(1604–May 21, 1690), was a Puritan clergyman who was known as “The Apostle to the Indians,” as he was the first to teach Christianity to the Indians of New England. Born in England, he graduated from Cambridge and traveled to Boston, 1631, to serve as a teacher and pastor. A young Indian who had converted from paganism to Christianity helped Eliot learn the various Indian dialects. John Eliot was responsible for having written the first Indian translation of the Bible and the first Indian grammar book. In addition, he established 3,600 Indians into over a dozen self-governing communities. The unfortunate incident of King Philip’s War destroyed most of these.
In 1633, John Eliot wrote a letter to Sir Simonds D’Ewes in England seeking sponsorship for a college in the New World:
I earnestly desire that God will move your heart for the sake of the commonwealth, and also for the sake of learning (which I know you love and will be ready to further; indeed, we want a store of men to further that, for if we do not nourish learning, both the church and the commonwealth will sink) …
God has bestowed upon you a bountiful blessing, and if you should pleased to employ one mite of that great wealth which God has given, to erect a school of learning—a college—among us, you would be doing a glorious work, acceptable to God and man. … 236
In 1640, John Eliot, with the assistance of Richard Mather and Thomas Welch, printed the very first book in New England. Using the first printing press in the American colonies, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this volume became the approved hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Known as the Bay Psalm Book, it was entitled:
THE WHOLE BOOKE OF PSALMES faithfully TRANSLATED into ENGLISH Metre, Whereunto is prefixed a discourse declaring not only the lawfulness, but also the necessity of the heavenly Ordinances of singing Scripture Psalmes in the Churches of God.237
In his work, The Christian Commonwealth: or, The Civil Policy of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, 1659, which was a draft of a plan of government for the Natick Indian community, John Eliot stated:
That which the Lord now calleth England to attend is not to search humane Polities and Platformes of Government, contrived by the wisdom of man; but as the Lord hath carried on their works for them, so they ought to go unto the Lord and enquire at the Word of his mouth, what Platforme of Government he hath therein commanded; and humble themselves to embrace that as the best, how mean soever it may seem to Humane Wisdom.
There is undoubtedly a forme of Civil Government instituted by God himself in the Holy Scriptures; whereby any Nation may enjoy all the ends and effects of Government in the best manner, were they but persuaded to make trial of it. We should derogate from the sufficiency and perfection of the Scriptures, if we should deny it.
The Scripture is able thoroughly to furnish the man of God (whether Magistrate in the Commonwealth, or elder in the Church, or any other) unto every good work. …
Written Word of God is the perfect System or Frame of Laws, to guide all the Moral actions of man, either towards God or man.238