Book Minute

It was about 1740 when a woman found a young boy alone on the street to Wilmington, Delaware. The boy’s mother and father had died and he had been placed in a blacksmith’s home. When he learned he was to become the blacksmith’s apprentice, the boy ran away.

The woman asked what he wanted to be. A scholar, he replied. And so she took him home and saw to it that he was on a path to a good education.

The boy’s name was Charles Thomson. He showed a talent for languages. One day he asked where theological writers got their ideas. “From the Holy Scriptures,” was the response. “Well then,” said Thomson, “if they … drew their religious instruction from the Scriptures, I shall apply directly to the same source.”

Later, Thomson was elected secretary of the Continental Congress. When Washington won the presidency, however, Thomson was not appointed to the cabinet.

He retired from public office and spent the next 19 years translating the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the Greek New Testament into English. Thomson’s Bible was the first Bible both translated and published in the United States.