Seo Sang-ryun

Life

Seo was born in 1848 in Uiju, Pyeongan Province, the son of Seo Seok-sun. Sources differ on his birthday, giving either July 19 or July 26. He lost his parents at an early age and traded in red ginseng, traveling between Uiju and Manchuria. According to tradition, he contracted typhoid fever after traveling with his younger brother Gyeong-jo to Yingkou in Manchuria. The Scottish missionary John McIntyre arranged for his treatment at a mission hospital. Through this experience he heard the gospel from McIntyre and embraced Christianity.

Accounts differ on the year of his baptism. One record states that John Ross baptized him in Shenyang (Mukden) on May 28, 1882, while another gives the year as 1879. He is known as the sixth Korean to receive Protestant baptism. In his later years he devoted himself to evangelism in Sorae, and he died in January 1926.

Ministry and Achievements

• Bible translation: With Yi Eung-chan, Baek Hong-jun, and others, he took part in the Korean translation of the New Testament that Ross and McIntyre carried out in Manchuria. He helped refine the wording of the translation and assisted with printing. The project produced the Gospels of Luke and John in 1882 and, in 1887, the complete New Testament, published as Yesu Seonggyo Jeonseo. The details are covered in the article Korean Bible Translation.
• Colportage: In October 1882 Ross appointed him the first Korean colporteur supported by the British and Foreign Bible Society and sent him to Uiju and Seoul. According to tradition, most of the Bibles he was carrying were confiscated at the border checkpoint of Goryeomun, and he was able to bring in only a portion. In 1884, at his request, Ross reportedly shipped about six thousand Korean Bibles to Jemulpo (Incheon).
• Founding of Sorae Church: With his younger brother Seo Gyeong-jo, he formed a community of believers in Songcheon-ri (Sorae, or Sollae), Jangyeon County, Hwanghae Province. This community became Sorae Church, a church founded by Koreans themselves.
• Ministry in Seoul: At the end of 1886 he went to Seoul and consulted with Horace Underwood and others about the baptism of believers in Sorae and Seoul. When Saemunan Church was organized in September 1887, he was one of the fourteen baptized Korean members who took part. One record states that he and Baek Hong-jun were elected elders at that time, while other sources describe him as having served as a helper (josa) and deacon.

Influence on the Korean Church

Sorae Church and the work of the Seo brothers are frequently cited as an example of Koreans reading the Bible and establishing a community of faith on their own before official missionaries arrived in 1885. Sorae produced Seo Gyeong-jo, one of the first seven ministers ordained in the Korean Presbyterian Church. Sorae Church has been reconstructed, as it appeared after its 1896 expansion, on the Yangji campus of Chongshin University, and Presbyterian presbyteries today hold events commemorating its founding.

Assessment

• Some argue that because Korean assistants such as Seo Sang-ryun handled a substantial part of the actual translation of the Ross Bible, it should be regarded as a "Ross–Seo Sang-ryun team translation." Others emphasize that Ross was the responsible party who planned and supervised the work.
• Views also differ on who should be regarded as the founder of Saemunan Church. Those who see it as a mission church regard Underwood as its founder, while those who see it as an indigenous Korean church regard Seo Sang-ryun as its founder.
• The founding year of Sorae Church is disputed, with competing claims for 1883, 1884, and 1885. The historical summary of the church reconstructed at Chongshin University and the Sorae Presbytery follow the date of May 16, 1883. Other research, however, argues for 1885 on the basis of an account written by Seo Gyeong-jo himself in 1925.