John Peter Miller was born on December 25, 1709, in Germany, probably at Zweikirchen, near Zweibrücken, where his father, Johann Müller, was the Reformed pastor. In America he is best known by the anglicized form of his name, as given above; in the Ephrata Community, he was called Brother Jabez.
Miller matriculated December 29, 1725, at the University of Heidelberg, his father then being pastor at Alsenborn, and on August 29, 1730, he arrived at Philadelphia on the ship Thistle from Rotterdam.
The circumstances of Miller's emigration are unknown, but it is likely that he was already somewhat heterodox, and that he had been in friendly relations with George Michael Weiss, who had come over earlier in 1730. Almost immediately on his arrival he was engaged as a minister by the Reformed people of Philadelphia and Germantown and by the anti-Boehm faction at Skippack, and applied for ordination to the Presbyterian Synod. The Synod referred his case to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, the members of which were astonished by Miller's learning, especially by his ability to speak Latin and by the erudition displayed in his answer to a question on Justification. Meanwhile, on October 19, Miller called on John Philip Boehm, who curtly advised him to seek ordination from the Dutch Reformed clergy of New York; Miller, however, was in a hurry and denied that the Dutch church authorities had any jurisdiction in Pennsylvania. He was ordained November 20, 1730, by three Presbyterian ministers, Jedediah Andrews, Adam Boyd, and Gilbert Tennent. In the fall of 1731, he withdrew into the interior and began ministering to the Reformed congregations at Goshenhoppen, Tulpehocken, and along the Conestoga. From the beginning he and Boehm were antagonistic. Very early he came under the influence of Johann Conrad Beissel, who was eager to make a convert of him. In May 1735, Miller publicly renounced the Reformed Church and was rebaptized by trine immersion. This event, which came as a surprise to everyone except Boehm, created a huge sensation, seriously threatening for a while the existence of the Reformed Church, for Miller was reputed to be the most learned theologian in the province, and his prestige was great. A number of families and individuals followed him into Beissel's society, among them no less a person than Johann Conrad Weiser. From May to November 1735, Miller lived as a hermit on the bank of the Mühlbach, a tributary of the Tulpehocken. Like the other solitary brethren, he was called in by Beissel as soon as the cloister at Ephrata was ready for occupancy, and from then till his death sixty-one years later he lived in the Ephrata Community. In the autumn of 1744, he went to Connecticut and Rhode Island to visit several groups of Rogerines. On Beissel's death July 6, 1768, he succeeded him as head of the Community. Miller died in his eighty-seventh year and was buried beside Beissel in the cloister cemetery.
Apparently, Miller acted as editor of the various books issued by the cloister press, translated J. T. V. Braght's famous work on the Mennonite martyrs from Dutch into German as Der Blütige Schau-Platz oder Martyrer Spiegel (1748), perhaps the largest book to come from the colonial press, and may have been part author of the Chronicon Ephratense (1786). He became a member of the American Philosophical Society, counted Francis Hopkinson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington among his acquaintances, and was highly regarded for his attainments and character. He was engaged by the Continental Congress to translate the Declaration of Independence into several European languages. The Ephrata Community gained no new members under his régime, and as the infirmities of age crept upon the brethren it steadily declined.
a member of the American Philosophical Society
There is no iformation about his personal life.
