Life and ministry
Bengt Peter Lundahl was born in 1840 in the southern part of Sweden. He studied at the Theological Training Institute in Johannelund. After ordination Lundahl sailed to Massawa in 1868. Two years later, Lundahl taught at the new school established by the Swedish Evangelical Mission.
The school aimed at training missionaries for the interior of today’s Ethiopia. Some of the students were liberated slaves, e.g. Onesimos Nesib. The language of instruction and worship was Amharic. Lundahl translated Christian literature into Amharic and initiated a series of endeavors to reach the Oromo.
Lundahl edited the first Amharic hymnal, Yägubaʼe mäzmurat [Congregational songs], in 1881. A revised and expanded edition was printed shortly after his death in 1885.
Songs in Hymn book
Yägubaʼe mäzmurat (1881)
- All hymns were translated or written by Lundahl
Picture
Further reading
Arén, Gustav. Evangelical Pioneers in Ethiopia: Origins of the Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Stockholm: EFS förlaget; Addis Ababa: The Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, 1978. [See esp. p. 164-67, 221-24, 292-93, 300-06; view online]
Kolmodin, Adolf (1897). Bengt Petter Lundahl. Missionär i Ost-Afrika.
Stockholm: EFS-förlaget, 1897. [View online]
Nilsson, Marianne. Chapter 1 in forthcoming book on Ethiopian Gospel Music.