I like many others had not heard much about these American missionaries who spent most of their life doing missionary work in Burma (now called Myanmar). Most Baptists will know this missionary couple as they were one of the first commissioned foreign missionaries in American history.
Adoniram spent more than 40 years in Burma and did amazing work among the Karen tribe and brought a lot of people to faith in Christ. He also translated the bible and other Christian writing in 2 different languages. He wrote a lot of tracts on theological studies and requested Baptists in America to go on global missions all over the world.
Adoniram was skeptic when he was in Brown University and went further away from his faith in God. The death of his close friend who was also a skeptic changed his life to an extent and made him consider going to the Seminary and changing his ways. His father was a very strict and devout Congregational Minister which also made him consider and go to the Andover Seminary in Massachusetts even though he was still a skeptic. However it was there after a couple of months, Adoniram became a follower of Jesus Christ. It was also while he was at Andover, Adoniram felt called to missions, along with several of his classmates. In response, the Congregationalists formed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810. Adoniram and four others were appointed to serve as missionaries to the Far East.
1812 was a key year for Adoniram as it was in February within a span of 2 weeks, he decided to marry Ann Hasseltine (called Nancy), was ordained to gospel ministry, commissioned as a foreign missionary, and set sail for Calcutta, India. It is also worth to be noted that it was the Judson's and their boat-mates, Samuel and Harriett Newel, who became the first Americans to choose to relocate from one nation to another solely for the purpose of spreading the gospel among unreached peoples.
It was when they arrived in Calcutta that they decided to be baptised through immersion by one of William Carey’s colleagues, resigned from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and became a Baptist. One of their friends Luther Rice who followed them to India, was chosen to be the one who should return to America and ask for financial help from Americans to support them with their mission in India.
Soon the Judson's moved to Burma and started to learn the language and culture of the people in Burma. They also started learning the 2 important languages in Burma which is Burmese and Pali (the latter was an older language preferred by cultural elites) which helped them greatly especially in the Bible translations.
The Judson's throughout their period in Burma suffered with sickness, suffering, and death. They lost three children. After falling gravely ill, Nancy spent two years in America convalescing, only to discover she and her husband were celebrities there. Shortly after Nancy returned to the field, war broke out between Burma and England.
In 1824, the Burmese emperor imprisoned nearly all Western men as presumed spies for the British government. This included Adoniram, who spent nineteen months in two different prisons, including one overseen by convicted murderers who had been spared death in exchange for serving as jailers.
Many prisoners died, but Nancy’s devotion kept Adoniram alive. She pestered, begged, and bribed so that she could provide food for her imprisoned husband. She even managed to give Adoniram his personal pillow, into which was sewn his translation of the Burmese Bible. All the while, Nancy was nursing an infant and raising two orphaned Burmese girls.
Adoniram was eventually released from prison so he could serve as a translator for the peace negotiations between Burma and England. But the end of the war wasn’t the end of the Judson’s sufferings. Nancy died in 1826, followed by two-year-old Maria Judson six months later.
Adoniram’s grief led him to retreat into seclusion. He grew increasingly reclusive, finally building a hut in the jungle. He named his hut “The Hermitage” and spent forty days living in the jungle, eating little besides minimal rice rations. He dug his own grave and spent many hours contemplating death. The jungle was tiger-infested, and many locals feared Adoniram would be eaten. When he returned safely from his self-exile, everyone was surprised he had survived.
By the 1830's, Adoniram emerged from his spiritual darkness with a new resolve to reach the people of Burma for Christ. He enjoyed a decade of evangelistic fruitfulness, especially among the tribal Karen people. He also continued his translation work and mentored the steady stream of younger Baptist missionaries coming to Burma to work among the Burmese and Karen. Adoniram married two more times and made one trip to America, where he spoke about missions all over the Eastern countries. He died in 1850.
To conclude by the end of his life, Adoniram had translated the Bible into Burmese, edited several dictionaries and lexical tools for Burmese Christians, and authored or translated numerous tracts on a variety of theological and devotional topics. Historians agree Adoniram’s pioneering translation work remains his most lasting legacy.
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