2 May 1740 A.D. PHILADELPHIA: Episcopal Elias Boudinot Born
2 May 1740 A.D. PHILADELPHIA: Episcopal Elias Boudinot Born—Huguenot
Ancestry, Lawyer, 1st President of “U.S. Congress” in 1784, Founder/President
of American Bible Society, and Board Member of old Princeton Seminary
Graves, Dan. “Boudinot, Bible Society Founder.” Christianity.com. May 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/boudinot-bible-society-founder-11630234.html. Accessed 1 May 2015.
Do you know all of the presidents of the United States? Does Elias
Boudinot ring a bell? He was chosen President of the United States "in
Congress assembled" on November 4, 1782. It was in his capacity as
president that he signed the peace treaty with England that brought an end to
the Revolutionary War. But his importance to Christian history lies in another direction.
Elias Boudinot was born on this day, May 2, 1740 in Philadelphia. One of
his ancestors was a French Protestant who had fled from France when King Louis
XIV took protection away from these Huguenots.
Boudinot studied law and became a respected lawyer in New Jersey and
made a fortune, much of which he gave away to charity. Because he was an
energetic Patriot, his neighbors elected him as their delegate to the
Continental Congress. After the Revolutionary war, they elected him as their
representative to the new Federal Congress. He served three terms.
But Boudinot's real interests were not political as much as religious.
An Episcopalian, he served on the board of directors of the College of New
Jersey (Princeton). This school had been founded to train clergymen. Boudinot
helped establish and pay for its Department of Natural Sciences, but he was
even more concerned that the resurrection of Christ be taught.
Widely read in Bible literature and a lifelong student of the
scriptures, Boudinot wrote a reply to Thomas Paine's The
Age of Reason. His response was called The Age of Revelation.
He also wrote a life of William Tennent, the man who started a "log
college" to train preachers.
Boudinot thought the American Indians were the ten lost tribes of Israel
(DNA studies have since proven him wrong). He wrote a book about that, too,
titled A Star in the West. His concern for the Indians (he is not
to be confused with the Elias Boudinot who sold out the Cherokee Nation) led
him to find ways to educate them.
Given his interests, it is hardly surprising that Boudinot was all for
Bible societies, whose purpose was to get the Bible into the hands of as many
people as possible. In 1816, he pushed others to join him in forming the
American Bible Society. He served as its first president and gave it $10,000 in
a day when an annual salary of $400 was considered good money.
We've pretty much forgotten Boudinot's service as president. But his
work with the Bible Society will never die. The American Bible Society is still
with us to this day, and sponsors the work of Bible translation and
distribution around the world.
Bibliography:
Boudinot, Elias. A Star in the West, or, a humble attempt to
discover the long lost ten tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to
their beloved city, Jerusalem. Trenton, New Jersey: Published by D.
Fenton, S. Hutchinson and J. Dunham,1816.
"Boudinot, Elias." Encyclopedia Americana. Chicago:
Americana Corp, 1956.
Boyd, George Adams. Elias Boudinot, Patriot and Statesman, 1740-1821.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952.
Klos, Stanley L., editor "Elias Boudinot, 4th American
President." Virtual American Biographies. http://www.famousamericans.net/eliasboudinot/
Last updated May,
2007.
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