Exceptionally scarce first edition of the first work printed by the Karen Mission Press at Tavoy in the Karen language [S'gaw]. The translation work was accomplished by Adoniram Judson with the aid of other missionaries and was the first published work in the language, begun immediately after the completion of Judson's Burmese translation [1837].
The Gospel of John was not chosen accidentally. It was the often first book to be translated for a new dialect by missionaries. It would then bound in simple wraps and used as the basis for village preaching by Adoniram Judson and the other pioneers at the Karen Mission. Meanwhile, the team would get to work translating other portions of the New Testament. This was the same process often used by William Carey and company at Serampore. For a similar example see our other presently-offered example of the Calcutta Baptist Mission Press 1838 first issue of John in Hindustani, with original preaching notes on John 3.16.
The only other copy extant of the present is held as part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. Almost certainly the copy of one of the original Karen Mission missionaries.
[Adoniram Judson et al.]. The Gospel of John Translated into the Language of the Karen [Sgaw]. Tavoy. Karen Mission Press. 1838. 86pp.
Originally the property of the American & Foreign Bible Society, likely presented to them by Judson and company after its completion. In original Indian linen spine and simple paper wraps. Textually good and complete with no title [as called for], but the final leaf bearing the woodcut of a grave with Sgaw inscription and in letterpress, "Tavoy. Karen Mission Press." Pages in need of resewing, coming apart from binding.