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[Mike Abendroth]

John Eliot and America's First Bible

By Dr. Herbert Samworth

Among the many treasures contained in the Van Kampen Collection at The
Scriptorium is the first Bible printed in America. The New Testament portion
was printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1661 and the Old Testament
followed two years later. The printers were Samuel Green, a local tradesman,
and Marmaduke Johnson, who had come from England to assist in its
production. Many people are surprised to learn that it was not printed in
English, but in Algonquin, the Massachusetts Indian dialect. The translation
was the work of a New England Puritan pastor by the name of John Eliot. The
importance of this work is underscored by T. H. Darlow and F. H. Moule in
their encyclopedic work of printed editions of the Bible in which they
state, "This book constitutes the earliest example in history of the
translation and printing of the entire Bible in a new language as a means of
evangelization." Behind the translation and printing of this quarto Bible
bound in leather lies a fascinating story. In order to place the Eliot Bible
in its historical context, it is necessary to begin in England.

It has been said of Charles I of England (1625-1649) that while he inherited
all the negative qualities of his father, King James I, he received none of
his positive ones. Charles was obsessed with enforcing religious uniformity
upon the people of his realm. As a means to carry out his objective, he
appointed William Laud to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud,
who was of the same mind as Charles, enforced his policy with vigor and
severity. This attempt at uniformity evoked opposition from the Puritan
Party and others who had remained dissatisfied with the 1559 Elizabethan
settlement of the English Church. They were called Puritans because of their
desire to purify the Church of England from what they believed to be the
vestiges of Roman Catholic worship that Elizabeth permitted to continue.
Elizabeth and James were politically astute: both succeeded in enforcing
this uniformity without alienating the people entirely. However, Charles
lacked their acumen and when he ascended to the throne in 1625, these long
standing grievances erupted into overt resistance. 

Even during the reign of James I (1603-1625), groups of people had departed
from England to seek freedom of worship in other countries. Many of them had
gone to the Netherlands where they were permitted to worship according to
their consciences. In 1620, a group known as the Pilgrims emigrated to
Plymouth, Massachusetts. During the same period, plans were underway to
begin another colonial expedition by the Puritans under the leadership of
John Winthrop. The first members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony left for
the New World at the end of the third decade of the seventeenth century.
Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not consider themselves to be
separatists but remained members of the Church of England who were working
for further reform of the church. They believed their settlement would be a
"city set on a hill" upon which the eyes of the world would be focused, and
this "Holy Commonwealth" would be an example to those in England of a
society built on the foundation of the Word of God. A church, purified of
all elements not expressly sanctioned by the Scriptures and composed
exclusively of those who had experienced a personal conversion experience,
was to be a key element in this Holy Commonwealth.

By the early 1630s it was nearly impossible for anyone with Puritan
convictions to receive a pastoral position in the Church of England. For
that reason, many left for the New World, including a pastor named John
Eliot. Born in 1604, Eliot had received his education at Jesus College,
Cambridge, and although he had taken orders in the Church of England, his
sympathies were with the Puritan Party. For a period of time after his
graduation from Cambridge, he had assisted Thomas Hooker (later the founder
of Connecticut) at Chelmsford in Essex but even there the long arm of Laud
exerted its influence by threatening him with suspension. 

In 1631 Eliot decided to emigrate to the New World. He arrived at
Massachusetts Bay Colony in July of that year on the same ship that brought
the family of John Winthrop, the Colony's first governor. He was invited to
preach for several months at the First Church of Boston while their minister
John Wilson was in England. Eliot's preaching was so well received that he
was offered the position of Teacher of the church, which he declined in
favor of a similar offer from the church at Roxbury. He was settled in
Roxbury as Teacher in October 1632 and remained there for fifty-seven years
until his death in 1690.

The reasons why Eliot refused the position at the First Church of Boston are
not immediately clear. The evidence indicates that Eliot was already
contemplating evangelizing the local tribes. When the Puritans came to the
New World they had two goals. One was to form a pure church by separating
themselves from the perceived corruptions of the English Church. The other
was to bring the Gospel to the native inhabitants. On the seal of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony was the figure of a Native American ringed by the
words "Come over and help us" (Acts 16:9). Thus from its very foundation the
Massachusetts Bay Colony articulated the desire to meet the spiritual needs
of the native inhabitants of the New World, and there is no doubt that Eliot
possessed the desire to carry out this objective.

There are many details of Eliot's life during the following years that have
not survived the passage of time. It is known that he had the custom of
visiting the Algonquin tribe for three or fours days at a time as he sought
to learn the language. Such entries as the following occur in his journal,
"Visited the Indians for the past four days. The weather was cold and snowy.
Was wet for the entire time but that is a small price to pay for the
privilege of taking the Gospel to them." In the year 1646 the Massachusetts
General Court ordered that "efforts to promote the diffusion of Christianity
among aboriginal inhabitants be made with all diligence." In October of the
same year, Eliot had made sufficient progress in the language that he was
able to preach to them in Algonquin. 

While Eliot was engaged in learning the Algonquin language, important events
were taking place in England that aided his work. Through the efforts of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony's agent in England, Edward Winslow, progress of the
evangelization of the Algonquins was being disseminated. Eliot kept Winslow
informed of his efforts by writing a series of tracts giving the details of
his activities. Finally, on July 27, 1649, the English Parliament enacted an
"Ordinance for the Advancement of Civilization and Christianity Among the
Indians." This act created The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
New England, the first Protestant missionary society. It was also in that
year that Eliot made the decision to attempt the translation of the
Scriptures into the Massachusetts dialect of the Algonquin language. He
wrote, "I do very much desire to translate some parts of the Scriptures into
their language and print some Primer in their language where to initiate and
teach them to read."

How difficult was the task to which Eliot had dedicated himself? At that
time, Algonquin was considered to be one of the most difficult languages in
the world. In his book Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), Cotton Mather
expressed his opinion that the demons of the invisible world who had
mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew were utterly baffled by the Algonquin
language! For the next ten years Eliot dedicated himself to the task of
translating the Bible with the assistance of John Sassamon, a member of the
local tribe, whose ability to speak and write English proved invaluable to
Eliot.

In 1659, after ten years of intensive labor, the task of translating the
Scriptures was completed. In his correspondence with The Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in New England, Eliot had informed them of his
progress. When the manuscript was ready for publication, the Society not
only provided the funds to print it, but they also sent an English printer
by the name of Marmaduke Johnson, a printing press, and a supply of paper.
Johnson arrived in the New World and set to work with Samuel Green who had
already started to print the New Testament. By 1661 they had completed the
printing of fifteen hundred copies of the New Testament. One thousand of the
New Testaments were reserved for binding with the Old Testament, when
completed, to form an entire Bible. The remaining copies of the New
Testament were distributed among the Algonquin tribe or sent to England as
presentation copies.

When the task of printing the New Testament was complete, Green and Johnson
began printing one thousand copies of the Old Testament, which included a
translation of the Metrical Psalms. The work proceeded quickly and by 1663
the printing was finished. The Old Testaments were bound with the reserved
copies of the New Testament to produce one thousand copies of the entire
Bible. For the first time in their history, the Algonquin tribe had the
Scriptures in their own language.

 HYPERLINK http://www.solagroup.org/articlespix/vk397.jpg
http://www.solagroup.org/articlespix/vk397.jpg

VK 397, The Eliot Bible in Massachuset, Cambridge, MA, 1661-1663

After completing his task of translating the Scriptures, Eliot prepared
material to provide the Indians with the means to understand and apply the
Bible. He translated such Puritan treatises as Richard Baxter's A Call to
the Unconverted and Lewis Bayly's The Practice of Piety. He also prepared
Algonquin editions of The Assembly’s Shorter Catechism and the Psalter.

It should not be thought that Eliot's work in translating the Scriptures met
with universal approval. In England reports circulated denying that anything
of permanence had been accomplished. These reports charged that less than a
dozen Algonquians had embraced Christianity, and the appeals for help made
by Eliot and others were nothing more than attempts to extort money. 

However, Eliot and his evangelizing work were to face a greater trial than
the charges made in England. In June 1675, Metacomet of the Wampanoag tribe,
known as King Philip to the English, declared war against the English
colonists. Although Metacomet’s father, Massasoit, had befriended the
Pilgrims, and Metacomet himself had known the colonists since his teenage
years, he consistently rejected their religion and society. The conflict
proved to be savage. The "Praying Indians" as they were known, did not join
the revolt but remained loyal to the colonists. However, in November they
were forced from their villages on an hour’s notice and resettled on Deer
Island. Due to the severe winter, many of them died from malnutrition and
exposure to the cold. Eliot sought to soften the effects of this enforced
relocation by providing supplies of food and clothing. Perhaps the most
crushing blow was the loss of their Bibles as their homes and villages were
pillaged by bands of marauders.

Within a year the overwhelming military and economic power of the colonists
crushed the rebellion. With the end of the war the "Praying Indians" were
able to return safely to their villages. Eliot requested a second printing
of the Algonquin Bible to replace those lost in the devastation caused by
the war. Despite some opposition a new edition was prepared and printed in
1685. It was the second and final edition, with no third printing ever
undertaken. At the age of eighty-one, Eliot knew his earthly work was nearly
done and he wrote to people in England that he was "drawing home." His death
in 1690 at age eighty-six essentially ended the attempt to evangelize the
Algonquians in their native tongue. Subsequent attempts to reprint Eliot's
Bible were unsuccessful.

There are differing opinions by scholars of our day regarding the value of
the Eliot Bible. It is not used for the purposes of textual studies or for
its accuracy of translation. Rather, the Algonquin Bible demonstrates the
passion of the early colonists to provide the indigenous peoples of the New
World the Scriptures in their own language.

The Eliot Bible can never be separated from the life of the one who
translated it. A memorable saying of Eliot has been preserved, "Prayer and
pains through faith in Christ Jesus will accomplish anything," and in his
lifetime, Eliot earned the respect and admiration of his peers. Richard
Baxter stated that it was impossible to mention the name of John Eliot apart
from the word "love." In the mid-nineteenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne, no
admirer of the Puritans, penned these words in tribute to Eliot and his
work, "It is good for the world that such a man has lived." The Eliot Bible
bears eloquent testimony that one person can indeed make a difference in the
lives of many.

Eliot certainly would not have accepted these words of praise spoken about
him. Rather than taking any honor to himself, he would have attributed
everything to the Lord Who had given the Word. The source of Eliot’s joy
came from the fact that people now possessed the Scriptures in their
language and not from any honors bestowed on him and his work. There is
little doubt that - more than any accolades given to him - he would have
rejoiced in what took place at the end of the twentieth century: the
publication of a new translation of the Bible into the Algonquin language!



Charis,
 
Mike Abendroth
 
"Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to
be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won.   Endow us with
courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns
to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth
are in jeopardy."
  - West Point Military Academy Cadet Prayer
 
HYPERLINK "http://www.bbcchurch.org"www.bbcchurch.org
 


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