144 



BIBLE TRANSLATIONS 



[b. a. e. 



translation, by Otto Fabricius, was twice 

 printed before the close of the 18th cen- 

 tury; and in 1822 the Moravian Brethren 

 brought out a new translation, which ran 

 through several editions. Nearly three- 

 quarters of the Old Testament was printed 

 in the same language between 1822 and 

 1836, when the work was discontinued. 

 In liabrador Eskimo the earliest printed 

 Bible text was the Harmony of the Gos- 

 pels, which appeared in 1800. This was 

 followed by the Gospel of St John in 

 1810, the complete New Testament in 

 1840, and all of the Old Testament be- 

 tween 1834 and 1867. In other Eskimo 

 languages there were printed : In Labrador 

 Eskimo some New Testament extracts in 

 1878 and the Four Gospels in 1897, trans- 

 lated by E. J. Peck; in the Aleutian 

 Unalaska dialect, with adaptation also to 

 the Atka dialect, John Veniaminoff's 

 translation of St Matthew's Gospel in 

 1848; and in Kaniagmiut, EliasTishnoff's 

 translation of the same Gospel, also in 1848. 



Four languages of the Athapascan fam- 

 ily have been provided with Bible trans- 

 lations. The Gospels were translated by 

 Robert McDonald and printed in the 

 Tukkuthkutchin language of Mackenzie 

 r. in 1874, and the whole Bible in 1898. 

 In the Chipewyan Archdeacon Kirkby's 

 translation of the Gospels ajjpeared in 

 1878 and the whole New Testament in 

 1881 ; in the Etchareottine, Kirkby's trans- 

 lation of St John's Gospel in 1870, and 

 Bishop Bompas's of the New Testament 

 between 1883 and 1891 ; and in the Tsat- 

 tine, A. C. Garrioch's version of St Mark's 

 Gospel in 1886. 



Translations have been made into 13 

 languages of the Algonquian family. In 

 the Cree, William Mason's work com- 

 prises several editions of the Gospel of 

 St John made between 1851 and 1857, 

 the complete New Testament in 1859, 

 and the whole Bible in 1861-62. Arch- 

 deacon Hunter's version of three of the 

 Gosj^els in the same language appeared 

 in 1853-55 (reprinted in 1876-77). Bishop 

 Horden's Four Gospels in Cree was 

 printed in 1859, and his complete New 

 Testament in 1876. In the Abnaki, St 

 Mark's Gospel, translated by Wzokhi- 

 lain, was printed in 1844; in the Micmac, 

 beginning with the printing of St Mat- 

 thew's Gospel in 1853, Mr Band con- 

 tinued at work until the whole New 

 Testament was published in 1871-75, 

 besides the books of Genesis, Exodus, 

 and the Psalms; and in the Malecite, St 

 John's Gospel, also translated by Rand, 

 came out in 1870. The Massachuset lan- 

 guage, which comes next in geographical 

 order, was the first North American In- 

 dian language into which any Bible trans- 

 lation was made; John Eliot began his 



Natick version in 1653 and finished it 

 in 1661-63, with a revised edition in 

 1680-85. In 1709 Experience Mayhew 

 published his translation, in the Wampa- 

 noag dialect of Martha's Vineyard, of 

 the Psalms and St John's Gospel. In 

 the Delaware, Dencke's translation of the 

 Epistles of St John was printed in 1818, 

 Zeisberger's Harmony of the Gospels in 

 1821, and Luckenbach's Scripture Narra- 

 tives in 1838. In Chippewa, the earliest 

 translations were those of the Gospels of 

 St Matthew and St John, by Peter and 

 John Jones, printed in 1829-31. There 

 are three complete translations of the 

 New Testament in this language: One 

 by Edwin James in 1833, another by 

 Henry Blatchford in 1844 (reprinted in 

 1856 and 1875), and a third by F. A. 

 O'Meara in 1854 (reprinted in 1874). 

 O'Meara also translated the Psalms (1856) 

 and the Pentateuch ( 1861 ), and McDonald 

 translated the Twelve Minor Prophets 

 (1874). In the Shawnee language, St 

 Matthew's Gospel, by Johnston Lykins, 

 was printed in 1836 and a revision in 

 1842, and St John's Gospel, by Francis 

 Barker, in 1846. In the Ottawa, Meeker's 

 translation of St Matthew and St John 

 appeared in 1841-44; in the Potawatomi, 

 St Matthew and the Acts, by Lykins, in 

 1844; in the Siksika, St Matthew, by 

 Tims, in 1890; in the Arapaho, St Luke, 

 by Roberts, in 1903; and in the Cheyenne, 

 the Gospels of St Luke and St John by 

 Petter, who has published also some other 

 portions of the Bible. 



Three languages of the Iroquoian family 

 possess parts of the Bible. In Mohawk, 

 extracts from the Biljle were printed as 

 earlv as 1715; the Gospel of St Mark, 

 by Brant, in 1787; and St John, bv Nor- 

 ton, in 1805. Between 1827 and 1836 

 the rest of the New Testament was trans- 

 lated by H. A. Hill, W. Hess, and J. A. 

 Wilkes, and the whole was printed in 

 successive parts. A new version of the 

 Gospels, by Chief Onasakenrat, was 

 printed in 1880. The only part of the 

 Old Testament in Mohawk is Isaiah, 

 printed in 1839. In the Seneca language, 

 St Luke, by Harris, was printed in 1829, 

 and the Four Gospels, by Asher Wright, 

 in 1874. In the Cherokee language St 

 Matthew's Gospel was translated by 

 S. A. Worcester and printed in 1829, the 

 other Gospels and the Epistles following, 

 until the complete New Testament was 

 issued in 1860. Genesis and Exodus, 

 also by Worcester, were printed in 1856 

 and 1853, respectively, besides some por- 

 tions of the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah. 



The two languages of the Muskhogean 

 family that come into our record are the 

 Choctaw and the Creek. In Choctaw, 

 three of the Gospels, translated by Al- 



