History
History
America's first printed book was a book of psalms, the Bay Psalm Book of 1640. This collection of metrical psalms served as the cornerstone of worship for the Puritan settlers, leaving an indelible mark on American religious history.
The Bay Psalm Book was produced by "thirty pious and learned Ministers", including Richard Mather, Thomas Mayhew, and John Eliot, who prioritized faithful, literal accuracy in their version not found in alternative psalters of the time.
"If therefore the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider that God’s altar needs not our polishings (Ex. 20) for we have respected rather a plain translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrases, and so have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than poetry, in translating the Hebrew words into English language, and David’s poetry into English metre; that so we may sing in Sion the Lord’s songs of praise according to his own will; until he take us from hence, and wipe away all out tears, and bid us enter into our Master’s joy to sing eternal hallelujahs."
- Preface, Bay Psalm Book (1640)
The Psalter was revised a number of times over the following century. Cotton Mather produced a 1718 version in blank verse, like Milton's Paradise Lost. The Rev. Thomas Prince of Old South Church produced a new rhyming edition in 1758, expanding the collection by incorporating a selection of hymns and spiritual songs from other sources of the Old and New Testaments.
The 1758 edition can be compared to the timeless prose of the King Jame Bible:
And he shall be like to a tree
planted by water-rivers:
That in his season yields his fruit
And his leafe never withers.
Sure he shall be like to a tree
planted by streams of water;
which in its season yields its fruit:
its leaf too shall not fade:
For he is like a goodly tree
by rivers planted near;
Which timely yields its fruit, whose leaf
shall ever green appear:
Other notable versions not related to the Bay Psalm Book include the 1612 Ainsworth Psalter brought by the pilgrims from Holland, the 1549 "Old Version" of Sternhold & Hopkins, and the 1696 "New Version" of Tate & Brady.
The New England Psalm Book is beautiful while remaining a faithful translation, but regrettably did not receive the attention it deserved. 1758 was the death of both its editor and of the "last puritan" Jonathan Edwards, after which the Puritan emphasis on psalm singing would decline. Isaac Watts' psalm paraphrases and uninspired hymns rose to displace the psalms in most American churches for centuries to follow.
The first settlers of the New England colonies, who came to Plymouth in 1620; to Salem, with three ministers for the Massachusetts, and one for Plymouth in 1629; and with the Massachusetts Charter, Governor, Deputy-Governor, Assistants, four ministers, and 1500 people, to Boston and the neighboring towns in 1630, were esteemed in England as some of the most eminent for scripture knowledge, piety, and strict adherence to the Word of God, as any in their day. They wisely made the divine oracles the only rule of their religion, and their great and noble design was to spread the holy kingdom of Christ in its scripture purity, light, and power in this New World, and to set up churches for their matter, form, worship, liberty, watch, government, and discipline, as near as possible to what they were, under the conduct of inspiration, in the apostles' days.
By 1636 there had come over hither near thirty pious and learned ministers, educated in the universities of England, and from the same exalted principle of scripture purity in religious worship, they set themselves to translate the Psalms and other scripture songs into English meter, as near as possible to the inspired original. They committed this work especially to the Rev. Mr. Richard Mather of Dorchester; the Rev. Mr. Thomas Weld, and the Rev. Mr. John Eliot of Roxbury; well acquainted with the Hebrew, in which the Old Testament, and with the Greek, in which the New were originally written. They finished the Psalms in 1640, which were first printed by Mr. Day, that year, at our Cambridge, and had the honor of being the first book printed in North America, and as far as I find, in this whole New World.
I have seen another edition in 1647 (and I conclude at Cambridge too, there being no other press in New England then) with some amendments. But for a further improvement, it was committed to the Rev. Mr. Henry Dunstar, President of Harvard College, one of the greatest masters of the oriental languages that has been known in these ends of the Earth, who was helped with the poetry by Mr. Richard Lyon, an ingenious gentleman probably brought up at one of the universities in England, sent over by Sir Henry Mildway as a tutor to his son at Harvard College, and resided in Mr. Dunstar's house. By an original manuscript of heads of sermons written after Mr. Lyon in 1650, I find he used to take his turn with the president to preach to the congregation at Cambridge in the interval between Mr. Shepard's death and Mr. Mitchel's ordination. And in those heads appear the traces of both experimental piety and ingenuity.
In two or three years they seem to have completed it, with the addition of the other songs in scripture. And they not only had the happiness of approaching nearer to the inspired original than all other versions in English rhyme, but in many places of excelling them in simplicity of style, and in affecting terms, being the words of God which more strongly touch the soul. On which accounts I found in England it was by some eminent congregations preferred to all others in their public worship, even down to 1717, when I last left that part of the British kingdom.
It seems a thousand pities then, that such a version, which has more of the inspired original in it than any other, should be so much amended for the worse in the common editions as to be now scarce worthy of the name of a translation. For as the edition of 1647 amended the first, so the edition of 1650 has many further amendments. But from that time, as the editions have been multiplied, they have unhappily increased in blemishes through the inadvertence, ignorance, and carelessness of the printers. Till, by many gradual alterations, the Psalter has become, in multitudes of places, a very different thing from what was piously and carefully prepared by the aforementioned revisers. And I must observe, that even in the last corrected edition of President Dunstar, there are many places which are capable of being brought not only nearer to the original, but also to a plainer and more elegant style, and yet in a more solemn and affecting manner.
Upon all these accounts, I have been long desired by some of the most pious and judicious ministers and others among us, to revise this excellent translation and set it right according to the best edition. And being greatly affected with the grievance of our losing so much of the inspired Psalms in our public worship, I have at length complied with their desire. In doing which I have taken the following method.
I have compared every line with the edition of 1650, which is the last and completest of our inspired REVISERS, and have everywhere restored this primitive version, where it had been either corrupted or debased.
As the poetry of 1650 is in many places capable of being mended, I have taken the liberty of amending it, where the inspiration is not only preserved, but also the style made plainer, and the lines smoother.
Where the version of 1650 appears to be short of the original, I have endeavored to supply it from the inspired text.
Where the version of 1650 appears to be redundant, I have spared to retrench it.
Where I thought I could give a more exact translation of the original, and in a more affecting manner, I have aimed at it.
I have kept to the common measures of our tunes, that is, of 8 and 6 syllables in the several lines of every stanza: though I have sometimes used stanzas of 6 lines, where the subject matter seemed to require it.
I have added many other scripture songs, which have not been put into meter in the former editions.
I have put a [ ] at the beginning of every line which I have added or considerably altered, to distinguish it from the old version.
And now I offer this revised edition to the service of the churches, depending on the grace of CHRIST to make it useful to their spiritual and sublime entertainment. If it may be a means of reviving the declining power of godliness, and of our returning to the primitive purity of worship, I shall have my great and happy end.
THOMAS PRINCE. Boston, Feb. 1, 1758.