Nathan Brown (missionary)

Nathan Brown

Nathan Brown (22 June 1807 – 1 January 1886) was an American Baptist missionary to India and Japan, Bible translator, and abolitionist.

Early life and missions to Burma and Assam

Born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, he attended Williams College, where he graduated first in his class. He and his wife, whom he married in 1830, went on to serve as missionaries in Burma. Brown's original intention had been to translate the Bible into Burmese, but he soon found himself pulled into a mission along with Oliver Cutter and Miles Bronson in the Indian region of Assam.

In 1848, Brown published an Assamese grammar, followed by an Assamese translation of the New Testament in 1850. The language regained recognition in part due to Assamese publications edited by him, and his association with Hemchandra Barua.

During British India, it imposed Bengali Language over Assamese as it took over Assam. The period for which Bengali Language was imposed is knows as The Dark Age of Assamese Language, i.e., Bengali Language eclipse over Assamese.

Nathan Brown was widely regarded as one among the rescuers of Assamese Language from Bengali Language eclipse over Assamese.

Abolitionism

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People Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Joshua Marshman William Ward Alexander Duff Anthony Norris Groves V.Nagel Henry Martyn John Hyde Amy Carmichael E. Stanley Jones Luther Rice James Mills Thoburn The Scudders more missionaries

Works Serampore College Scottish Church College Wilson College Madras Christian College St. Stephen's College Gossner Theological College

Missionary agencies London Missionary Society Church Missionary Society Baptist Missionary Society Scottish General Assembly American Board

Pivotal events Indian Rebellion of 1857 Indian Republic Interactions with Ayyavazhi

Indian Protestants Bakht Singh Krishna Mohan Banerjee Pandita Ramabai Sadhu Sundar Singh Jashwant Rao Chitambar Victor Premasagar Y. D. Tiwari P. C. John This box: view · talk · edit Christianity in India portal

in 1850 Brown returned to America to join his brother William in the growing abolitionist movement. In his satirical work Magnus Maharba and the Dragon, an account of the battle against slavery, Rev. Brown used the pen name Kristofer Kadmus. This shows that he truly identified with the character in Greek Mythology that his life so paralleled. Cadmus was best known as a traveller and vector of culture and ideas. His journey in search of his lost sister Europa led to importation of the idea of alphabet into Greece. In myth, Cadmus killed a dragon that prevented mortals from reaching a sacred spring. He planted the dragon's teeth on the spot; they sprouted into armies that fought nearly to death, with the survivors building the city of learning.

The "haystack missionaries", including Nathan Brown, associated the account of the introduction of the Greek alphabet with the New Testament creation, and the idea of creating local alphabets for every language was an important first step towards the goal of a Bible translation for every language. The printing presses and schools of these missions also became a vehicle for empowerment of local language and culture.

Following his return from Assam to New England in 1848, Nathan Brown joined the abolitionist movement, delivering anti-slavery sermons in Boston. This struggle eventually resulted in the American Civil War. Many proponents of the anti-slavery movement had to deal with the bloody results of their efforts in a personal struggle of conscience. Rev. Brown dealt with the question of violent means in Magnus Maharba.

Missionary to the Japanese

After the war, in 1868, Brown turned his attention to the newly accessible Japan, at first by interacting with the students that Japan was sending to the Bridgeport Academy and Princeton University for education in Western world culture and technology. This cultural exchange was a two way process. Rev. Brown published another satire showing America as seen through the eyes of one of these Japanese students, which was sharply critical of New England's materialism, in place of spirituality. One exchange student, for whom Nathan Brown wrote a letter of reference to the Bridgeport Academy, eventually became an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Brown's first wife died in 1871, and in 1872, having married again, he returned to overseas missionary work, this time traveling to Japan to join Jonathan Scobie, the first Baptist missionary to that country. The two collaborated to construct the first Japanese Baptist church (First Baptist Church of Yokohama) in 1873. Brown also worked with Japanese scholar T. Kawakatsu to produce a Japanese-language Bible based on what were then the oldest known Greek manuscripts; he would go on to print thousands of Hiragana copies for distribution print versions (with the goal of access to the Bible by less educated persons who might not understand Kanji). Brown died in Yokohama in 1886.

External links

• The Life of Nathan Brown, Early American Missionary
• Nathan Brown's contributions to Assam
• Nathan Brown's contributions to Assam

Persondata
Name	Brown, Nathan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 June 1807
Place of birth
Date of death	1 January 1886
Place of death