Misplaced Pages

Paul or Poul Hansen Egede (9 September 1708 – 6 June 1789) was a Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Greenland that had been established by his father, Hans, in 1721.

Biography

Egede was born in Kabelvåg, a village in the parish of Vågan, Norway, on the southern shore of the island of Austvågøya. He was the older son of the village minister Hans Egede and his wife Gertrud Rask. Hans became dedicated to the cause of restoring contact with and missionizing among the Norsemen of the lost Greenland colony, who were presumed to have remained Catholic following the Reformation. He parlayed support among Norwegian merchants and the Danish Mission College into the establishment of the Bergen Greenland Company, which equipped three ships which left Bergen in 1721. A few months later, the Egede family and about forty other colonists landed on the Island of Hope (modern Kangeq) at the mouth of the fjord which houses today's Nuuk. Scurvy broke out and most returned home as quickly as possible, but the natives proved generally curious and helpful. No Norse survivors were found and Hans's company went bankrupt in 1727, but he and his family learned the local Inuit dialect and began a Christian mission among them.

Part of a series on
Lutheranism
Background Christianity Start of the Reformation Reformation Protestantism
Doctrine and theology Bible Old Testament New Testament Creeds Apostles' Creed Nicene Creed Athanasian Creed Book of Concord Augsburg Confession Apology of the Augsburg Confession Luther's Small / Large Catechism Smalcald Articles Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope Formula of Concord Distinctive theological concepts Theology of Martin Luther Justification Law and Gospel Sola gratia Sola scriptura Christology Sanctification Two kingdoms catholicity Two states of the Church Priesthood of all believers Divine Providence Marian theology Theology of the Cross Sacramental Union Other relevant topics Homosexuality
Sacraments and worship Baptism Eucharist Confession Confirmation Matrimony Anointing of the Sick Holy Orders Divine Service Matins Vespers Liturgical calendar Calendar of saints Lutheran hymn Lutheran hymnwriters Normative principle Lutheran art
Organization Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference Global Confessional & Missional Lutheran Forum International Lutheran Council Lutheran World Federation Denominations Lutheranism by region
Movements History of Lutheranism Crypto-Lutherans Gnesio-Lutherans Lutheran orthodoxy Pietists Radical Pietism Haugeans Laestadians Finnish Awakening Old Lutherans Neo-Lutherans High church Lutherans Confessional Lutheranism
Key figuresMissionaries John Campanius Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Hans Egede Johann Heinrich Callenberg Johann Phillip Fabricius Paul Henkel John Christian Frederick Heyer Karl Graul Martti Rautanen Wilhelm Sihler F. C. D. Wyneken Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder Lars Olsen Skrefsrud Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen Onesimos Nesib Paul Olaf Bodding Johann Flierl Christian Keyser Jens Christensen Bible Translators Martin Luther Casiodoro de Reina Kjell Magne Yri Onesimos Nesib Aster Ganno Kristian Osvald Viderø Jákup Dahl Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg Johann Phillip Fabricius William Tyndale John Rogers George Constantine Jozef Roháček Johannes Avetaranian Guðbrandur Þorláksson Ludvig Olsen Fossum Hans Egede / Paul Egede Otto Fabricius Nils Vibe Stockfleth Olaus Petri / Laurentius Petri Martti Rautanen Primož Trubar Jurij Dalmatin Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen Sebastian Krelj Mikael Agricola Norwegian Bible Society Swedish Bible Society Samuel Ludwik Zasadius Stanislovas Rapolionis Laurentius Andreae Hans Tausen Olaf M. Norlie Jonas Bretkūnas Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder Antonio Brucioli Mikołaj Jakubica Matthias Bel Johann Ernst Glück William F. Beck Theologians Martin Luther / Katharina von Bora Philip Melanchthon Johannes Bugenhagen Johannes Brenz Justus Jonas Hans Tausen Laurentius Petri Olaus Petri Mikael Agricola Matthias Flacius Martin Chemnitz Johann Gerhard Abraham Calovius Johannes Andreas Quenstedt Johann Wilhelm Baier Philipp Spener David Hollaz August Hermann Francke Henry Muhlenberg Lars Levi Laestadius Charles Porterfield Krauth C. F. W. Walther Søren Kierkegaard Albrecht Ritschl Wilhelm Herrmann F. W. Stellhorn Rudolf Otto Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Bultmann Paul Tillich Hermann Sasse Dietrich Bonhoeffer Wolfhart Pannenberg Robert Jenson
v t e

Paul assisted his father in his work and, when his mother died and Hans returned to bury her in Denmark after a smallpox outbreak, he took over the mission for an additional six years, accepting to forgo his own desire to become a Danish naval officer. He succeeded his father as superintendent of the Greenland mission. The Lutheran mission was not as successful as the Moravian missions in Greenland, but the expansion of colonies and trading outposts under Jacob Severin's company and the General Trade Company was always eventually followed by a chapel or church at the site. Egede was also an accomplished botanist.

In 1742, Egede was appointed Minister of the Vartov Lutheran Church in Copenhagen. In 1747, he became a professor of theology at the Greenland Mission Seminary established in Denmark by his father and then, in 1758, its provost. In 1779, he was elevated to Bishop of Greenland and, in 1785, made a fellow of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

Egede and a kalaaleq woman named Arnarsaq translated the New Testament into Kalaallisut, the language of the West Greenland Inuit. He went on to publish a Kalaallisut–Danish–Latin dictionary (1750), a revised Kalaallisut catechism (1756), and a Kalaallisut grammar (1760), as well as a number of other books concerning the language.

Paul Egede died in Copenhagen in 1789, having published in that year his journal of his life in Greenland.

References

1. Egede, Poul Hansen, 1708-1789, John Carter Brown Library.
2. "Hans Egede. Explorer, Colonizer Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine". Missionary Gospel Fellowship (Greenville, SC). Accessed 20 Jan 2010.
3. ^ Del, Anden. "Grønland som del af den bibelske fortælling – en 1700-tals studie Archived 2012-07-15 at the Wayback Machine" . (in Danish)
4. "Egede, Povel Hansen (1708-1789)", Mineralogical Record, 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
5. Jacobs, Henry Eyster & al. The Lutheran Cyclopedia. Scribner, 1899.
6. "Hans Poulsen Egede Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine", Mineralogical Record.

• Andersen, Jan: Poul Hansen Egede, en grønlandsforsker i 1700-tallet, Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2007
• Ostermann, H. Poul og Niels Egede (Continuation of Hans Egedes relationer fra Grønland samt Niels Egede: Beskrivelse over Grønland), Copenhagen: 1939 (Danish)
• Nansen, Fridtjof. Eskimo Life (William Archer, translator. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894)
• Gjerset, Knut. History of the Norwegian People (Macmillan, 1915)

External links

• "Egede, Hans" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 12.
• "Egede, Hans" . The Nuttall Encyclopædia. 1907.
• Map of Greenland by Paul Egede
• Paul Hansen Egede, Missionær i Grønland, Project Runeberg (in Norwegian)
• Paul Hansen, Missionær i Grønland, Project Runeberg (in Danish)

• 1708 births
• 1789 deaths
• Danish Lutheran missionaries
• Norwegian Lutheran missionaries
• Lutheran missionaries in Greenland
• Norwegian emigrants to Greenland
• Greenlandic Lutheran clergy
• 18th-century Norwegian Lutheran clergy
• Linguists of Eskaleut languages
• Burials at the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen
• People from Vågan
• Missionary linguists
• 18th-century Danish Lutheran clergy