Tamil is one of the oldest living languages. Tamil people are proud of the literature that has come down to them through the centuries. Tamil Christian literature began with the publications of the Bible by Ziegenbalg and his colleagues early in the 18th century.
Strict Baptist Tamil literature dates at least from the time of the First World War. Some of the earliest items produced being three sermons by C.H.Spurgeon, a catechism for school children and a small book of lyrics for village congregations.
In 1929 5000 of the third edition of our booklet Gospel Lyrics was printed.
A new Hymn book was prepared in 1932, called Songs of Worship with 355 hymns and lyrics sold for 8 annas with cheapest binding.
A monthly periodical Baptist Deepihai is published in 1933 and circulated to all members of the Strict Baptist Churches. It unites all the churches. It was sent as far away as Rangoon. The church there also adopted our hymn book.
At the entrance to the Mission Compound at Kilpauk there was a bookstall where Bibles, Bible portions and other Gospel books were sold.
In the year 1878 a concordance to the Tamil New Testament was published but not one to the whole Bible. In the year 1923 Mr.Thrower felt the Lord call him to undertake this task for the Indian Church. So he prayerfully commenced the task. From 1932 he had the help of Indian friends. In 1934 the Christian Literature Society appointed a subcommittee to assist him. After 20 years of consecrated and untiring effort the work was completed in 1943. Mr.D.A Thrower also wrote books and commentaries in Tamil. W.H.Khurt also wrote books and he translated Calvin's Institute (abridged) in Tamil.
The Tamil Literature was initiated and supported by Grace Baptist Mission (UK) from 1981 onwards. Mr.John Appleby and Mr.Philp Christ were SBM missionaries who served in Tamil Nadu between 1952 to 1970. In 1981 Bible Correspondence courses and Preachers study papers were prepared in England by Mr.H.J.Appleby and sent to Chennai for Miss Knight and Miss Conacher to supervise the translation, printing and circulation. The main purpose of this study material was for people who had the responsibility of ministering the word but had no means of having any formal Theological studies. The Bible Correspondence Courses took the form of subjects – The Bible, Knowing God, The Church, The Kingdom, How God makes a Saint, The Holy Spirit, Prayers and Ethics. The Preachers Study papers were in the form of commentaries – Romans, Galatians, Parables. Philippians, Colossians. They began with notes on How to Study and Prepare a Sermon. Abridged versions of Puritan Classics were translated into Tamil and published special focused on John Oven's book Death of Death in the Death of Christ was a special feature.
In 1997 a revised edition of our hymnbook was published and the hymn book was again printed in 2002 and again more recently in 2014.
