Introduction to the Stockbridge Bible

Above: the title page from one of the existing "Vinegar Bibles."

Before we get too much into politics or other issues, it is time to get back to the basics of Algonkian Church History. Starting with this post, I'm going to share excerpts from my paper about the Stockbridge Bible that appeared in the Spring, 2007 issue of The Book Collector:

If there is one book in the United States today that could be said to have significance beyond the words it contains, it might be the Stockbridge Bible. The Stockbridge Bible belongs to the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is kept in a museum on their reservation in northern Wisconsin. It is an exemplar of the two-volume folio edition of the Bible printed by John Baskett at Oxford in 1716-1717.... In this article I will explain the relationship the Stockbridge Bible has with its owners, a Native American tribe with an over 250-year association with Christianity. I will explain how the Stockbridge Indians acquired their tribal Bible, how they carried it with them in their migrations, how it wound up in a museum run by whites for about sixty years, and, finally, how it was returned to the tribe in 1991.

The edition is known as the Vinegar Bible because of a typographical error in which the 'parable of the vinyard' became 'the parable of the vinegar.' For more technical and typographical information about the Vinegar Bible, please see B.J. McMullin's article "The Vinegar Bible," in The Book Collector Vol 33, Spring 1984,pages 53-65.

Here's a brief description of the Vinegar Bible.

The Stockbridge Bible is also known as "The Mohican Bible," or simply "The Bibles" (the plural form being used becuase the Vinegar Bible is a two-volume edition).