Griffith John

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Part of a series on Protestant missions to China

Robert Morrison

Background Christianity Protestantism Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorian China missions Catholic China missions Jesuit China missions Protestant China missions

People Karl Gützlaff W. H. Medhurst J. Hudson Taylor Lottie Moon Timothy Richard Jonathan Goforth Cambridge Seven Gladys Aylward (more missionaries)

Missionary agencies China Inland Mission London Missionary Society American Board Church Missionary Society US Presbyterian Mission Baptist Missionary Society

Works Scripture in Chinese Chinese Colleges Chinese Hospitals Chinese Hymnody

Pivotal events Taiping Rebellion Opium Wars Boxer Rebellion Chinese Civil War Sino-Japanese Wars

Chinese Protestants Hong Xiuquan Liang Fa Wang Laijun Xi Shengmo John Sung Ming-Dao Wang This box: view • talk • edit

Griffith John Missionary to China Born December 14, 1831 Swansea, South Wales Died July 25, 1912 England

Griffith John (December 14, 1831 – July 25, 1912) was a Welsh Christian Congregationalist missionary to China and a pioneer evangelist with the London Missionary Society (LMS). He was also a writer and a translator of the Bible into Chinese.

John was born at Swansea, South Wales. He studied for the Congregational ministry at Brecon College, Wales and Bedford Academy, England and was ordained in 1855. That same year he married his first wife, Jane Griffith, a missionary's daughter. After ordination he offered himself for service in Madagascar. But he was persuaded by the LMS to accept appointment to China and the newly wed couple made the voyage to Shanghai arriving in September of 1855. Griffith John served in China for 55 years. Jane died in 1873.

He was brought up a Congregationalist, and at the age of eight was admitted to full membership of his chapel. When only fourteen he delivered his first sermon at a prayer meeting; at sixteen he became a regular preacher, and was subsequently trained at the Brecon Congregational College for the ministry. In 1813 he offered his services to the London Missionary Society, and after two years' training sailed for Shanghai in 1855. An inveterate itinerator, he became well known for his extensive missionary journeys into the Chinese interior - journeys that sometimes stretched to 5,000 km or more. He was among the first to begin Protestant missionary work in Hupeh, Hunan, and Szechwan. John set up schools, hospitals and training colleges with a permanent base at Hankou.

In 1861 he went from Shanghai through the provinces of central China, which he was the first Christian missionary to penetrate, and he claimed that with his colleagues he had established over 100 mission stations in Hupeh and Hunan. In July of that year he had moved to Hankou, which remained his base until his final departure from China in 1912 although in 1863 he was in Wuchang; and in 1867 Hanyang. John, fluent in both spoken and written Chinese, made a major contribution to the Chinese church as author, translator, and preacher. A powerful and eloquent speaker, he was popular with the Chinese, who would gather in great numbers to hear him preach. He was notably successful in training and mentoring numerous Chinese evangelists. He was also a prolific pamphleteer, authoring numerous popular tracts and serving for many years as chairman of the Central China Tract Society.

He acquired an intimate knowledge of the Chinese language and literature, and translated the New Testament and a great part of the Old into more than one Chinese dialect. John wrote a Mandarin translation of the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, as well as a Wen-li New Testament, published in 1885. Elected chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales for 1889, he declined the honor, remaining instead in Hankou among the Chinese that he loved. In the Yangtze valley he founded a theological college for native preachers, which bears his name. The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of D.D. (1889) in recognition of his service to the Chinese. During a career spanning 60 years, John left China only three times, returning finally to England in January of 1912.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Griffith John", a publication now in the public domain.
• R. Wardlaw Thompson, Griffith John: The story of fifty years in China, London, 1906
• Noel Gibbard, Griffith John: Apostle to Central China, Bridgend, 1998.
• Hudson Taylor & China’s Open Century Volume Six: Assault on the Nine; Alfred James Broomhall; Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988

Persondata
NAME	John, Griffith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Missionary in China
DATE OF BIRTH	December 14, 1831 –
PLACE OF BIRTH	Swansea, South Wales
DATE OF DEATH	1912
PLACE OF DEATH