Mennonite Love Affair with the Bible Society

Two evangelical Quaker missionaries and Bible distributors, Stephen Grellet and William Allen, visited the Mennonite colonies in 1819. They were invited to Russia by their “friend” Tsar Alexander I four years earlier (note 1). The missionaries were advocates of prison reform, good hospitals and schools—including for girls—religious lessons and the broad distribution of Bibles. Their purpose was to teach, to “strengthen,” “comfort” and “give much counsel to Mennonite elders and ministers,” and to distribute Christian reading materials” (note 2). The Quakers found kindred spirits. Allen wrote his daughter that “the whole subject of these [Mennonite] colonies is so interesting, that I hardly know how to keep my letter in moderate compass” (note 3).

Two years later the Molotschna was visited by a delegation from the non-denominational British and Foreign Bible Society and the Russian Bible Society—the latter headed by the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs and Education in the government of Tsar Alexander I. The British agent, Reverend Ebeneezer Henderson, placed before Molotschna elders and its “leading men”—undoubtedly Johann Cornies is meant here—a “higher” vision for Mennonite existence and mission in New Russia. Henderson wrote in 1826:

“Placed in the centre of an extensive territory, where they are surrounded by Russians of various sects, Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Tatars, and Jews, we could not but regard them as destined by Divine Providence to shine as lights in a dark place, and took an opportunity of pointing out to their Elders, and other leading men, their obligations to use their endeavours to enlighten all around them, by promoting, to the utmost of their power, the circulation of the Holy Scriptures among them, in their different languages. Our proposal, that they should establish a Moloshnaia Bible Society, they cheerfully acceded to, and have since carried it into effect. … As they live on habits of friendship and intimacy with their Tatar neighbours, and one of their principal men [Cornies] speaks the Tatar with fluency, we furnished him with a good supply of New Testaments, and other portions of Scripture, in that language, that they might commence their operations without delay." (Note 4)

The vision resonated with Johann Cornies and some elders. Soon the Molotschna branch of the Bible Society was the largest outside of St. Petersburg. But it would not prove easy to keep up this level of enthusiasm. In March of the same year Cornies wrote to his friend David Epp in Prussia:

“Our Bible Society’s account in St. Petersburg is more than 6,000 rubles. The sale of books of holy scripture has not yet declined, which means that the Bibles are being read. Last year, sales brought in 672 rubles, 25 kopeks. Sixty-three members paid 227 rubles, 78 kopeks, and donated 29 rubles, 30 kopeks. [But] our membership is declining. … Our interest is immediately awakened, but then falls off.” (Note 5)

For decades Mennonites in Russia were seen by Bible, missionary and tract societies in Berlin, London, Basel and the United States as strategically placed to support missionary activity deep into central Asia and even China (note 6).

Some ministers however thought that these innovations were destructive to the fabric of Mennonite faith and life. Old Flemish Minister Jacob Warkentin (Molotschna) appealed to the Prussian mother church and requested to have their own elder. His fear was that Elder Bernhard Fast’s support for a Molotschna branch of the Russian Bible Society would link them to other religious groups and could “make us subject to military service”; they thought the “military-like” offices of president, secretary, etc. displayed pride rather than piety (note 7). “The problem, as one contemporary recalled, was that “most Mennonites had no idea what missions or a missionary was” (note 8).

But interest in scripture distribution grew. Orders from the Chortitza Mennonite church were also placed through Cornies’ office. Assistant Phillip Wiebe wrote minister David Epp (Chortitza) in September 1840:

“ … You will receive the accompanying crate marked D.E. containing seven Bibles for seven silver rubles, seventy kopeks, and nine Bibles for nine silver rubles, for a total of fifty-eight rubles, forty-five kopeks, plus ten New Testaments for twenty rubles and eighteen Bible stories at 105 kopeks for eighteen rubles, ninety kopeks. ... It was not possible to meet your wishes completely with respect to the Bibles, since the supply in the local depot was not sufficient, as is the case with New Testaments for one ruble eighty, of which there are only three or four left. They are preferred here as they are there. Mr. Cornies also requests that you kindly take the eighteen copies of Bible stories on consignment. Please notify my employer, who is cashier and depot director, about the receipt of the crate.” (Note 9)

Prussian Mennonites were also invited “to take collections in support of the dissemination of the Word of God among Evangelicals [Protestants] in the Russian Empire;” these were sent directly to Cornies (note 10).

In 1843 one visitor from the London Bible Society was very much impressed with the spiritual leadership especially in the Molotschna Colony—spearheaded by a few church leaders and Cornies.

“There are a few [who are] zealous for the glory of God; who maintain spiritual worship, both in public and private. … They have one very able man among them, by whose labors, partly, this pleasing state of things has been brought about.” (Note 11)

“Among these good friends, I found the preachers most willing to forward the work of Scripture distribution; and I was happy to be able to give them a supply, of which they were greatly in want. May the Lord bless the labors of these good men, for the benefit of all the surrounding colonies.” (Note 12)

Cheap Bibles and free German religious tracts provided through the British and Foreign Bible Society, Russian Bible Society and Berlin Bible Society were actively distributed by Molotschna supporters for decades. These were received with enthusiasm by an increasingly literate and intellectually curious community.

Distribution of tracts, the sale of New Testaments, Psalms, and full Bibles, and some evangelism to Catholics and Orthodox continued well into the 1880s by individuals outside the ministries of the institutional church and often with the support of local police officials. See Peter Penner’s brief report on his four years of ministry as a travelling “colporteur for the Lord” as well as the “memories of a Bible colporteur” (note 13).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Life of William Allen: With Selections from His Correspondence, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Longstreth, 1847), 149f., https://books.google.ca/books?id=bLUmXra1oWcC.

Note 2: Life of William Allen, vol. I, 401–403. James Urry first brought some of these materials to light in his 1987 essay, “‘Servants from far’: Mennonites and the pan-evangelical impulse in early nineteenth-century Russia,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 61, no. 2 (1987), 213–227. Cf. Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Stephen Grellet, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Longstreth, 1867), 389; 409; 441, https://books.google.ca/books?id=ErsRqec-8DYC.

Note 3: Life of William Allen, vol. I, 402.

Note 4: Ebeneezer Henderson, Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia (James Nisbet, 1826) 386, https://books.google.ca/books?id=8yFaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA386#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Note 5: “No. 52: Johann Cornies to David Epp, Prussia. 10 March 1826,” in Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 1: 1812–1835, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 61f. On growth, see “No. 350, Johann Cornies to Daniel Schlatter, 11 March, 1833,” ibid., 317, https://books.ca/books?id=54Z6CwAAQBAJ&pg.

Note 6: Cf. reports in the Boston-based Baptist paper, Christian Watchman 19, no. 20 (May 18, 1838) 78; 26, no. 7 (Feb. 14, 1845) 1; Watchman and Reflector 69 no. 53 (Dec. 31, 1868) 1.

Note 7: Cf. letter from Molotschna elders and Tobias Voth to Prussian church leaders, in Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), 135–141; esp. 137, https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.

Note 8: Abraham Braun, “Kleine Chronik der Mennoniten an der Molotschna seit ihrer Ansiedlung bis in mein 80. Jahr,” Mennonitisches Jahrbuch 1907, no. 5 (1908) 66–79; 70f., https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/kb/mj1907.pdf. English translation: https://www.mharchives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Braun-Abraham-A-Brief-History-of-the-Mennonites-in-the-Molotschna-Edited.pdf. Franz Isaac, Molotschnaer Mennoniten: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte derselben(Halbstadt, Taurien: H. J. Braun, 1908), 93–95, https://archive.org/details/die-molotschnaer-mennoniten-editablea. English translation: https://www.mharchives.ca/download/3573/.

Note 9: “No. 347, Phillip Wiebe to [David] Epp, Khortitsa, 1 September 1840,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 2: 1836–1842, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), 282f., https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/100164/1/Southern_Ukrainian_Steppe_UTP_9781487538743.pdf.

Note 10: “No. 516, Johann Wiebe (Neuteich, Prussia) to Johann Cornies, 23 December 1841,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, vol. 2, 423.

Note 11: “Mennonites in Russia,” Christian Watchman 24, no. 27 (July 7, 1843), 1.

Note 12: “Mennonites in Russia,” Christian Watchman 24, no. 27 (July 7, 1843), 1.

Note 13: Mennonitische Rundschau 8, no. 6 (February 9, 1887), 1, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/lfrs99.pdf; Johann Bartsch’s extensive report, “Erinnerungen eines Bibelkolporteurs,” Mennonitische Rundschau 26 (June 17, 1903), 1–2, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/ekl427.pdf; (November 18, 1903), 2–3, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/ekl428.pdf.

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Mennonite Love Affair with the Bible Society," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 19, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/11/mennonite-love-affair-with-bible-society.html.

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