Saur Bible

Biblia, Das Ist: Die Ganze Göttliche Heilige Schrifft Alten und Neuen Testaments: nach der Deutschen Uebersetzung D. Martin Luthers.
Germantown, Pennsylvania: Christoph Saur, 1776.
(Prothro B-24)

Christopher Saur II (1721–1784), the printer of this Bible, was a minister in the Neue Taufer, also known as Dunkers or Schwarzenau Brethren, a separatist group that combined Pietist and Anabaptist spirituality. The Neue Taufer formed in Germany in 1708, but due to persecution nearly all members immigrated to Pennsylvania by 1740.

In 1738 Saur’s father (Johann Christopher Saur, 1695–1758) established a press in Germantown, now part of Philadelphia, to serve the growing German-American population in the area. In 1743 he produced North America’s first Bible printed in a European language. Christopher Saur II succeeded his father, printing two additional German-language Bibles. The 1763 edition was the first Bible printed on American-made paper. This 1776 edition was the first Bible printed with American-made type.