“TWO-FINGER BIBLE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 6

“TWO-FINGER BIBLE”

—-o——— A GALLANT LITHUANIAN. Sometimes one comes upon the story of a man who is so brave that we are amazed at his bravery. We are amazed when ho read of Samuel Schcreschewsky—pronounced, we believe: Sherry-shoosky. Ho was born in Lithuania in 1831. His parents were Jewish.

He read the New Testament—after it had been translated into Hebrew byJews in India!

As a preacher in the United States he might have had a comfortable post as a tutor, but he chose to go to China, and there for half a century he devoted all his energies to. translation. Ho translated the whole' Bible into Mandarin. Chinese, a colossal, task.

As soon as he had finished ho began all over again making an easier version called the Easy Wen-Li. This was finished in 1902. He was not satisfied. He went on to revise both versions word by word. He was stricken witli paralysis and could not hold a pen, but he could operate a typewriter. Bit by bit the paralysis grow worse. He could not sit up. Ho lost the use of all his fingers except one finger of each hand.

But he typed out the entire text of the Wen-Li Bible using only the middle fingers. His joke was that lie was making a Two-Finger Bible —and the fun of it was that it was known as the “easy” Wen-Li.

Few men have been more gallant than Samuel Schcreschewski.