The young Cambridge scholar who translated the New Testament into Urdu, Persian, and Arabic before dying at 31, worn out by the work.
Born in 1781 in Cornwall, England, Henry Martyn was one of the brightest students of his generation at Cambridge — the kind of young man for whom a comfortable academic career seemed certain. He was converted under the preaching of Charles Simeon and, influenced by the example of missionaries like David Brainerd and William Carey, decided to abandon that secure path for a far costlier calling.
Martyn fell deeply in love with a young woman named Lydia Grenfell, but, convinced that marriage would make the missionary life he felt called to impossible, he kept a vow of celibacy for the sake of the mission — a decision that cost him great personal suffering for the rest of his life. Ordained an Anglican priest, he sailed as a chaplain of the British East India Company and arrived in India in 1805.
In India, Martyn met William Carey, who introduced him to Bible translation work. Even while having to fulfill his chaplain's duties toward the company's employees and their families, he devoted himself fervently to preaching at military posts — including to Indians —, opening schools, and, above all, translating the New Testament into Urdu, Persian, and Arabic, the three main languages of the Muslim world at the time.
With his health already fragile, he traveled to Iran to deepen the translation work and later tried to return to England overland. He died in Turkey in 1812, at age 31, having never seen his homeland again. His personal diary, published after his death, became formative reading for generations of missionaries in the centuries that followed — a reminder that translating the Scriptures for those who still don't have them in their own language remains, two centuries later, a calling worth the highest price.
