John Eliot, “Apostle to the Indians”

The 1628 charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company stated that one of the chief purposes of establishing a colony in New England was “to win the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind.” The seal of the colony had the picture of an Indian and the words of the Macedonian to Paul from Acts 16:9, “Come Over and Help Us.” During the earliest years of the colony, however, the Puritans did all they could do just to survive and establish homes in the American wilderness.

In 1637, the Puritans became involved in an inter-tribal war between the Narragansett and Pequot Indians. Though one might have expected otherwise, the Puritans often treated the Indians brutally. Many Pequot people were killed, and more were captured and sold into slavery. Later, in 1675 and 1676, a bitter armed conflict broke out in which over 600 colonists and 3,000 Native Americans died. Several hundred native captives were tried and executed or sold as slaves.

Surprisingly, the Pequot war triggered the earliest Puritan missions to the Indians. John Eliot, later known as the “Apostle to the Indians,” began learning the Algonquian language, spoken by most New England Indians, from captured Indians. Teaching Christian truths to the Indians in their own language, Eliot saw many of the Indians put their faith in Christ and leave their nomadic lives to form villages that separated them from their pagan backgrounds. These became “praying Indian towns,” over a dozen self-governing communities where the Indians often made strict biblical laws punishing their former practices, including wife-beating, polygamy, lying, and stealing.

John Eliot translated the entire Bible into Algonquian. In 1663, this translation became the first Bible printed in America. Eliot also composed an Indian primer, an Indian grammar, and an Indian psalter. Other successful missionary endeavors followed. Harvard University (1636) began a training program for young Indian men to minister to their people. At least six Boston area communities, thriving today, were started by Christian Indians. The famous island, Martha’s Vineyard, once was the site of Indian Christian congregations through the missionary endeavors of the Mayhew family. Dartmouth University had its beginning through the efforts of a Connecticut Puritan to train Indian young men to preach the Gospel.

Taken from The American Patriot’s Bible