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.

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
Assemblys 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 Metacomets 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 hours 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 Eliots 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!