Michael Agricola Finnish Bible Translator
Michael Agricola is the father of the Finnish language. First of all, all you Latin students know that Agricola is Latin for farmer. It had become a custom during the renaissance for young scholars to adopt a Latin surname. Michael didn't have a surname to begin with. Serfs didn't. He was Michael Olavinpoika, which is Finnish for Michael Olaf's son. As the reformation was happening in Wittenberg, Michael entered a monastery in Sweden (Sweden owned Finland for 500 years before the Czar captured it.) Michael was good with languages, so he was sent to Wittenberg where he studied under Martin Luther and Philip Melancthon for three years. Sent back to Finland, the young scholar started translating the Bible into Finnish, an unwritten language with many dialects. His work in translating all of the New Testament and part of the Old Testament, as well as creating a textbook to teach Finns how to read their own language is exactly what Bible Translators do today. In doing so, Agricola not only became a Bible translator, he also became the father of the written Finnish language. Just as Luther's translation of the Bible became the standard for German, Agricola's translation became the standard for Finnish. Agricola's Bible and the Lutheran doctrine made the Lutheran reformation spread peaceably throughout Finland. Preachers weren't burned at the stake. My nephew, Nathan Esala, serving with Lutheran Bible Translators has done for people of the Komba tribe in Northeast Ghana what Agricola did for Finland. I'm thinking that Nathan's influence will last much longer than his presesnce in Ghana because he has produced the Bible in the heart language of a half million people in Ghana. I'm thinking that the reformation will spread peaceably among these people because they have the Bible in their own language. My qustion to other readers (being that I'm not much of a historian, just a preacher) is how much a Bible translation into a heart language transforms the church from one where only the pastor knows the Word of God to one where lay leadership takes hold of the church and does mission work? I suspect that in Finland the Bible Societies that were lay-led spawned a church that spread the Gospel through mission work more than the State Church did. What do you think?
2 comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
Michael Olaui Agricola died on 9.4.1557 on his way from Moscow to back home. He was part of a royal diplomatic mission. Because of his importance, there is a lot of studies on him and his influence in Finnish. I only want to point out that Agricola was not a monk. He never "entered a monastery in Sweden". Concerning the quite interesting concluding comment " I suspect that in Finland the Bible Societies that were lay-led spawned a church that spread the Gospel through mission work more than the State Church did. " I think that real life is more complicated than our interpretations of it. Finnish Bible Society was founded in 1812 and until 1974 the chair of the board was the Archbishop and throughout the history the general secretary has been a member of the clergy of the Church of Finland. Even though Argicola's NT was published already in 1548 the Bible became awailable to every interested citicen only during the second half of the 19th century, through the work of the Church governed Bible Society.
Thanks to my Uncle Luther for responding to my invitation to take our e-mail discussion to a larger venue for our MAP community to engage with. I was struck by my own ignorance of this history which is at least part of my own heritage. And thanks to Dr. Sipilä for deepening and expanding the discussion based on his knowledge of his home context and history in Finland. As Bible folk engaging in translation in various contexts in various ways, I believe we need a deeper connection with the histories that shape us or might shape us in ways if only we might engage with the lessons that history has to offer contemporary practice. I am interested in Agricola as indigenous translator and how he worked with others in translation and his larger project. I am also interested in what the Finnish context and translation contributed to the Reformation "method" and "message."