John Eliot (missionary)

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John Eliot
Title page of the Indian Bible of John Eliot (English)
Title page of the Indian Bible of John Eliot (Massachusett)

John Eliot , called the Apostle of the Indians (baptized August 5, 1604 in Widford , Hertfordshire ; † May 20, 1690 in Roxbury , Massachusetts ), was an English Puritan , Reformed clergyman and missionary .

Life

Eliot was the son of farmer Bennet Eliot. Nothing is known about his childhood and schooling. Around 1618 Eliot began to study theology at Jesus College at Cambridge University and was able to successfully complete his studies in 1622 ( BA ).

After a few rapidly changing positions as tutor, Eliot was appointed vicar in 1629 to the Puritan pastor Thomas Hooker in Baddow near Chelmsford , Essex. In office and dignity and with a fixed salary, Eliot was able to marry Hannah Mulford in the summer of 1630. At that time he was already thinking about emigrating to the American colonies.

In the late summer of 1631 he put his plans into action and settled with his wife in Boston , Massachusetts . There he worked as a substitute preacher and teacher at various Sunday schools. From November 1632 he was entrusted with the management of the church district Roxbury and this office he held until the end of his life.

Between 1632 and 1641 Eliot was given support by the preacher Thomas Welde . From 1649 the missionary Samuel Danforth helped him until 1674 and from 1688 to 1690 Nehemia Walter was a great support.

Eliot soon began to learn the Massachusett language of the Indians there after arriving in New England . He was helped by John Sassamon , a young wampanoag who had grown up as an orphan with a Puritan family. Eliot's translations of the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments still bear witness to these beginnings . His goal was to proselytize the Indians. On October 28, 1646, in Nonantum (now part of Newton ) in the wigwam of Waban , who was the first Indian in New England to be baptized, he gave his first sermon in the Massachusett language to members of the Nipmuck tribes .

Waban later became an important assistant and translator to John Eliot. The converted Indians (Praying Indians) were settled in so-called prayer towns (Praying towns) , where they learned to read and write and adopted the English way of life. In 1660 he founded the first Indian church in Natick .

In 1653 Eliot published a catechism and a translation of the Bible (Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God) in the Massachusett language, which he called the " Indian language " . This Bible was to be the only Bible translation into an indigenous language of the American double continent for the next 200 years. Since the so-called "Indian language" by Eliot was only sufficiently understood in parts of New England, his efforts in this regard were already limited.

At the age of 86, the Indian apostle died on May 20, 1690 in Roxbury.

Works

Remembrance day

July 21 in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : John Eliot  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Praying Towns; Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut; Historical Series Number 2 Second Edition 1995
  2. ^ Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God . Cambridge, MA 1661-1663; 2nd edition 1685.
  3. ↑ John Eliot in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Eliot, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Apostle of the Indians
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British preacher and missionary
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1604
PLACE OF BIRTH Widford , Hertfordshire
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1690
Place of death Roxbury , Massachusetts