Eliot Indian Bible

Massachuset Bible. Mamusse wunneetupanatamwe up-biblum God naneeswe nukkone testament kah wonk wusku testament.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Samuel Green, 1685. An extract of 29 leaves, chiefly from Exodus. (00069)

The first edition of this translation into the Native American language of Massachuset was the first Bible printed in the Western Hemisphere. Published in 1663, the “Eliot Indian Bible” was compiled by John Eliot (1604–1690), a New England Puritan whose evangelical interest in the Natick-Algonquin Native Americans compelled him to learn their language and render it phonetically into the roman alphabet. His translation was aided immensely by a native speaker, Job Nesutan, and the printing was made possible by the assistance of James Printer, a young native whom Eliot called “the one man . . . able to compose the sheets and correct the press with understanding.” Considered the earliest example of a new Bible translation printed for purposes of evangelization, the Harrison Collection holds a representative example of twenty-nine leaves of Eliot’s revised second edition of 1685.