the Judsons arrived in Burma. Judson or one of his wives wrote that the hill tribes and ethnic groups did not have an organized religion, only animistic belief. It is considerably easier to pour down, so to speak, the truth of Christianity into the jar or the minds of the hill tribes, wrote the Judsons. For the Burman (Bamars) Buddhists, they already have dark and smelly petroleum or kerosene in the form of Buddhism. Petroleum in Burmese is written (the water that smells). So, it takes time and effort to clean the ‘smelly water’ before Christianity can be poured down into the cup (minds) of the targeted populace of Burmans compared to the hill tribes, Judson stated.
Wikipedia and other sources state that it took Judson six years to convert the first Burmese. In 1819, he baptized Maung Naw, a 35-year-old timber worker from the hill tribes. There still stands a Church by the name of U (‘Mr’) Naw Memorial Church in Yangon.
Wikipedia also states that when Judson met the Buddhist Burmese King Bagyidaw, also known as Sagaing Min (23 July 1784-15 October 1846) and presented to him a Burmese translation of one of the tracts of The Bible, the King threw them away to the ground after reading a few lines.
COMPARATIVE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM TO PROSLETIZE IN TWO SOUTH EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES 200 YEARS APART
Still, it is significant that two centuries ago, at least at times in Burma, the Judsons and other missionaries had the partial freedom to preach, and as early as 1835 and even now the Burmese translation of The Bible is available to be purchased or read in Churches.
I have a two-volume copy of the Burmese translation of the Quran too, and as far as I know, though it may be hard to obtain, the Quran in Burma is not formally banned.
Fast forward two centuries later to Malaysia in the year 2013 – the 200th anniversary of Judsons’ arrival in Burma. In the year 2013, a Malay translation of The Bible, even if not formally banned in Malaysia, is scarcely available. I understand that only a somewhat different translated version in the Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia) is available. The Malay language (Bahasa Melayu) and Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia) are to a maximum of 90% similar, but they are not identical.
I also dare to wonder whether, hypothetically, if Adoniram Judson were to come to Malaysia in July 2013 instead of to Burma in July 1813, would he be able to proselytize as he did in Burma two centuries earlier? It is true that Judson had been prosecuted and jailed in Burma for about 17 months. But would he have similar freedom to convert Malays and Muslims in Malaysia like Judson did in Burma in the year 2013 in Malaysia or not? To extend this counter-factual, could Judson have built a rest house (Zayat), say in any Malay-dominated area in Malaysia in the year 2013 to preach Christianity to Malays and other Muslims? And instead of inviting Buddhist Burmans to ‘hear the good news’ (to preach Christian tenets) in the early 19th century, could he have invited Malays or other Muslims to propagate the gospel in the early 21st century?
I do not think so. In every state of Malaysia there are laws which prohibit proselytizing to Muslims and distributing religious pamphlets to them. All pamphlets from ‘other religions’ (more on this below), whether Christian, Buddhist or Hindu, carry the disclaimer of ‘For non-Muslims only’.
I have been inside the Judson Memorial Church, which is in the compound of the University of Rangoon/Yangon, built around July 1931. I went there when there was no sermon, but I have listened to a Methodist sermon where the speaker spoke in English in Suva, Fiji. I have also listened to a Catholic sermon in French at the Notre Dame in Paris, France, but not in the Judson chapel in Burmese!
JUDSON’s PREDICTION IN BURMESE SCRIPT ABOUT THE FUTURE OF BAPTIST CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS
It was stated above that one online source states that Judson learned to speak Burmese within three years after he arrived in Burma. But another source states that Judson first learned to read and write before he was able to speak and later preach about Christianity in Burmese. It states that in July 1816, a mere three years after his arrival, Judson published (did he have access to a printing press or did he hand copy it?) in Burmese titled (in translation) A View of the Christian Religion. In it the following bold or, in the context of the third decade of the 21st century and in retrospect, nonsensical prediction appeared:
A hundred or two hundred years from now (‘the other’) religions Buddhism, of Brahma (Hinduism), of Muhammad (Islam) and the religion of Rome Roman Catholicism) will disappear and the true faith of the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e., Baptism) will pervade the whole world.
Two hundred and ten years to the month (in July 2026) after Dr Judson wrote that bold prediction, the rosy, over-optimistic scenario stated in Dr Judson’s tract has not materialized. Obviously, NONE of the ‘Other’ religions Judson predicted or ‘prophesized’ (more below) has disappeared. Significantly, Judson did include the Roman religion (Roman Catholicism) as the ‘Other’ religion, albeit it was the earlier version of the religion of Christianity.
About 114 years after Judson’s prediction, philosopher Bertrand Russell 18 May 1872- 2 February 1970), in one of his essays first published in 1930, wrote:
.. Protestantism split into innumerable sects, which weakened each other, and there is reason to suppose that a hundred years hence Catholicism will be the only effective representative of the Christian faith. (Emphasis added).
‘Has Religion made useful contributions to civilization’ in Why I am not a Christian (Routledge Classics, 2004, pp. 37-38.)
In July 2026, Russell’s prognosis or projection in 1930 that in 100 years only effective representative of the Christian faith would be Catholicism has not materialized. Still, according to Vatican sources there are currently about 1,420 million Catholics in the world and online sources indicate that the population of all sects of Protestants (including Baptists) is between 690 million to 1,000 million. Russell is right in that, as in 1930, there are currently many (‘innumerable’) sects among Protestants. Russell was not quite right when he stated that the Catholic Church will be the only effective representative of the Christian faith. Russell, unlike Judson, did not state that Protestants will ‘disappear’ as Judson did as to ‘religion of Rome’ and ‘Other’ religions.
‘ALL OTHER RELIGIONS WILL DISAPPEAR’ JUXTAPOSED WITH ‘WITHERING AWAY OF THE STATE AND LAW’
Sixty-two years after Judson’s bold prediction of the disappearance of other religions except that of his own, Frederick Engels (29 November 1820-5 August 1896), with approval of the contents by Karl Marx (5 May 1818-14 March 1883), published Anti-Duhring. In the book, he claimed that under communism the State and Law will wither away. Engels did not say they will be abolished or ‘will disappear’, unlike Judson. And unlike Judson in 1816, Engels did not provide a timeline as to when the State and Law will begin to wither away.
‘WHERE THERE ARE PROPHESIES…’
‘But where there are prophecies, they will cease’. 1 Corinthians 13:8
One supposes that Dr Adoniram Judson was not a Prophet in the full Christian theological sense of the word. But in pre-Christian Greek mythology, Cassandra had a gift of prophecy, albeit her prophecies were not believed. Dr Adoniram Judson was not (strictly) theologically a prophet. Neither was he the mythological Cassandra. But it is not politically or religiously incorrect to state that Judson’s prediction of 1816 has as the per the Corinthians, ‘ceased’ to be valid and ceased to be of any relevance.