This diglot edition of the Gospel of Luke was the first biblical book published in Seneca, the language of the Seneca people, who lived primarily in western New York State. It was translated by Rev. Thompson S. Harris, a missionary and educator who served as superintendent of a mission school near Buffalo, New York. Harris, along with an educator and former student at the school named James Young, began translating hymns into Seneca in the early 1820s, along with portions of the Bible such as the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Harris completed the Gospel of Luke in 1829, which was published by the American Bible Society.