Posted on 08/21/2011 5:47:52 AM PDT by Pharmboy
VANCOUVER, Wa., August 20, 2011—snip...
In the early days of the struggling American colonies, England refused to grant permission to the colonists to print the sacred text on the new continent. All Bibles were imported from England. This allowed appropriate taxes and revenues to be collected. The Continental Congress sought in vain to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland and Scotland.
However, the successful revolution and independence from England signaled a new era for printing Bibles. In 1777, an entrepreneur Scotsman, Robert Aitken, courageously set out to publish the first New Testament ever printed in America.
The first complete Bible in a small hand size hit the market in 1782. The printer’s quaint address listed on the title page reads, “Three doors above the coffee house, in Market street.” The “Bible of the Revolution” as it is called, received full congressional support, the first and only Bible ever to have such approval.
The statement issued by Congress and published in the Aiken Bible reads:
"Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aiken [sic], as subservient to the interests of religion, as well an instance of the progress of arts in this country, and ... they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorize him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper. Cha. Thomson, Secy."
(Excerpt) Read more at communities.washingtontimes.com ...
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
From;
A little more than halfway down the page.
It is the KJV, just referred to as the Aitkin Bible.
The KJV is the Bible of the Revolution, the colonies .... America.
I’m glad we can still purchase KJV Bibles. They totally lack gender-inclusive language. I’m funny that way.
I'm curious why a printer trying to fill an obvious demand should be thought particularly "courageous."
It's not like the Brits would have shot him for printing the Bible if they had won.
An Excellent companion piece to Dr.Gene Scott Bible collection
Station 47:The Aitken Bible @ www.drgenescott.org/stn47.htm
“At Pope’s Head”??
Also note the Letter from George Washington dated June 11.1783 is reprinted in Under God:George Washington and the Question of Church and State ,Tara Ross,and Joseph C.Smith Jr. Spence Publishing 2008 ,p.182
Oops...I missed that. Ironic...
It does not appear there was ever an actual legal prohibition on printing Bibles in the colonies. Rather, for a number of financial reasons, it was easier and cheaper to import such a massive production than to print it here. Bibles in Algonquin and German were certainly printed in the colonies long before independence.
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/colonial-bibles.html
I can find no record of import taxes being levied specifically on Bibles or other books, as opposed to a very low rate charged on all imports.
Seen the news about Christians in Bosnia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, the Sudan, China, America?
Why do you think Sarah, Bachmann, and Perry aren’t pleasing to the mainstream Media/Politician palate?
Those of us who are mere common Americans find these candidates refreshing and take confidence that our America is still the America of our Founders.
Whatever happened to that nut?
Could you explain how your post is responsive to anything I’ve posted?
Interesting!
He died.
I believe the most influential Bible in pre-Revolutionary America was the Geneva Bible.
“Despite the uncertainty of the Geneva Bible being the first English Bible brought to American soil, it is certain the Geneva Bible became the spiritual foundation for the future United States of America. Though earlier temporary colonies may have used other Bibles, the Geneva Bible was most likely the Bible of Jamestown, and clearly the Bible of the Pilgrims and the Puritans.
“It is likely that the Geneva Bible first came to Jamestown with Captain John Smith and company in 1607, since the first ministers of Virginia were Puritans. In 1609 William Strachey, secretary of the Virginia Company, arrived in Jamestown, and quoted from the Geneva Bible in writing his history of Virginia. Rev. Alexander Whitaker, who came to the colony in 1611, used a Geneva Bible as documented in one of his surviving sermon texts. It is very likely that John Rolfe, a young widower, used a Geneva Bible to teach Matoaka, better known as Pocahontas, about Christianity. She became a Christian, and soon afterwards, on April 5, 1614, they were married.
“Also called the “Pilgrims Bible,” the Geneva Bible influenced many of the Pilgrims. In his book The Genesis of the New England Churches, Leonard Bacon says that the Pilgrims Pastor, John Robinson, used the Geneva Bible in Leyden. It therefore implies that it was the Geneva Bible that his congregation carried to the New World. Further, Massachusetts Governor John Bradfords history quotes the Geneva Bible. In fact, the Pilgrim Society Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts has Geneva Bibles that belonged to Governor Bradford as well as other Pilgrim Fathers.
“P. Marion Simms, author of The Bible in America, says of the Geneva Bible, “Being a Puritan Bible, the Geneva would be used throughout the early colonies wherever English-speaking Puritans were found. New England used it extensively and the Plymouth colony used it exclusively.” Even the famous Puritan preacher John Cotton used a copy of the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible helped form the Christian culture in the English-speaking colonies of the New World that would later become America.”
http://logosresourcepages.org/idx_Pages/idx_geneva.htm
By the way, I didn’t mean that last comment as any kind of slap at the KJV. My pastor still preaches from it and it’s still my favorite.
I don’t even own a Geneva Bible, but I am aware of its massive historical significance.
All English bibles, including most directly the Geneva and KJV, descend from William Tyndale’s translation of the 1520s & 30s.
Tyndale is an unsung hero of this time—and the beauty of language in the English Bible, usually attributed to KJV translators, is typically simply a copy of Tyndale’s wording.
English Bible translation was greatly feared—and illegal—in Tyndale’s day, and he was eventually caught through betrayal, while living in Belgium (and smuggling copies of his Bible back into England), and subsequently burned at the stake.
His last words were, “Lord open the eyes of the King of England!” (Henry VIII, by who’s edict he was executed). Within a few months the English government printed it’s “own” translation, which was simply the William Tyndale translation re-branded. While new translations, the Geneva and King James version bibles often used the same wording, without much alteration—so careful and beautiful was Tyndale’s original.
BTW, as far as modern translations go, the English Standard Version (ESV), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) and the New King James Version (NKJV) are all excellent, beautiful translations...and they maintain the original gender distinctions of the original language—without any of the neutering found in other bibles.
The HCSB and the NKJV also keep the correct capitalized pronouns for God too, something which while not in the original Greek and Hebrew (which don’t have lower-case letters) I think certainly pleases Him.
Nice addition to this thread...thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.