Highlights of the Exhibition
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Bible Collection
at
Bridwell Library
1996-2006
September 7-November 18, 2006  

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First Bible in a Native American Language

[Massachuset Bible]. Mamusse wunneetupanatamwe up-biblum God naneeswe nukkone testament kah wonk wusku testament. Translated by John Eliot. Cambridge, [Mass.]: Samuel Green, 1685. Second edition of Eliot’s Bible.

John Eliot (1604–1690) translated the tremendously rare “Indian Bible” into the Natick-Algonquin language for the Native Americans of New England between 1661 and 1663. Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson printed the work at Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the assistance of a native Natick-Algonquin speaker, James Printer. The title page, which reads Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God, offers a ready indication of the many linguistic challenges overcome by the translator and his printers. Considered the earliest example of the printing of a new Bible translation for purposes of evangelization, Eliot’s New Testament returned to press in 1680, and editors revised the whole Bible for reprinting in 1685.