Manuscript Passages from the Greek Testament, with English Translations by Cotton Mather is a twenty-six page manuscript by an unknown hand, containing selected verses from books of the New Testament. Some verses are in Greek, some are in English, and others are in both languages.
Pages 1-3 include verses from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. They are not in order by book, chapter number, or verse number. The remaining 23 pages contain verses and partial verses from all of the books of the New Testament except Philippians, Titus, and Philemon; most are from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. Short phrases in many of the English verses are underlined and alongside them are Greek translations in parentheses. Although the manuscript is not explicitly subdivided, some verses are grouped by verb usage. For example, part of page 20 groups Romans 5:5, Romans 5:11, 1 Corinthians 7:37, 2 Corinthians 1:24, and others together. They each contain some variation of the verb ίστημι.
The manuscript is bound with an undated portrait engraving of Cotton Mather, by H.B. Hall's Sons, New York. A letter from Thomas J. Holmes, librarian at the William Gwinn Mather Library in Cleveland, Ohio, to J.C. Wheat, librarian at the William L. Clements Library (May 13, 1935) is laid inside the front cover of the volume. In the letter, Mr. Holmes offers his opinion regarding whether or not the manuscript is in the hand of Cotton Mather; he is uncertain.
Cotton Mather was born in 1663 to Increase Mather (1639-1723) and Maria Cotton (1642-1714). Cotton Mather had a talent for languages. He learned to read before attending formal school, quickly learned the Latin and Greek languages, and, by the age of 11, took notes in Latin on sermons given in English. He graduated from Harvard in 1678, at the age of 16. After his ordination at Boston's Old North Church, he preached alongside his father until Increase Mather's death in 1723. As a prominent New England minister, Cotton Mather is remembered for his involvement in the ousting of the Royal Governor Edmund Andros in 1689, and for his public support of the persecution of persons alledged to be witches in New England, 1692-1693.
Cotton Mather wrote extensively. Included among his works are Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston and the County Adjacent (1689), justifying the revolt against Edmund Andros; The Wonders of the Invisible World (1692), justifying the witch trial proceedings; and Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England… (1702).
