Paek Hong-jun

Life

Paek Hong-jun was born in 1848 in Uiju, North Pyongan Province. His father was a merchant who traded back and forth with China, and it was at Niuzhuang (Newchwang) in Yingkou, Manchuria, that the father met the Scottish Presbyterian missionary John Ross. In 1874, at Koryomun (the Korea Gate), a border trading post, Ross gave Paek's father a New Testament in classical Chinese and some Christian tracts. Paek and his friends in Uiju read these books for more than two years before seeking out the missionaries.

At that time Ross was away on furlough. Instead, the Rev. John MacIntyre, Ross's colleague and brother-in-law, received them. Before baptizing them, MacIntyre required that they have the courage to profess their faith publicly and that they obtain their parents' permission. Paek is reported to have been baptized by MacIntyre in 1879. He then returned to his hometown of Uiju to evangelize, but in 1892 he was arrested under an order issued by Min Byeong-seok, governor of Pyongan Province, and he died in prison in 1893. His son-in-law was the Presbyterian minister Kim Kwan-geun, and his maternal grandson was Kim Yang-seon, who later served as a professor at Soongsil University.

Ministry and Accomplishments

• Participation in Bible translation: For several months he assisted Ross and MacIntyre in the translation of the Bible into Korean (Hangul), which they carried out with young men from Uiju. This work produced the Gospels of Luke and John in 1882 and culminated in 1887 in Yesu Seonggyo Jeonseo, the complete New Testament.
• Colportage and evangelism: A colporteur (권서, gwonseo) is one who spreads the gospel by selling or distributing Bibles and evangelistic tracts. Paek secretly circulated Gospels and tracts published in Manchuria throughout Uiju and the surrounding area.
• Election as elder: He is said to have been elected an elder together with Seo Sang-ryun at the founding service of Saemoonan Church, which Horace Underwood held in his own home in Jeong-dong, Seoul, in 1887.
• Evangelist sent to Uiju: In 1888 Underwood sent Paek to Uiju, Seo Sang-ryun to Pyongyang, and Choe Myeong-o to Songcheon as evangelists and colporteurs. In 1889 Paek went with Underwood to Manchuria and arranged for thirty-three believers to be baptized there. He later guided missionaries such as Samuel Moffett and James Gale on their itinerant evangelistic tours within Korea and worked to establish churches, including Uiju Town Church.

Influence on the Korean Church

Even before missionaries entered Joseon Korea and began their work, Koreans were reading the Bible, receiving baptism beyond the border, and returning on their own initiative to spread the gospel in their hometowns. Paek Hong-jun is regarded as a representative figure of this early reception of Christianity. Through his part in Korean Bible translation, his colportage, his evangelism in the northwestern region, and his guidance of missionaries, he is considered one of those who laid the foundations of early Korean Protestantism.

Assessment

• He is commonly called "the first Korean Protestant to be baptized," "the first elder," and "the first Protestant martyr."
• Sources differ on the year of his baptism. Older sources and some church biographical dictionaries state that he was baptized in 1876 together with Yi Eung-chan, Yi Seong-ha, and Kim Jin-gi. By contrast, the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture holds that another man was baptized first, at the end of January 1879, and that Paek was baptized after him, and it therefore presents Paek as the second person baptized. For this reason, the description "first baptized Protestant" is sometimes understood to mean one of the first group of baptized believers.
• The title of martyr derives from his imprisonment on charges of publishing wicked books and organizing unauthorized gatherings, and from his death in prison. Some sources, however, state that he died of illness while in prison. Accounts of the place and length of his imprisonment also vary.