33 Facts About Adoniram Judson

Adoniram Judson was an American Congregationalist and later Particular Baptist missionary who worked in Burma for almost 40 years.

At the age of 25, Judson was sent from North America to preach in Burma.

Adoniram Judson was one of the first Protestant missionaries to Burma.

Adoniram Judson translated the Bible into Burmese and established a number of Baptist churches in Burma.

Adoniram Judson was born to Abigail and Adoniram Judson Sr.

In 1808, Adoniram Judson "made a solemn dedication of himself to God".

In 1810, Adoniram Judson joined a group of mission-minded students who called themselves "The Brethren"; the students inspired the establishment of America's first organized missionary society.

Eager to serve abroad, Adoniram Judson became convinced that "Asia with its idolatrous myriads, was the most important field in the world for missionary effort".

Adoniram Judson was commissioned by the Congregational Church, and married Ann Hasseltine on February 5,1812.

Adoniram Judson was ordained the next day at the Tabernacle Church in Salem.

Adoniram Judson came to the position that believer's baptism was theologically valid and should be done as a matter of obedience to the command of Jesus.

Adoniram Judson offered to Baptists in the United States to serve as their missionary.

Buddhist Burma, Adoniram Judson was told by the Serampore Baptists, was impermeable to Christian evangelism.

Adoniram Judson found a tutor and spent twelve hours per day studying the language.

Four years passed before Adoniram Judson dared even to hold a semi-public service.

Adoniram Judson accommodated some Burmese customs and built a zayat, the customary bamboo and thatch reception shelter, on the street near his home as a reception room and meeting place for Burmese men.

Adoniram Judson was encouraged but suspected they had come more out of curiosity than anything else.

Adoniram Judson completed the translation of the Grammatical Notices of the Burman Language the following July and the Gospel of Matthew, in 1817.

Adoniram Judson befriended the wife of the viceroy of Rangoon, as quickly as she did illiterate workers and women.

Adoniram Judson was a Deist skeptic to whose mind the preaching of Judson, once a college skeptic himself, was singularly challenging.

Adoniram Judson was imprisoned for 17 months during the war between the United Kingdom and Burma, first at Ava and then at Aung Pinle.

Adoniram Judson died while her husband was out exploring the ceded province of Tenasserim.

The first Burmese pastor Adoniram Judson ordained was Ko-Thah-a, one of the original group of converts, who refounded the church at Rangoon.

Adoniram Judson was the first missionary to make contact with them in 1827, when he ransomed and freed a debt-slave from one of his early converts.

Adoniram Judson continued home, where he was greeted as a celebrity and toured the eastern seaboard raising the profile of and money for missionary activity.

On June 2,1846, Adoniram Judson married for the third time, to writer Emily Chubbuck, who he had commissioned to write memoirs for Sarah Hall Boardman.

Adoniram Judson lived there five years and died of jungle fever.

Adoniram Judson developed a serious lung disease and doctors prescribed a sea voyage as a cure.

Adoniram Judson "became a symbol of the preeminence of Bible translation for" Protestant missionaries.

Adoniram Judson's captures the language and idiom of Burmese perfectly and is very clear and understandable.

Inside the campus of Yangon University is Adoniram Judson Church, named in his honor, and in 1920 Adoniram Judson College, named in his honor, merged into Rangoon College, which has since been renamed Yangon University.

The American University named in his honor, Adoniram Judson University was founded in Elgin, Illinois, in 1963, as the liberal arts Adoniram Judson College was separated from the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, which moved from Chicago to Lombard, Illinois.

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Adoniram Judson was named in his honor.