Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10

The whole or a part of the Bible has
been translated into 4G1 different languages
and dialects. chiefly by Christian mission
aries, of which 443 TRANSACTIONS are now in
circulation, as follows:
Fifty-seven European languages.
Fifty-two American languages.
One hundred and tWenty-one African Ian
guages.
One hundred and seventy-seven Asiatic
languages.
Sixty Australasian and Oceanic Ian
guages.
And of these ninety-nine are TRANSACTIONS
of the entire Bible: 121 the New Testament
only, and 256 the Gospels. the Epistles, the
Psalms, and other portions.
More than 100000 copies of the Bible
in foreign languages We're issued last year
in this country. of which ~ 600 We're Ital-
ians, 10000 Polish, and the remainder Be-
henian, Hungarian, French, Russian, Fin
nish, Croatian. Greek, Slovanian, Chinese,
Japanese and Arabic.
First Bible in This Country.
The first Bible printed in the United
States was John Elliott's translation of the
New Testament into the Indian languages
1t was printed at Cambridge, Mass, by
Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson in
1861. The entire Bible was printed in 1868
In 1858 William Bradford of Philadelphia
solicited subscriptions Tor a Bible he pro-
posed to publish on these terms:
Il. That it shall be printed in a fair
character on good Paper and Well Bound.
80. That 1t shall contain the Old and New
Testaments with the typography, and to
have useful Marginal Notes.
80. That 1t shall be allowed to them that
subscribe for 20 shillings per Bible, a price
which one of the same volumes in England
would cost.
~. That the pay shall be half Silver
Money and half Country Produce at Money
price. one-half down now, and the other
half on the delivery of the Bible"
A copy of Mr.. Bradford's prospectus is
preserved in the library of the Bible House.
Upon the breaking out Of the revolution
England was cut off and Congress ordered
that 10000 copies be imported from Hol-
land. A proposition to print an edition by
the United States government had to be
abandoned because of the difficulty of pro-
curing type and paper In 1777 the New
Testament was printed in Philadelphia by
Robert Aitken, and in 1852 1t was followed
by the entire Bible, which was the first
United States, and it was officially Endorsed
and recommended to the public by Congress
after having been carefully examined by
the chaplain to ascertain II the translation
were accurate. In 1870 what is known as
the Douay Bible was published in Phila-
delphia, and William Young Of the same
city printed an edition the same year. In
1901 Isaac Thomas Of Worsecter. Mass.
and Isaac Collins. member Of the Society
OF Friends, at Trenton, N. j., published
the full text in English.
In the SOnSreSaUOndl ministers Oh
Massachusetts, and other ecclesiastical bod
les submitted to Congress memorial pray
ing that Congress would take such meas
ures as the Constitution would permit that
no edition of the Bible or its translation be
published in America without its being care
fully inspected and certified to be free from
errors This was a subject of long and
earnest debate and action was indefinitely
postponed, "inasmuch as the Constitution of
the United States expressly provides that
Congress shall make no law respecting the
| establishment of religion, nor prohibiting
| the free exercise thereof, nor abridging the
| freedom of speech or Of the press This
was the end Of congressional supervision OF
the publication of the Scriptures.
The American Bible Society.
The first Bible society was founded in
| ITO by Carl Hildebrand, Marquis Of Can
stein. at Halle. Germany. ITO bring Gods
words into the hands Of the poor for edih-
| cation at low price," The Canstein Bible
| Institute has since circulated about seven
| million copies. Of the Scriptures in various
languages. The first Bible society In the
United States was organized In Philadel-
phia in 1908. and similar societies sprana
| up from time to time until l28 had been
| formed In twenty-one different states and
territories. In 1915 thirty-fve Of these. Local
organizations amalgamated and formed the
American Bible Society, which now has
more than 1000 members. represents seven
different Protestant denominations, and
has large estabtshment known as tn