Preaching the gospel remedy teachers, Translators, and theologians whose ideas echo into the present Jennifer A. Boardman on guard This statue of Bradford stands in Plymouth
today; he contributed politically to early colonization and also helped frame the experience theologically.
Bradford became first elected governor of the colony in 1621 and went on to serve (off and on) for more than 35 years. As he governed Bradford also took to his pen to record the early years of the colony, including the Mayflower journey. Of Plymouth Plantation, the result, is a detailed journal account of settlement life from 1620 to 1646 (see CH issue #138). Bradford echoed the Israelites’ adversities in his account of those faced by the Pilgrims, looking to the Bible for both understanding and comfort: Ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto ye Lord, and He heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie.” Let them therefore praise ye Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure for ever.
William Bradford (c. 1590–1657)
Born in Yorkshire, England, Bradford was orphaned young and developed a love for the Bible from an early age. As a teenager he joined the Separatists, who sought to return to the way of the early Christians and unburden themselves from what they viewed as the ritual trappings of the Church of England. They escaped persecution from King James I, living in the Netherlands for more than 10 years. Eventually the king granted a group of Separatists permission to settle in the Americas. Bradford and his wife, Dorothy, traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620, landing near Cape Cod. Bradford was one of 41 men who signed the “Mayflower Compact,” the first governing document of their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. Half of the Mayflower passengers died that first winter, including Dorothy.
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John Eliot (see p. 32) was born to a wealthy family in England, graduated from Cambridge in 1622, and fled to Massachusetts in 1631 to escape persecution for his Puritan faith. He became the pastor of First Church in Roxbury and married Hanna Mumford the following year. Eliot’s 1640 Bay Psalm Book—an edition of the Psalms written in metrical verse—has the distinction of being the first book published in America. Eliot had a heart for indigenous American peoples, wishing to evangelize them in their native language. English settlers had captured a Montaukett man named Cockenoe in 1637 during the Pequot War, and he became a servant of a local fur trader. Cockenoe helped Eliot translate the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and other passages of the Bible into the Wampanoag language. Eliot continued to learn Wampanoag and began preaching in the language in 1647. He also began to translate sermons into Wampanoag, functionally helping to create a written alphabet for a people who mostly used oral and pictographic language. In 1663 Eliot published the Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God, called in English the Algonquian Bible. It was both the first translation of the Bible into an indigenous American language and the first Bible published in the Americas.
Christian History
Statue of William Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony—Susan Pease / Alamy Stock Photo
John Eliot (c. 1604–1690)
