Totius

Totius (Jacob Daniel du Toit) 1877- 1935: Bible translator, Psalm Versifier, Poet, Academic. Totius is the son of the well-known Rev S J du Toit who was known as the soul of the First Afrikaans Language Movement and also for the “Kerk onder die Kruis”  church grouping. Totius was born on 21 February 1877 and spent his first years in Paarl. He started school at a German Mission School and then at the “Gedenkskool der Hugenote” in Daljosafat in the Cape. He then went on to be a student at the Theological Seminary in Burgersdorp where Proff. Postma and Lion Cachet were his mentors. Here he qualified as a minister. Totius joined the Boer forces as military chaplain after the outbreak of the Second Boer War. After seven months, he had to return home due to ill health. He then went to the Netherlands where he studied at the Vrye Universiteit Amsterdam. Here he graduated with his thesis "Het Methodisme", in 1903. He returned to South Africa and married Marie, the youngest daughter of Prof Dirk Postma, who was one of the founders of the Reformed Church. Totius was confirmed as minister of the Reformed Church Potchefstroom in 1903. In 1911 he accepted a professorship at the School of Theology. In 1949 he received his emeritus and was named honorary professor. He also became the first chancellor of the PU for CHE University. He received honorary doctorates from several universities. Totius was a gifted poet and wrote poems early in his life. Often the grief (sadness) of the war of "his" people was depicted. The grief he experienced with the death of two of his children, one due to illness and the other from a lightning bolt, is expressed in the poem “O die pyngedagte”. Some of his poems are i.e. “Bij the Monument”, “Verses from Potgieter's Trek”, “Rachel” and “Trekkersweë”. Totius was a poet who interpreted moods in which melancholy plays a major role. As an academic, he was highly regarded and because of his knowledge of the classical languages and the Bible, he was asked to translate the Bible into Afrikaans with a team that included Rev J D Kestell and Prof B Keet. They had the difficult task of translating the Bible into a language that had not yet been recognized as an official language. On 29 May the first consignment of Afrikaans Bibles was taken into receipt in South Africa. Totius, however, remained busy for years with the revision and improvement of the translation of the Bible into Afrikaans. At the same time, he versified texts from the Bible in psalms for the book of Psalms. He died of a heart attack on 1 July 1953 while finishing the revised edition of the Afrikaans Bible.