Cherokee New Testament (1860) (CHRCNT)

Overview

The Cherokee New Testament (1860) is the first complete New Testament in the Cherokee language, published by the American Bible Society as a revised complete edition using the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah (George Gist) around 1821 — the only writing system invented by a member of a preliterate people to achieve full Scripture publication in the nineteenth century. [1] The translation was principally the work of Rev. Samuel Austin Worcester (1798–1859), a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), who collaborated with Cherokee scholars including Elias Boudinot and Stephen Foreman over a period of more than thirty years. [1] Worcester and Boudinot published a translation of Matthew in 1829, followed by Acts (1833), John (1838), Luke (1850), Mark (1857), and Romans through Ephesians (1858), among other books. [1] Worcester died in 1859, just one year before the complete New Testament was published. [2] The ABCFM oversaw the casting of Cherokee syllabary type and the establishment of the Cherokee press, which also produced the bilingual Cherokee Phoenix newspaper beginning in 1828. [3] This 1860 edition remains a landmark in the history of indigenous-language Bible translation in North America.

Language and People

Cherokee (ISO 639-3: chr) is spoken by approximately 1,520 people in Southeastern United States of America. [Glottolog: cher1273]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by American Bible Society.

References