Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete
They did agree enough to print the Bible!
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Hey, Pete -
When you first claimed that the first book the government printed was the bible I didn't really comment on it because it was news to me. I figured I'd better inform myself about it before I did.
Anyway, I finally did check it out. Turns out you're not exactly right.
The matter relates to an act of the Continental Congress during the Revolution. Because of the war, there was an embargo on all goods coming from England. That included bibles.
Beginning in 1777, the Continental Congress entertained several resolutions for the purchase of thousands of bibles from foreign countries but nothing ever came of them. Finally, in 1781, a printer and bookseller in Philadelphia by the name of Robert Aitken petitioned the Continental Congress to certify his version of the bible which was already in print.
The Continental Congress agreed to certify them as accurate but declined his further requests to allow them to be published under their authority or to appoint Aitken as the official publisher of sacred texts.
So, our government never printed or authorized the printing of a bible. The Continental Congress, our "revolutionary council", never did either. All they did was certify as accurate an American bible that already existed.
John