John eliot phd biography wikipedia

John Hall Elliott (October 23,

John Eliot c. In he completed the enormous task of translating the Eliot Indian Bible into the Massachusett Indian language , producing more than two thousand completed copies. Eliot was born in Widford, Hertfordshire , England, and lived at Nazeing as a boy. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge. Eliot became minister and "teaching elder" at the First Church in Roxbury.

From to Eliot participated in both the civil and church trials of Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy. Eliot disapproved of Hutchinson's views and actions, and was one of the two ministers representing Roxbury in the proceedings which led to her excommunication and exile. From to , Samuel Danforth assisted Eliot in his Roxbury ministry.

There are many connections between the towns of Roxbury and Dorchester and John Eliot. After working for a short time as pastor in Boston as the temporary replacement for John Wilson at Boston's first church society, John Eliot settled in Roxbury with other Puritans from Essex, England. For the first forty years in Roxbury, Eliot preached in the foot by foot meetinghouse with thatched roof and plastered walls that stood on Meetinghouse Hill.

Eliot founded the Roxbury Grammar School and he worked hard to keep it prosperous and relevant. And in he gave half of a donation he received from a man in London to the schoolmaster of Dorchester. The chief barrier to preaching to the American Indians was language. John Eliot began to study the Massachusett or Wampanoag language , which was the language of the local Indians.

With his help, Eliot was able to translate the Ten Commandments , the Lord's Prayer and other scriptures and prayers. The first time Eliot attempted to preach to Indians led by Cutshamekin in at Dorchester Mills , [ 17 ] he failed and said that they, "gave no heed unto it, but were weary and despised what I said.