Though he still needed an interpreter to communicate in Nama, he built enough rapport to be trusted with codifying tribal laws previously held in oral tradition to reduce arbitrary caprices in their execution.
Although some provisions proved unworkable, the core of the legal corpus remains in force today and provided a foundation for agreement among the three subtribes based in the above towns and for further cultural development.
His findings conflict with those of the explorer Sir James Edward Alexander, especially in the 1844-1845 entries where he claims the Nama to be descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
Oorlam Nama under chief Paul Goliath eagerly recruited his ministry and he established the mission of Gudbrandsdalen to serve them in an area that reminded him of his childhood home in the eponymous region.
Knudsen took leave to Europe in June 1847, presenting his work at missionary festivals and ultimately publishing Gross-Namaqualand ("Greater Namaqualand", Barmen, 1848).
Copies of both appear in the Grey collection in the National Library of South Africa Cape Town campus, complete with Knudsen's handwritten notes.
His Gospel of Luke in Khoekhoe was published in Cape Town with some hymns in 1846 after a few productive years of learning the language with the help of two Nama translators.
Though slightly proofread on spelling from the earlier publications, Wallmann's copy was rendered so meticulously that it was virtually free of printing errors, and Wilhelm Bleek described it in 1858 as "so far the best and most reliable source on [Khoekhoe]".