Did Congress print the Bible? The 1782 Aitken Bible

VerdictFalse

Robert Aitken, a Philadelphia printer, printed the Bible at his own expense, and Congress never paid for it, bought it, or said anything about schools. What is true: in 1782 Congress formally examined Aitken’s Bible and recommended it “to the inhabitants of the United States,” and Aitken’s own petition had described his project as an edition “for the use of schools.”Last checked October 2026

This claim deserves a careful hearing, because it is built from real pieces. There was a Revolutionary-era Bible shortage. Congress did discuss it. A congressional committee did examine an American-printed Bible, the chaplains of Congress did vouch for it, and Congress did pass a resolution praising it in openly religious language. And the word “schools” really does appear in the paper trail.

The claim has also traveled widely. In a video tour of the U.S. Capitol, David Barton of WallBuilders said, “This Bible was printed by the U.S. Congress in 1782,” according to a 2012 transcript by Warren Throckmorton. A 2021 Facebook post put it more bluntly: “The first Bible printed in America was printed by Congress for use in our PUBLIC SCHOOLS” (Lead Stories).

So the question is which pieces are real and how they got assembled into something the documents don’t say.

The 1777 plan that didn’t happen

The war cut off the supply of Bibles from Britain. In 1777 a group of ministers led by the Rev. Dr. Francis Allison asked Congress to do something about it. A committee looked into printing an American edition and concluded that “the proper types for printing the Bible are not to be had in this country,” and that paper would be hard to get. It priced an edition of 30,000 copies at “£10,272 10,” money that “must be advanced by Congress.”

The committee’s fallback was cheaper: “your committee recommend that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere.” On September 11, 1777, Congress was moved “to order the Committee of Commerce to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible,” and the motion carried (Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 8, pp. 733–735).

Within three weeks Congress had left Philadelphia ahead of the British army; the same volume of the Journals records Congress meeting at Lancaster on September 27 and at York Town on September 30. Kidd notes that Congress “adjourned before implementing legislation was enacted.” Even WallBuilders acknowledges that “there is no indication that any ever arrived” (WallBuilders).

So in 1777 Congress voted to import Bibles. It did not print any.

Aitken’s petition, 1781

Robert Aitken had already printed New Testaments; historian Thomas Kidd notes that in 1777 Aitken “successfully published the first English New Testament in America” (Kidd, The Gospel Coalition). On January 21, 1781, he petitioned Congress about a complete Bible.

The petition is where “schools” enters the story. Aitken told Congress he had made progress on “a neat Edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools,” and he asked to sell his edition “under the Authority of Congress” (as transcribed by Kidd and by Throckmorton). He also asked Congress to appoint members to inspect the work.

That’s the printer describing his own product, in a petition seeking an official stamp of approval. What Congress eventually gave him was narrower, as the next section shows.

What Congress actually did, September 1782

Aitken finished the Bible in 1782. A committee of three delegates, James Duane, Thomas McKean and John Witherspoon, took up his petition and reported that “Mr. Aitken has at a great expence now finished an American edition of the holy scriptures in English.” Duane’s letter to the congressional chaplains explained the problem the Bible solved: Aitken had undertaken the work “at a time, when from the circumstances of the war, an English edition of the Bible could not be imported.”

The chaplains, William White and George Duffield, examined “a variety of passages throughout the work” and reported “that it is executed with great accuracy as to the sense, and with as few grammatical and typographical errors as could be expected in an undertaking of such magnitude.” They added that Aitken had done it “at the evident risk of private fortune.”

Then, on Thursday, September 12, 1782, Congress resolved:

“That the United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion as well as an instance of the progress of arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorise him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.”

All of this is in the Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 23, pp. 572–574. Read it closely and notice three things. Congress approved and recommended. It authorized Aitken to print that recommendation, which he did, in the front of his Bible. And there is no mention of schools, no purchase, and no appropriation.

Who paid

Aitken did, and he lost. In 1790 he wrote to President Washington that the Bible “was done under the inspection of a Comittee of that Honorable Body, though at my Sole expence.” When the war ended, imports “so glutted the market with Bibles that I was obliged to sell mine much below prime cost,” and “I actually Sunk above £3000 by the impression” (Aitken to Washington, June 9, 1790, Founders Online).

There was one attempt to get Congress to buy copies. In 1783 John Rodgers, a Presbyterian pastor from New York City, suggested to Washington that each discharged soldier be presented “with a Copy of this Bible, by Congress” (Rodgers to Washington, May 30, 1783). Washington liked the idea but said it came too late, since Congress had just ordered discharges “takg off near two thirds of our Numbers”: “It would have pleased me well, if Congress had been pleased to make such an important present to the brave fellows” (Washington to Rodgers, June 11, 1783). Congress never made the purchase.

Was it the first English Bible printed in America?

It’s the first confirmed complete one, in English. The first Bible printed in America was John Eliot’s translation into an Algonquian language, printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1663 (Library of Congress). Christopher Sauer’s German Bible followed in 1743, “the first European language Bible printed in America,” according to the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Among English Bibles, the Library of Congress calls Aitken’s “the first English language Bible published on the North American continent” (LOC). Kidd’s more cautious wording is “the first confirmed English-language Bible published in North America.” Either way, the printer was Aitken.

Where “for use in schools” comes from

The phrase has two real sources, and neither is Congress. The 1777 ministers warned, as WallBuilders quotes them, that “we shall not have Bibles for our schools and families.” And Aitken’s 1781 petition described “a neat Edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.”

Historian Catherine Brekus put it plainly to USA Today: “Aitken, not Congress, described his publication as ‘a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools’” (USA Today, via Yahoo News). Mark Noll added that these matters “had nothing to do with ‘public education,’ which as such did not exist until decades later.”

Fairness requires the other half. Kidd told the same outlet: “There would have been virtually no objection in the states in 1781 to explicit Christian instruction in schools.” That’s true, and it’s a point about local schools in a Protestant culture. It doesn’t put Congress into the school business.

Engaging the counterargument: “Congress cared about the Bible, and said so”

WallBuilders makes the strongest case in “The Aitken Bible and Congress.” It no longer claims Congress printed the Bible. Its argument is that a national legislature voted to import Bibles, inspected one, and praised it as “subservient to the interest of religion,” which hardly sounds like a secular government. It quotes the 1849 historian W. P. Strickland, who said Congress “assumed all the rights and performed all the duties of a Bible Society,” and asked, “Who, in view of this fact, will call in question the assertion that this is a Bible nation?”

Much of this should simply be granted. The religious language is real. The delegates plainly valued the Bible and wanted Americans to have it. This Congress also met before the First Amendment existed: it governed under the Articles of Confederation, in force from 1781 (Avalon Project), and the Bill of Rights wasn’t ratified until December 15, 1791 (National Archives). Anyone arguing that the 1782 resolution violated the Establishment Clause is applying a rule that didn’t yet exist.

But the same timing limits what the episode can prove about the Constitution. A resolution passed under the Articles tells you about the habits of a Protestant-majority Confederation Congress. It doesn’t tell you what the Constitution of 1787 or the First Amendment of 1791 mean. (Our page on whether the Constitution was understood as a Christian document covers that question directly.)

And the record shows what kind of support Congress actually gave. Kidd answers Strickland directly: “how could the Congress have ‘performed all the duties of a Bible Society’ if it didn’t print Aitken’s Bible or any other?” His summary is fair to everyone: “Congress was happy to endorse Aitken’s work, but they appeared reluctant to get directly involved in Bible importation, production, or distribution.” Historian Katherine Carté makes a similar point: Congress endorsed the project but declined to pay for it (UNC Press blog).

The Bible in Congress today

The story is back on Capitol Hill, and here the record deserves credit where it’s due. A 2023 House resolution, H.Res. 336, asked the House to recognize Aitken’s Bible “as a historical document of the United States Congress” and accurately described Aitken’s petition as “offering to print an edition of the Holy Scriptures to be used in schools” (govinfo).

In 2025, Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas introduced H.J.Res. 118, which expresses support for designating September 12, 2025, as “The Day of the Bible” and calls for a presidential proclamation of the day each year. Its text says Congress “officially approved the publication of the first complete English-language Bible printed in America,” which matches the record, and it “encourages schools, civic institutions, and community organizations to observe this day” (congress.gov text). It was introduced September 2, 2025, and referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. As of early October 2026, the GovInfo record and bill trackers show no further action. Cloud’s office described the effort and its supporters, including WallBuilders (Cloud).

Notice the drift. The resolutions say “approved.” The viral version says “printed,” and it moves the schools from Aitken’s sales pitch into Congress’s mouth.

The takeaway

Congress didn’t print the first English Bible in America. Robert Aitken did, with his own money, and lost more than £3,000. Congress examined it, praised it in religious terms and recommended it to the public, and that endorsement is a genuine piece of founding-era history worth knowing. The schools came from the printer’s petition. And the whole episode happened under the Articles of Confederation, years before the Constitution and the First Amendment that govern the country today.

Related claims

Sources

Primary

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 8 (1907), pp. 733–735 (September 11, 1777: Bible committee report and vote). Internet Archive
Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 23 (1914), pp. 572–574 (September 12, 1782: committee report, Duane letter, chaplains’ report, resolution). Internet Archive; Library of Congress PDF
Library of Congress, “Religion and the Congress of the Confederation,” in Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (resolution and title page, items 115–116). LOC
Robert Aitken to George Washington, June 9, 1790. Founders Online
John Rodgers to George Washington, May 30, 1783. Founders Online
George Washington to John Rodgers, June 11, 1783. Founders Online
Articles of Confederation (agreed 1777, in force March 1, 1781). Avalon Project
Bill of Rights, ratified December 15, 1791. National Archives
H.Res. 336, 118th Congress (2023). govinfo
H.J.Res. 118, 119th Congress (2025). congress.gov

Secondary

Thomas Kidd, “Did Congress Print the First American Bible?” The Gospel Coalition, July 10, 2018. Link
Warren Throckmorton, “David Barton’s U.S. Capitol Tour: Did Congress Print the First Bible in English for the Use of Schools?” September 4, 2012. Link
“Fact check: Congress didn’t print America’s first Bible for use in public schools,” USA Today. Yahoo News
Sarah Thompson, “Fact Check: First Bible Printed In America Was Not Printed By Congress For Use In Public Schools,” Lead Stories, December 8, 2021. Link
Presbyterian Historical Society, “Early American Bibles.” Link
WallBuilders, “The Aitken Bible and Congress,” May 29, 2023. Link
Office of Rep. Michael Cloud, “Lawmakers Sponsor Resolution Commemorating 1782 Bible” (reposting The Daily Signal, August 28, 2025). Link

“Congress printed the first English Bible in America, for use in schools.”