The Eliot Indian Bible (Massachusett: Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God; also known as the Algonquian Bible) was the first translation of the Christian Bible into an indigenous American language, as well as the first Bible published in British North America. It was prepared by English Puritan missionary John Eliot by translating the Geneva Bible into the Massachusett language. Printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the work first appeared in 1661 with only the New Testament. An edition including all 66 books of both the Old and New Testaments was printed in 1663.
The inscription on the 1663 edition's cover page, beginning with , corresponds in English to The Whole Holy His-Bible God, both Old Testament and also New Testament. This turned by the servant of Christ, who is called John Eliot. The preparation and printing of Eliot's work was supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, whose governor was the eminent scientist Robert Boyle.
History
The history of Eliot's Indian Bible involves three historical events that came together to produce the Algonquian Bible.
America's first printing press
Stephen Daye of England contracted Jose Glover, a wealthy minister who disagreed with the religious teachings of the Church of England, to transport a printing press to America in 1638. Glover died at sea while traveling to America. His widow Elizabeth (Harris) Glover, Stephen Daye, and the press arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Mrs. Glover opened her print shop with the assistance of Daye. Daye started the operations of the first American print shop which was the forerunner of Harvard University Press. The press was located in the house of Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College where religious materials such as the Bay Psalm Book were published in the 1640s. Elizabeth Glover married president of Harvard College Henry Dunster on June 21, 1641.
Act of Parliament
In 1649 Parliament enacted An Act for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England, which set up a Corporation in England consisting of a President, a Treasurer, and fourteen people to help them. The name of the corporation was "The President and Society for the propagation of the Gospel in New England," but it was later known simply as the New England Company. The corporation had the power to collect money in England for missionary purposes in New England. This money was received by the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England and dispersed for missionary purposes such as Eliot's Indian Bible.
Arrival of John Eliot
Eliot came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1631. One of his missions was to convert the indigenous Massachusett to Christianity. Eliot's instrument to do this was through the Christian scriptures. Eliot's feelings were that the Indians felt more comfortable hearing the scriptures in their own language than in English (a language they understood little of). Eliot thought it best to translate the English Christian Bible to an Algonquian Bible rather than teach the Massachusett Indians English. He then went about learning the Algonquian Indian language of the Massachusett people so he could translate English to the Natick dialect of the Massachusett language. Eliot translated the entire 66 books of the English Bible in a little over fourteen years. It had taken 44 scholars seven years to produce the King James Version of the Christian Bible in 1611. Eliot had to become a grammarian and lexicographer to devise an Algonquian dictionary and book of grammar. He used the assistance of a few local Massachusett Indians in order to facilitate the translation, including Cockenoe, John Sassamon, Job Nesuton, and James Printer.
Eliot made his first text for the Corporation for the propagation of the Gospel in New England into the Massachusett language as a one volume textbook primer catechism in 1653 printed by Samuel Green. He then translated and had printed in 1655-56 the Gospel of Matthew, book of Genesis, and Psalms into the Algonquian Indian language. It was printed as a sample run for the London Corporation to show what a complete finished Algonquian Bible might look like. The Corporation approved the sample and sent a professional printer, Marmaduke Johnson, to America in 1660 with 100 reams of paper and eighty pounds of new type for the printer involved to print the Bible. To accommodate the transcription of the Algonquian Indian language phonemes extra "O's" and "K's" had to be ordered for the printing press.