Slave bible found from 1800s is missing 90% of OT and 50% of NT

A Bible from the 1800s, intended to “educate” slaves, cut every passage that white overlords thought might incite rebellion. They had to cut 90% of the OT, 50% of the NT. Reveals how much they understood the Bible to be about revolution.

I find this fascinating.

Excerpt from article:


“On display now at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., is a special exhibit centered on a rare Bible from the 1800s that was used by British missionaries to convert and educate slaves.

What's notable about this Bible is not just its rarity, but its content, or rather the lack of content. It excludes any portion of text that might inspire rebellion or liberation.

"About 90 percent of the Old Testament is missing [and] 50 percent of the New Testament is missing," Schmidt says. "Put in another way, there are 1,189 chapters in a standard protestant Bible. This Bible contains only 232."

Schmidt says there are several theories behind the editing and omitting of so much of the standard Bible, but the main thought stems from the fact that farmers in the West Indies were opposed to missionaries worked with the enslaved Africans on their land.

"This can be seen as an attempt to appease the planter class saying, 'Look, we're coming here. We want to help uplift materially these Africans here but we're not going to be teaching them anything that could incite rebellion.' " Schmidt says. "Coming in and being able to educate African slaves would prepare them one day for freedom, but at the same time would not cause them to seek it more aggressively."

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