An American Apostle

While searching through my side of the family tree, I came upon a story for which I can find no familial ties. But because these little missives are supposed to include history that doesn't have to include an ancestor, I've decided to tell it this week.

And it's a good story.

John Eliot came to Boston in the Massachusetts colony in 1631 to pastor a Puritan (aka Congregational) Church. After a year, he moved to nearby Roxbury and began a church there. He would serve as the church's pastor until his death 58 years later. 

Almost immediately he established relationships with members of the Narragansett tribe, and as time went on, with other tribes of the Algonquin language group. He took the time to learn their language and ministered in their midst at the same time as caring for his English church.

The English settlers had rocky relations with the tribes. Many thought of the indigenes as a nuisance, in the way of God's will for their ownership and domination of the land, looking at the woes that befell the native population -- like disease and death that came on them because they had no natural defenses to European disease -- as a sign that God was clearing the way for them.

Eliot resisted that notion and pointed out that the native populations were part of God's creation, thus God's people as well, and advocated for fair treatment in land negotiations and protested against their being sold into slavery. He intervened in court cases, fought to secure land and waterways for tribal use, and established schools. In fact, Eliot argued once in a sermon to his English congregation, God sent the English specifically to minister and preach the gospel to them. 

Imagine thinking that people not in one's own origin group were part of God's creation and worthy of ministry. What a concept

He preached to his initial congregation of Native Americans twice a week and organized the converts into their own villages. Over time, he would establish 14 such villages. These became known as "praying villages" and the inhabitants at "praying Indians." He trained evangelists from among these converts to assist in the work but continued travel to visit the tribes by foot and on horseback in all kinds of weather. By 1660 he had gained the appellation "Apostle to the Indians."

Unfortunately, although the English churches supported the village in some ways, they insisted the members of the villages had to adopt English culture, dress and architecture. And though recognized as Christian converts, the villagers could not become members of English churches.

Because he knew the language, he undertook a translation of the Bible in Algonquin, apparently the first such attempt to produce an indigenous language translation in the New World. This was followed by some 20 other works in Algonquin, among them a primer, a grammar, a psalter and a dictionary of the Algonquin library.

Eliot held to a theocratic view of human government, based on Exodus 18, which he tried to install as the governmental pattern in the villages. In 1659 Eliot published The Christian Commonwealth, or the Civil Policy of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, right before King Charles II was crowned as king of Scotland, England and Ireland.

In it, he argued that God had established the proper form of both civil and religious government in the instructions Moses' father-in-law gave him in Exodus 18. And while he was at it, he insisted the only true king was Jesus, not any of the monarchs of England. As you might guess, this would cause him some grief.

The book is available for download from the Internet and contains some curious interpretations of the text. For one, the instructions, unlike the Ten Commandments, did not come directly from God, though Eliot treats them that way when it suits his argument. For those of you who don't remember or don't know, father-in-law Jethro observes Moses handling disputes among the Israelites all day and says to him, in essence, "This is nuts. You're gonna kill yourself. But I have a solution."

The solution was to appoint officials "over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens." They could hear the disputes and decide the simpler cases without bothering Moses. Only the real posers would be brought to Moses to be settled. 

Eliot does some creative interpretation here. You had to have at least 10 people besides the official to form a group, with a the same logic for groups of 50, 100 and 1,000. But after you had enough people to fill a group, then others could be added until reaching the next grouping. So a group of ten could actually contain as many as 19 members plus the official. Once a 20th person wanted to join, then two groups of ten had to be formed. Members of the existing group could decide which new group they wanted to belong to.

Groups of 50 were to be formed from 5 groups of 10, with the official in charge of the 50 hearing what amounted to appeals if someone in a group of 10 didn't like a decision. Like the groups of 10, a group of fifty could have as many as 99 members before being split up. The same process applied to groups of 100 and 1,000. Getting confused yet?

By his reckoning, is you have one group of ten, then five groups of ten to make a group of 50, then two groups of 50 to create a group of 100 and ten groups of 100 to make a group of 1,000, the total of all the groups would amount to more than 8,000 people -- though I confess I got lost in his groupings and math.And I forgot to mention that the official overseeing each group didn't complete the number needed for a group. So if you had nine people the tenth was not the official appointed to watch over the group.

More confused now?

Above all this would be a council drawn from the most pious of the officials appointed over groups of thousands to do the job of Moses and hear the most difficult cases and be the group of last appeal. And the king did not feature in any of this. 

The book was not well received in England -- surprise! -- and was soon banned. He was forced to issue an apology and a retraction, and all copies of the book were destroyed. The book was also banned by colonial officials in America, making it the first governmentally banned book in the New World. 

Throughout his career he continued to advocate for the tribes, providing them with food and goods during hard times and ministry at all times.