Samuel Gobat

Samuel Gobat (January 26, 1799 - May 11, 1879), bishop of Jerusalem, was born at Crémines, Bern, Switzerland.

After serving in the mission house at Basel from 1823 to 1826, he went to Paris and London, whence, having acquired some knowledge of Arabic and Ge'ez, he went out to Ethiopia under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.

He visited Ethiopia twice, the first time from the beginning of 1830 to the end of 1832; returning to Europe, he took his wife Maria May, 1834. He then returned in March 1835, but his own ill health (he writes that he was confined to his bed, "suffering cruel pains") forced him to return to Europe in 1836. His journal of his stay in Ethiopia ("Sejour en Abyssinie") was published in 1835 at Paris, and later translated into English as "Journal of Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia". [English translation originally published in 1851; republished by Negro Universities Press in 1969, ISBN 837114160] From 1839 to 1842 lived in Malta, where he supervised an Arabic translation of the Bible.

In 1846 he was consecrated Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, under the agreement between the British and Prussian governments (1841) for the establishment of a joint bishopric for Lutherans and Anglicans in the Holy Land. He carried on a vigorous mission as bishop for over thirty years, his diocesan school and orphanage on Mount Zion being specially noteworthy.

A record of his life, largely autobiographical, was published at Basel in 1884, and an English translation at London in the same year.

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