Thomas Dennis (priest)

Thomas John Dennis (1869-1917) was an Anglican priest who was the main translator of the Bible into the Ibo language.[1] in the 20th century.[2]

Thomas John Dennis was born in 1869 and grew up in the County of Sussex on the south coast of England[3]. He was educated at the CMS College, Islington and Durham University. He was ordained in 1894.[4] He was with the CMS in Sierra Leone from 1893 to 1894. He came to West Africa in 1893 and was ordained on Whitsunday 13 May 1894. He was acting Vice-Principal of Fourah Bay College, Freetown for about a year then joined the Niger Mission in November 1894. His duties were initially mainly administrative, as Acting Secretary to the mission in 1895. After the death of the Secretary, H.H. Dobinson, in 1897 Dennis became Secretary and was appointed Archdeacon of Onitsha in 1905.[5]

From 1906 to 1913 he made a new translation of the Bible into the Ibo language for the British and Foreign Bible Society.[6] He was also Commissary and Examining Chaplain to the Rt Rev. Herbert Tugwell, Bishop in Western Equatorial Africa.[7] he has a school named after him.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ Owerri Anglican
  2. ↑ DACB
  3. ↑ https://revtomdennis.wordpress.com/page/
  4. ↑ ”The Clergy List” London, Kelly’s, 1913
  5. ↑ Journal of Niger Delta Studies Volume 1, Issue 2 - p66 1977 "Apart from Christopher and Francis, the man to whom much of the credit for producing the Union Igbo Bible should go was Thomas John Dennis. He alone had anything near what could be regarded as the experience and training for translation work.4 " Dennis was one of the new Evangelicals who joined the Niger mission the 1890s who were so disappointed that, among other things , the Niger mission was not a "Scriptural Mission"; that there was no Bible; that there had been very little Bible translation work (most of the translations already done were hymns, liturgy, etc.) .
  6. ↑ Nairaland
  7. ↑ "Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions, 1857-1957: Conversion in Theory and Practice" Okwu, A.S.O. p165: Lanham, Maryland; Rowman & Littlefield; 2010 ISBN 978-0-7618-4884-4
  8. ↑ DOBA
  9. ↑ Dennis and the Ibo Bible: The Missionary Work of Tom Dennis in Nigeria and the Creation of the Union Ibo Language 0954637100 John Goodchild (Rev. Canon.) 2003



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