Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

During the first generation of missionary operations in Turkey there were few tangible results except among the Armenians. The Mohammedans were by no means entirely hostile and revealed much friendliness and often open sympathy. The Jews presented almost a solid wall of stolid opposition to the effort for reform among them, while the Syrians and Greeks, under the leadership of the Roman Catholics, were often violent in their open attacks and secret plottings to thwart every attempt of the missionaries to gain a foothold in the country. The people in all the empire who seemed to have been especially prepared to receive and profit by evangelical teaching were the Armenians, who were not distinctly in mind when mission work in Turkey was first contemplated. In fact, almost nothing was then known of these people in the world at large and among the Christians of the United States who were supporting the cause of foreign missions.

While the American Board contemplated extending its missions in the Levant to the shores of the Black Sea and especially into Armenia, no mention whatever seems to have been made of the Armenians in connection with the beginning of the first “mission to Palestine.”

Not long after Rev. Levi Parsons arrived at Jerusalem in 1821 and upon his first visit there, he came into contact with some Armenian pilgrims with whom he had conversation upon the subject of missions to their people and country. These expressed themselves as eager to have missionaries sent to them. Mr. Fisk at about the same time, writing to Boston from Smyrna, recommended the appointment of missionaries to Armenia. From this time the idea of work among the Armenians enlarged and deepened, although the “mission to the Jews” was kept persistently at the front.

There had been a vast deal of preparation of the Armenian people for a work of reform, emanating from sources quite outside of the Board and, in fact, considerably anterior to its organization. Somewhere about 1760, an Armenian priest, who was burning with the desire to reform the Armenian Church, appeared in Constantinople. He saw and deeply felt the gross errors of the Gregorian Church, and wrote a book exposing them. He was an educated man and seems to have been more or less familiar with the work of Martin Luther, of whose Reformation he heartily approved. He constantly referred to the Bible and to this high standard he mercilessly brought his Church and its clergy. The inconsistent life of the priests and bishops, and the gross superstitions of the people at large, greatly troubled him. He lacked, however, true spiritual enlightenment and power, and failed to see divine truth in its breadth and purity. His book was never printed, but copies were kept in various places which were brought to light and repeatedly referred to later. This effort had wide influence in revealing the errors of the Armenian Church, and did much to prepare the way for the genuine reformatory movement.

In 1813, six years before the American Board appointed its first missionary to Palestine, the British and Russian Bible Societies made strenuous efforts to provide for the Armenian people a Bible in their own tongue. An edition of an old fourth century Armenian version of the entire Bible was commenced in that year at St. Petersburg by the Russian Bible Society, and at about the same time another edition of the same Bible was put on the press by the Calcutta Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Russian edition of five thousand copies was out in 1815, and the British edition of two thousand copies appeared two years later. The Russian Society issued a separate edition of two thousand copies of the Ancient Armenian New Testament.

In their report of 1814 the British and Foreign Bible Society said that the printing of the Armenian Testament had aroused much interest among the Armenians, especially those in Russia. Emperor Alexander at that time took a keen interest in the work of the Russian Bible Society and therefore the cause itself became popular among all classes. The Armenian Catholicos, the spiritual head of that Church, with residence at Etchmiadzin, now in Russia, bordering upon Armenia, was elected one of the vice-presidents of the society. He wrote a letter to its president commending the work of the society, and approving of the plan to supply his own people with the Word of God. The Armenian archbishop of Tiflis contributed six hundred roubles for that purpose.

In 1818 the British and Foreign Bible Society purchased one thousand five hundred copies of the Armenian New Testament from the Armenian Catholic College located on the Island of St. Lazarus, Venice, for distribution among the Armenians. Later, a still larger number was purchased and distributed in the same way. In 1823 the same Bible Society published at Constantinople an edition of five thousand copies of the Armenian New Testament and three thousand copies of the four Gospels alone. These books were rapidly distributed by agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society and by Mr. Connor of the Church Missionary Society, at that time in Constantinople, among the Armenians of the Trans-Caucasian provinces in Russia and in Turkey.

These facts have an important bearing upon the preparation of the Armenians for a reform movement. Hitherto, while they had the Bible in its entirety, it was mostly in manuscript form, and inaccessible to the people. These valuable copies of the Holy Scriptures were kept in the monasteries or in the larger churches, carefully guarded by the priests or other custodians, who usually were themselves unable to read or understand the writing. All the Armenians everywhere accepted the Bible as the divine and inspired Word of God.

The name of the Bible is Astvadsashoonch, or “The breath of God.” With joy they welcomed the printed word that could be kept in their houses, handled with their own hands, and perused at their leisure. Hitherto they had been permitted only to kiss its silver adorned covers at the close of the formal services of their churches.