Was the first Bible printed in America published by Congress?
By Sarah Thompson
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NO
Claims misrepresenting the first Bible in America as a government production for schools have circulated for decades.
In reality, English missionary John Eliot was the first when he translated the King James Bible into the indigenous Wampanoag language in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1663.
The first Bible to be printed in English in the British colonies was published in 1782 by Philadelphia bookseller and publisher Robert Aitken.
It was reviewed and approved by Congress but not commissioned, published or paid for by that body.
The proposal that the Bible could be used in schools came from the publisher and was not a direction from Congress.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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