Congress approved the Printing of the First English-language Bible in America called “the Bible of the Revolution”

Under this persuasion your Memorialist begs leave to, inform your Honors that he both begun and made considerable progress in a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools, but being cautious of suffering his copy of the Bible to issue forth without the sanction of Congress,

humbly prays that your Honors would take this important matter into serious consideration & would be pleased to appoint one Member or Members of your Honorable Body to inspect his work so that the same may be published under the Authority of Congress.

And further, your Memorialist prays, that he may be commissioned or otherwise appointed & authorized to print and vend editions of, the Sacred Scriptures, in such manner and form as may best suit the wants and demands of the good people of these States, provided the same be in all things perfectly consonant to the Scriptures as heretofore Established and received amongst us.

In early September, 1782, Aitken sent a message to Congress informing them he had nearly completed his Bible, “accomplished in the midst of the Confusion and Distresses of War.”

Congress requested the Chaplains of Congress review it:

Report of Committee of Congress on Mr. Aitken’s Memorial
By The United States Congress Assembled:
September 12th, 1782.

The Committee to whom was referred a Memorial of Robert Aitken, Printer, dated 21st January, 1781, respecting an edition of the Holy Scriptures, report,

That Mr. Aitken has, at a great expense, now finished an American edition of the Holy Scriptures in English, that the Committee have from time to time attended to his progress in the work; that they also recommended it to the two Chaplains of Congress to examine and give their opinion of the execution, who have accordingly reported thereon; the recommendation and report being as follows:

‘Philadelphia, 1st September, 1782.
Reverend Gentlemen,
Our knowledge of your piety and public spirit leads us without apology to recommend to your particular attention the edition of the Holy Scriptures publishing by Mr. Aitken.

He undertook this expensive work at a time when, from the circumstances of the war, an English edition of the Bible could not be imported, nor any opinion formed how long the obstruction might continue.

On this account particularly he deserves applause and encouragement.

We therefore wish you, Reverend Gentlemen, to examine the execution of the work, and if approved, to give it the sanction of your judgment, and the weight of your recommendation.

We are, with very great respect, Your most obedient humble servants.
(Sign’d) James Duane, Chairman in behalf of a Committee of Congress on Mr. Aitken’s Memorial.’

The two chaplains of Congress at this time were: Rev. George Duffield, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, who helped form the Presbyterian Church in the United States; and Rev. William White, rector of Christ Church, who helped organize the Protestant Episcopal Church in America and was the first president of the Bible Society of Philadelphia – the first Bible Society in the United States.

Chaplains William White and George Duffield reported to Congress, Sept. 10, 1782:

Report of the Congressional Chaplains
Reverend Doct. White and Revd. Mr. Duffield,
Chaplains of the United States in Congress assembled.
Report.

Gentlemen, Agreeably to your desire we have paid attention to Mr. Robert Aitken’s impression of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

In 1940, the Rev. Edwin A.R. Rumball-Petre located 28 copies of the “Bible of the Revolution” in institutions in America and abroad, and 22 in private collections. Copies of “the Bible of the Revolution” are in the possession of the American Bible Society’s Museum of Biblical Art in New York; Houston Baptist University’s Dunham Bible Museum; and Hobby Lobby’s Green Family, who are opening the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. to display the Green Collection – the world’s largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts.

Congress’ endorsement of Robert Aitken’s Bible was signed by the Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson, who had also signed the Declaration of Independence with John Hancock on July 4, 1776.

Charles Thomson, with William Barton, designed the Great Seal of the United States. When Charles Thomson retired from Congress, he spent 19 years researching and writing his “Thomson Bible,’” a four-volume work containing the first American translation of the Greek Septuagint.

Charles Thomson’s Bible was printed in 1808 by Jane Aitken, the daughter of Robert Aitken, who had taken over her father’s printing business when he died on July 15, 1802. This made America’s Jane Aitken the first woman ever to print the Bible.