The Path of the King James Version of the Bible in Iroquoia
2012; Routledge; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01440357.2012.686204
ISSN1743-9426
Autores Tópico(s)American Constitutional Law and Politics
ResumoAbstract This essay examines the use of the King James Version (KVJ) of the Bible in early English missionary efforts – particularly among the Iroquois in the early eighteenth century. Debates continued in the period around the efficacy of translating the Bible into Indian languages as opposed to instructing the Indians in the English language. The case of English evangelization efforts among the Haudenosaunee (aka the Iroquois) is of particular importance. Chief Joseph Brant among others translated the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Common Prayer into the Mohawk language, but it would be the KJV that would eventually become the mainstay of Anglicanism among the Haudenosaunee and subsequent Native converts to Protestantism in North America. Keywords: IroquoisBibletranslationMohawkMissionariesChurch of England Notes 1. The anniversary was marked by the publication of scholarly and popular studies on the history of the translation and its broader cultural legacy. Beyond the monographs, there were journal articles and television programs dedicated to the anniversary. See especially Gordon Campbell Campbell, Gordon. 2010. Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611–2011, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar], Leland Ryken Ryken, Leland. 2011. The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Year of the Most Influential English Translation, Wheaton, IL: Crossway. [Google Scholar], Donald Brake Brake, Donald Shelly Beach. 2011. A Visual History of the King James Bible: The Dramatic Story of the World's Best-Known Translation, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. [Google Scholar] and Shelly Beach, and earlier, Adam Nicolson Nicolson, Adam. 2003. God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, New York: Harper Collins. [Google Scholar]. 2. For comparative accounts of the missionary and educational works undertaken by various British Colonial officials and missionaries, see Margaret Connell Szasz Szasz, Margaret Connell. 1988. Indian Education in the American Colonies, 1607–1783, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. [Google Scholar] and Laura M. Stevens Stevens, Laura M. 2004. The Poor Indians: British Missionaries, Native Americans, and Colonial Sensibility, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. 3. See James Axtell Axtell, James. 1985. The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] (Invasion), especially 131–78. 4. There has existed a long line of scholarly critiques of the Christian project in general from Francis Jennings Jennings, Francis. 1975. The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest, New York: Norton. [Google Scholar] (Invasion) to George Tinker Tinker, George. 1993. Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. [Google Scholar]. 5. See Francis Jennings Jennings, Francis. 1984. The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from its beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744, New York: Norton. [Google Scholar] (Ambiguous) and Daniel Richter Richter, Daniel. 1992. The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar]. 6. The work of William B. Hart and the aforementioned book of Laura M. Stevens are important exceptions to this. 7. The studies examining the Puritan and Indian interactions in New England are too numerous to list here, but an excellent recent collection of scholarly essays engaged with the most important contemporary positions is Colin Calloway and Neal Salisbury's Calloway, Colin and Salisbury, Neal. 2003. Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Massachusetts. [Google Scholar] edited collection. 8. See Henry P. Thompson Thompson, Henry P. 1951. Into All Lands: The History of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701–1950, London: S.P.C.K.. [Google Scholar]. 9. See Edward L. Bond Bond, Edward L. 2000. Damned Souls in a Tobacco Colony, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. [Google Scholar], 109. 10. See Richmond Bond Bond, Richmond. 1952. Queen Anne's American Kings, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]. A pertinent example: "the 4 Indian kings, to each of whom the archbishop of Canterbury has presented an English Bible, and they will speedily return home" (298). 11. The printing of English vernacular Bibles was strictly regulated by colonial and church authorities back in London. 12. Axtell Axtell, James. 1981. The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial America, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] (European) cites Jesuit Relations, Vol. 20, 71. The English explorer, Thomas Harriot Harriot, Thomas. 1972. A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, New York: Dover. Reprint of 1590 edition [Google Scholar], encountered similar difficulties when attempting to relate points of theology to a group of Algonkian priests seemingly anxious to find out more about Christianity, he writes: "Wherein they were not so sure grounded, nor gave such credite to their traditions and stories but through conversing with us they were brought into great doubts of their owne, and no small admiration of ours, with earnest desire in many, to learn more than we had meanes for want of perfect utterance in their language to express" (27). 13. Stephen Greenblatt Greenblatt, Stephen. 1990. Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar] in his reflections on the language encounter in the New World refers to this as "the near impossibility of translating concepts like, conversion, Incarnation, or the Trinity into native speech" (23). 14. The eight is used to make the w sound as in the French word huit. For an online version of this full prayer from Eleazar Williams 1875 edition of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, see http://justus.anglica.org/resources/bcp/Mohawk/mp.htm. The second version here is from Francois Picquet's Picquet, Francois. 1826. Ionteri8eienstag8a ne tsiatag ori8tagogenton ogonha, Paris: D.P. Lefebvre. [Google Scholar] Ionteri8eienstag8a ne tsiatag ori8tagogenton ogonha (1826). With special thanks to Akwiratékha Martin of Kahnawake, Quebec, for his expertise in our language. 15. For the debate concerning Spenser's authorship, see Jean Brink Brink, Jean. 1994. "Constructing the View of the Present State of Ireland". In Spenser Studies XI, Edited by: Cullen, Patrick and Roche, Thomas P. Jr. 203–28. New York: AMS Press. [Google Scholar], 203–28. 16. To learn more about this project, see the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project site at < http://wlrp.org>.
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