After Ziegenbalg was released, he took up the interrupted translation into Tamil of the New Testament and by March 1711, it was complete. The translation was done from the Greek but he had Latin, German, Portuguese and Dutch Bibles at hand besides various commentaries.

In 1713, three type-founders and a printer from Halle arrived. August Herrmann Francke had assembled a Tamil printing office with Tamil characters.⁴² In 1714, Ziegenbalg’s first translated part, which consisted of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, was printed at the Mission-Press. A year later, due to want of paper the second part consisting of the remaining books was printed in smaller type.

On completing the Tamil translation of the New Testament, Ziegenbalg began translation of the books of the old Testament. In 1711, he had accidentally come across, during one of his travels, a very old Tamil book amongst some Roman Catholic Missionaries, in which the Old Testament’s history was given in question and answer. He secured permission to make a copy on condition, he sent them a copy of his translated New Testament. He perused this Old Testament and corrected the errors. This was used in schools and congregations until a complete translation of the Old Testament was ready.

Ziegenbalg’s translation of the Old Testament was also interrupted. On October 26, 1714, Ziegenbalg set sail for Europe from Tranquebar. He was accompanied by two young Tamilians-one of them was to be his companion, so that he could converse daily in Tamil and thus keep in touch with the language. During his journey to Saxony, Ziegenbalg visited Merseburg. He was to preach where once he had served as a tutor. From here, he went to Halle. At Halle he met Maria Dorathea-once his student and also the daughter of his benefactor-whom he married in 1715. The same year after travelling in Europe for quite a bit, Ziegenbalg and his young wife returned to India. After his return Ziegenbalg took up the incomplete translation of the Old

42. S.C. Lang and H.W.G. op. cit. P. 59.