Walter Henry Medhurst
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Categories: English linguists | Translators of the Bible into Chinese | English lexicographers | English Congregationalists | English missionaries | Christian missionaries in China | 1796 births | 1857 deaths | People buried in Abney Park Cemetery | Congregationalist missionaries
Rev. Dr Walter Henry Medhurst (Chinese: 麥都思) (29 April 1796 - 24 January 1857), was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School, was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese language editions.
Early lifeAs a young man Medhurst learned the business of a printer and typesetter. Becoming interested in Christian missions he sailed in 1816 to join the London Missionary Society's station at Malacca, which was intended to be a great printing centre. He became proficient in Malay, in a knowledge of the written characters of Chinese, and in the colloquial use of more than one of its dialects. Medhurst was ordained at Malacca in 1819, and engaged in missionary labours, first at Penang, then at Batavia - and finally, when peace was concluded with China in 1842, at Shanghai where he founded the London Missionary Society Press (墨海書館) together with William Muirhead, Joseph Edkins, and William Charles Milne. There he continued till 1856, laying the foundations of a successful mission. Significant booksMedhurst's principal labour for several years, as one of a committee of delegates, was in the revision of existing Chinese versions of the Bible. In 1840, a group of four people (Walter Henry Medhurst, Charles Gutzlaff, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, and John Robert Morrison) cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gutzlaff from the Netherlands Missionary Society, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively. Image:Medhurst's China.jpg
Medhurst's famous book on China inspired many to be missionaries including Hudson Taylor.
This translation, completed in 1847 is very famous due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taipingtianguo movement (Taiping Rebellion) as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization. This Bible translation was a version in Classical Chinese, marvellously correct and faithful to the original. With John Stronach, and the assistance of Wang Tao, Medhurst later translated the New Testament into the Mandarin dialect of Nanking. His Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries (each in 2 vols.) are still valuable, and to him the British public owed its understanding of the teaching of Hung-Sew-Tseuen, the leader of the Tai-ping rising (1851-64). Medhurst was a prolific writer, translator, and editor. The list below is incomplete.In recognition of these learned books, in 1843 the University of New York conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D. Image:Dr Medhurst AbneyPark.jpg
Inscription to Dr Medhurst at Abney Park
Image:Dr Medhurst monument AbneyPark.jpg
Soaring skywards, the stone obelisk monument in memory of Dr Medhurst at the Congregationalists' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery
Death & memorialleft Shanghai in 1856, in failing health. He died two days after reaching London, on 24 January 1857 and was buried at the Congregationalists' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery where his white stone obelisk monument can still be seen today. His son, Sir Walter Henry Medhurst (1822-1885), was British consul at Hankow and afterwards at Shanghai. His obituary was published in the Illustrated London News of 9 January 1886. Published books
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