This week in Christian history: Congress endorses a Bible; Catholic Church condemns Blaise Pascal letters

Congress endorses Aitken Bible – Sept. 10, 1782

This week marks the anniversary of when the U.S. Congress passed a resolution endorsing the printing of a Protestant Bible by American printer Robert Aitken.

Known as the Aitken Bible and originally published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the work was reportedly the first complete Bible to be printed in the newly independent United States.

Aitken had appealed to Congress in January 1782 to receive funding for his printing endeavor. While the new government declined to do that, they did pass a resolution endorsing his work.

“Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion, as well as an instance of the progress of arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorize him to publish this Recommendation in the manner he shall think proper,” stated Congress.

Monica Varner, collections manager in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, wrote in 2023 that the Aitken Bible “represents not only its publisher’s piety, but the country’s burgeoning cultural identity detached from that of Britain’s.”

“By decreeing it not just an American copy of a British publisher’s work, but as a brand new, comprehensive incarnation of the Bible for an American audience, the Aitken Bible became not just a devotional text, but a patriotic one as well,” Varner added.