Abstract
This article examines the early mission history of the reception of the Gospel of John among two very different people groups, the Isawa of northern Nigeria and the Qiang of western China. It considers the similarities in their pre-Christian religion in terms of monotheism, messianic expectation, and self-understanding as children of Israel in order to theorize theological reasons for the positive reception of John’s Gospel. It concludes that John’s Gospel is the ideal place to start reading with monotheistic groups.
While researching the missional nature of the theology of T. F. Torrance (1913–2007), I came across records of the evangelization of the Qiang people of western China by his father, Thomas Torrance (1871–1959). The claim by the latter that the Qiang accepted the Gospel of John because they were “ancient Israelites” awaiting their Messiah was reminiscent of material previously accessed in the Church Mission Society (CMS) archives relating to the history of gospel reception among the Isawa of northern Nigeria under British missionary Walter Miller (1872–1952). Miller claimed that the messianic expectation of the self-designated “children of Israel” had prepared them to receive the gospel. 1 In both instances, the missionary led the people to faith in Christ by reading the Gospel of John with them. These experiences raised questions about the relationship between monotheistic faiths, messianic expectations, and self-designation as children of Israel in the early mission history of the reception of the Gospel of John. This article explores these relationships, using cameo histories of the evangelization of the groups in the early twentieth century.
Cameo biography of Dr. Walter Samuel Miller
Miller was born in Britain in 1872, the only son in a family of eight children. 2 He came to faith at the age of thirteen in his hometown of Bristol and was later influenced by the Keswick movement to pursue medical mission in northern Nigeria. Miller felt called to work among the Hausa, whom he had met during previous trips to Egypt and Libya. Together with a group of four CMS missionaries, he completed the three-month journey to Kano in 1900, just ahead of the advancing British troops. The mission was not altogether successful. Although the group had been welcomed along the way by the emir of Zaria, the emir of Kano was hostile and imprisoned them. Miller reports that it was only the threat of reprisals by the British forces that persuaded the emir to release them. Two of the party died of dysentery on the return journey, and Miller was forced to return to England. Miller returned to Zaria the following year. Then in 1903, after the British forces assisted the emir of Zaria by relieving a siege against the city, Miller was permitted to set up a mission station that eventually included a school for boys, a clinic, and a fledgling house church. Soon, the translation of the Bible into Hausa, rather than medical mission, accounted for the major part of Miller’s work. 3 By 1909 Miller reported that two-thirds of the New Testament had been translated and was being read by the boys in the Zaria mission school. 4
Gospel reception among the Isawa (beginning in 1913)
The Isawa were a small group of Hausa-speaking Muslims who originated in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria. According to their oral history, they were followers of a member of the Islamic court of Kano, Mallam Ibrahim, from about 1850. 5 On a visit to Cairo, Ibrahim had obtained a copy of the New Testament in Arabic, which he read alongside the Qur’an, comparing the treatment of key theological concepts relating to Jesus and the prophet Isa. On his return to Kano, Ibrahim refused to recite the second part of the shahadah, 6 thus rejecting the primacy of the prophethood of Muhammad. Instead, he urged his followers to study the prophet Isa and to wait for his return. 7 For his heretical views, Ibrahim was executed in Kano, but not before he had instructed his followers to flee and to wait for a white man who would tell them more about the prophet Isa. According to Isawa researcher Ian Linden, Ibrahim taught his followers that they were the descendants of the children of Israel and gave them the name “The children of the Israelites.” 8
T. Torrance and his Chinese teacher. Photo courtesy of Special Collections, Princeton Theological Seminary Library.
After Ibrahim’s death, the Isawa split into several groups and settled in the Zaria region. They retained their distinctive messianic expectation and worship of Isa and were treated with suspicion by the religious authorities. In 1913, on hearing that there was a white man who was preaching about Jesus in Zaria, they sent a delegation to meet Miller. According to Linden, Miller was playing hockey with the schoolboys in Zaria city when he noticed a “strange but earnest group of men looking at him.” They introduced themselves as the “children of the Israelites” who knew Isa the Messiah. They told Miller all they knew about Jesus up to the resurrection, and Miller then took over and finished the conversation. One of their descendants recalls Miller’s prayer: “God, I thank you that your servants are hidden. I am thankful that you heeded my prayers. I am thankful that you have found this your people.” 9 Miller believed that the Isawa had been prepared for the reception of the gospel through their study of Isa in the Qur’an. 10
By this stage, Miller had completed the Hausa translation of the Gospel of John, so he read the Gospel with them, starting with the concept of the logos. Linden comments, “It was perhaps fortunate that Walter Miller began his teaching with his own translation of St John’s gospel; the dense theology and the mysticism of this gospel seems to have immediately struck a chord.” 11 It is doubtful whether Linden’s comment regarding the “deep mysticism” of John’s Gospel is a valid explanation for the reception of the Gospel, but the men received its message and transmitted it to their villages. The result was the establishment of a Christian village of Isawa at Gimi, where the Bible was studied together with the Qur’an. 12
Cameo biography of Rev. Thomas Torrance
Thomas Torrance, a Scottish missionary working for the American Bible Society in western China, met and evangelized the Qiang people, 13 beginning in 1917, four years after the evangelization of the Isawa in northern Nigeria. A contemporary of Miller, Torrance was a British medical missionary whose work was focused on the distribution of the Scriptures. Together with a team of Chinese assistants, he distributed Bibles and evangelistic tracts throughout the region surrounding the Sichuan city of Chengdu until his retirement in 1934. Torrance first contacted the Qiang people in 1917 during a summer trip to the upper Min Valley in the hills above Chengdu. 14 He was fascinated by the history and culture of this historically persecuted minority. Returning with an expedition in 1919, he began to document their history and religion. In 1920 he published an article in the Shanghai Mercury outlining their religious practices. 15 In the article, Torrance describes the religion of the Qiang as monotheistic, with practices analogous to Israelite religion.
Gospel reception among the Qiang (beginning in 1919)
In the years following initial contact, difficulties with the dialect meant that Torrance struggled to communicate. In 1920, however, he persuaded a Qiang man who spoke Chinese to come to Chengdu for Bible study. Torrance read the Pentateuch and then the Gospels with him. During the process, the man explained in more detail that the Qiang worship one God, represented by a white stone (lopee) that represents his purity and holiness. They sacrifice sheep and sprinkle blood to cleanse the worshiper so that the Spirit of Heaven can descend. However, the Qiang know that another is to come, the Spirit-Redeemer (Abba-Malach or Je-Dsu), and they wait for him with eager anticipation. The twelve banners that they hang out represent the twelve founding brothers of the Qiang people. Their white sacred scroll with the skull on top represents their lost scriptures.
Torrance believed the Qiang religion was a preparation for the Christian gospel. He accordingly assisted the Qiang to interpret their rituals in the light of Scripture. The white stone was interpreted as YHWH, and the scroll as the law given to Moses in Exodus. The Qiang rituals were seen as remnants of the Jewish Passover. The twelve brothers were the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore the Qiang were declared to be long-lost descendants of the Israelites. The Christian gospel was therefore their gospel; and Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of their messianic expectation.
In 1926 Torrance evangelized one of the high priests of Qiang religion. T. F. Torrance recalls in his memoirs: “When father read the Levitical instructions in the Old Testament, the priest jumped off the bench and said those are the lost Scriptures which had been represented by the white scroll. Father read to him from the Fourth Gospel and explained that the Qiang people had emigrated far from the land of Israel and never heard that the Lamb of God had come.” 16 By this time, Torrance had become convinced that the Qiang were a lost tribe of Israel, theories about which abounded during the early twentieth century. When Torrance read John’s Gospel with the Qiang, it was with the purpose of proclaiming to them that the Lamb of God, whom they had been waiting for, had come to save them, and thus the “children of Israel received their long-awaited saviour.” 17 However, not until 1934, just before Torrance retired, did the Qiang accept the gospel in significant numbers, and several churches were built across the region. 18
Comparing reception of the Gospel of John
Comparison of Gospel of John reception reveals interesting similarities. It could be argued that the similarities have no missional significance. However, if lessons are to be learned from the history of mission for current mission practice, it may be worth theorizing reasons for the successful reception of John’s Gospel. What is it about John that led both groups to faith? Suggestions cover the complexity of the evangelization process that has to do with the words of the Gospel itself, the religious background of the hearers, the attitudes of the evangelists, and the power of Christ as revealed in the Word.
The mission of John’s Gospel: Faith and truth
John’s Gospel is intrinsically missional. The purpose is to evoke a response of faith (20:31). The words of life played their part in conveying the eternal life that comes from above (3:3). Paul Anderson theorizes that both the theological reflection and the internal structure of the Gospel of John exist to dislocate the hearer and then to relocate the hearer’s perceptions to evoke a believing response. 19 The cognitive dialogue between earlier perceptions and later experience predisposes the listener to accept the message. The Isawa had already experienced dislocation from orthodox Islam through their focus on Isa. This step predisposed them to accept the message about Jesus Christ when it was read to them. Qiang beliefs in the Spirit-Redeemer had already set them apart from their polytheist neighbors. When John’s Gospel was read, they were ready to relocate their perceptions to accept Jesus Christ as the “expected one” (1:29–30).
In addition, the Gospel of John is concerned with truth. Those who encounter Jesus are called to respond to truth by believing in him (4:41–42; 20:31). For the Isawa and Qiang, the truth about Jesus Christ, Son of God, revealed to them through the reading of the Gospel, evoked a recognition of truth and a response of faith. Linden’s claims that it was the “dense theology and mysticism” of the Gospel that influenced the Isawa are misleading. In this author’s opinion, it was rather the revelation of the simplicity of the truth that Jesus Christ is God’s plan of salvation for the world that evoked a positive response.
Monotheistic religion of the hearers: Expectation and identity
Both groups operated within a monotheistic framework. For the Isawa, it was the oneness of God (tawhid), and for the Qiang, as self-identified Israelites, it was the monotheism of Judaism. However, both groups differed from “orthodox” monotheistic beliefs typical of their religious groups. The Isawa were Muslim monotheists who believed that the prophet Isa is the “Word” and “Spirit” from God (Qur’an 4:171), and therefore he is the one who saves. At the time the Gospel of John was read to them, they had an inclusive “Isa-centric” understanding of the unity of God. This can be considered as a typically Isawa deviation from an orthodox Islamic position. In the same way, Qiang monotheism differed from classic Judaism in the people’s expectation of the coming of the Spirit Redeemer (Je-Dsu), who was closely associated with the lost Word of God represented by their scroll. Like the Isawa, at the time of their gospel reception, the Qiang practiced an inclusive “Je-Dsu-centered” monotheism that deviated from classical Jewish monotheistic statements about God.
Expectation
At the time of evangelism, neither group held to a strongly exclusive monotheist position. Instead, it was the expectation of the Spirit-Redeemer that predisposed the Qiang to receive the words of John regarding the Son of God. It was the Spirit-Redeemer (Je-Dsu) whom they understood to be the logos. With the Isawa, it was the expectation of the coming of the prophet Isa that predisposed them to receive the gospel. They responded to the reading of John’s Gospel because their deviation from orthodox monotheism admitted the possibility of a second person in the Godhead. When Miller read logos, they understood it as the revelation of the truth about the prophet Isa that they had been waiting for.
In both groups, therefore, the acceptance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had eschatological implications. The inclusivity of their monotheism was strengthened by messianic expectation. For the Isawa, expectation of the second coming of Isa/Jesus, whether as the Muslim (Mahdism) or as the Jewish messiah (messianism), was concentrated for them on the prophesied coming of the “white man” to reveal the truth about the salvation offered by Jesus. When they met Miller, they understood him to be the fulfillment of prophecy. For the Qiang, messianic expectation was found in the focus on the rituals of the presence of the holy God in his Word, symbolized by the roll of paper, and the repetition each year of the stated desire that Je-Dsu would come and reveal his light and salvation. For both groups, therefore, there was a forward-looking expectation of a soon-coming deliverer.
Identity
In addition, both groups self-identified as the children of Israel. In the case of the Qiang, Torrance’s interpretation of Leviticus and his subsequent reading of John with them led them to interpret their ritual in the light of the Israelite cult. They saw themselves as Israelites who had come into full understanding of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. For the Isawa, however, the interpretation of their Islamic past in the light of the history of Israel is more obscure. There is, nonetheless, evidence from the oral sources collected by Miller that Mallam Ibrahim had designated them as “children of the Israelites” because they already knew that Isa was the Messiah. As self-designated children of Israel, both the Qiang and the Isawa received Jesus Christ, the “Lamb of God,” as their “expected one.”
The role of Word and Spirit
Both groups entertained concepts of the Word and Spirit. The Isawa had a high theology of the Word and Spirit of God in which the Bible and the Qur’an were held to be authoritative. From their reading of the Qur’an, they had concluded that Isa was the one who would bring salvation. They therefore rejected the accepted Islamic veneration of Muhammad and followed Isa. Similarly, yet with differences, the Qiang had a high theology of the Word. Although they had lost the ability to read and write, they used the roll of white paper to symbolize the law of God and the presence of God with humanity. The priest prayed that Je-Dsu, the Word of God, believed to be present during the ritual sacrifice, would reveal to them both light and salvation. The sacred roll therefore represented the Word and Spirit of God. In both cases, high value was placed on the revelation of salvation by means of the Word of God through the Spirit of God.
Experience of the evangelists: Spiritual preparation
There are similarities in the attitudes of the Miller and Torrance as evangelists. Both expressed the conviction that their group had been prepared spiritually to receive the gospel. Hulmes observes that Miller underwent a theological change in the light of his experience with the Isawa. 20 He came to believe that the previous religious experience of the Isawa had predisposed them to be receptive to Christ. 21 Torrance also believed that the religious experience of the Qiang had prepared them to receive Christ. For him, this openness lay in the Israelite roots of the Qiang religion: “The Chi’ang [sic] express their hope in the mercy promised to their forefathers and in Abba Malach who is to fulfil it.” 22 When the missionaries read John’s Gospel, they believed that their group had something in their religious experience that predisposed them to positive reception. This background enabled the evangelists to contextualize the message effectively for the expectations of the hearers. 23
The power of God
The message of John’s Gospel delivered by the missionaries would have had no effect, however, unless it was accompanied by the power of God. Given the bolstering of inclusive monotheism by messianic expectation, it is possible to speculate theologically how the Isawa and Qiang received John’s Gospel, starting with the first verse of the Prologue (John 1:1). For the Isawa, the “Word” (logos) was identified through their preexperience with the Qur’an and the Gospel, but also with the person of Isa/Jesus, whom they followed. The declaration that the preexistent Word was “with God” at creation was understood through their concept of the creative word in God in the Qur’an. The final declaration of the verse that “the Word was God” revealed to them the mystery of the role of Jesus in salvation. In the same way, for the Qiang the logos proclaimed by John made sense in terms of their ritual paper roll and messianic expectations. The Je-Dsu was the One their ancestors had known from the beginning (during their pre-Chinese past). That the Word was “with God” came as no surprise to them. They had always known it. That the Word “was God” explained the mystery of the roll to them.
John’s Gospel was received by both groups because it connected their inclusive monotheism and messianic preunderstanding with the christological monotheism and fulfillment of Jewish messianic expectations of the Gospel. When Miller and Torrance read John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” each group was able to relate their messianic preexpectations to the historicity of the incarnation. In other words, they substituted for the “Word” the name of Isa or Je-Dsu, and the christological monotheism of John’s Gospel made sense. The only begotten Son of God was now “exegeting” the Father to them (John 1:18), revealing to them what they had known partially in their pre-Christian understanding.
By the power of the Spirit of God, the Qiang and the Isawa experienced the “new birth from above” (John 3:3–6). Linden describes the Isawa church as “men who could hold a Qur’an in one hand and a Bible in another and understand them both with deep piety.” 24 In 1934, as conversion rates escalated among the Qiang, Torrance reports that they “caught fire” for Christ. 25 The reading and reception of John’s Gospel by the Isawa and Qiang were accompanied by the transformation from death to life that comes through the authority and power of the Son of God himself as evidenced in the Gospel (John 5:24).
Drawing conclusions for mission practice
The Isawa and Qiang were different people groups with different religious backgrounds, but both responded in faith to the message of John’s Gospel. My task has been to evaluate their gospel reception in order to draw inferences for mission. There is a common perception that John’s Gospel is too difficult for seekers, but the reception history of the Isawa and Qiang shows otherwise. This article has considered the evangelistic nature of the Gospel and its intention to lead the hearer to faith in the Son of God. It has considered the reception of the Gospel in a religious context in which there is “preparation” for the gospel. In both groups, it was their monotheism, messianism, identification with Israel, and focus on Word and Spirit that seem to have prepared them for positive reception. This preparation was encouraged by the attitude of the missionaries, who, although influenced by their own worldview, used the “preparedness” of the group to contextualize the message so that it could be understood as the revelation of the group’s messianic expectations.
In terms of mission among monotheistic groups, it is possible to posit that John’s Gospel is not too dense or difficult for evangelistic purposes. Where there is an openness to inclusive monotheism and an eschatological expectation of a coming Savior, or where there is identification with the people of Israel and the Word/Spirit of God, the power of the Gospel of John brings understanding of the promised Messiah and invites the hearer to respond in faith. In mission to Jews and Muslims, as Madigan says, “It is the ideal place to begin to understand one another.” 26
Footnotes
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Notes
Author biography