Edward Robinson (scholar)

Edward Robinson (1794-1863) was an American biblical scholar, known as the "Father of Biblical Geography".

Biography

Robinson was born at Southington, Conn. He graduated at Hamilton College, Clifton, N. Y., in 1816, studied at Andover, Mass., and in Europe at Halle and Berlin. On his return to the United States he was made professor extraordinary of sacred literature at Andover. Robinson was the founder of the "Biblical Repository" (1831) and he established the "Bibliotheca Sacra" (1843). Illness caused him to move to Boston where he was professor of biblical literature in Union Theological Seminary from 1837 until his death.

Exploration of Palestine

Robinson traveled to Palestine in 1838 in the company of Rev. Eli Smith, leading to the publication of "Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries" for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1842. Robinson discovered the tunnel dug by Hezekiah shortly before the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701/02 BCE and the inscription at the tunnel's center. Robinson's Arch in the Old City of Jerusalem is named for him.

Published work

"Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries" (three volumes, Boston and London, 1841; German edition, Halle, 1841; second edition, enlarged, 1856) Robinson edited and translated "Buttmann's Greek Grammar" (1823; third edition, 1851); Winer's "Grammar of New Testament Greek" (1825), with Moses Stuart; Wahl's "Clavis Phologica Novi Testamenti" (1825); "Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon" (1836; fifth edition, 1854); "Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament" (1836; second edition, 1847); "Greek Harmony of the Gospels" (1845; second edition, 1851); "English Harmony of the Gospels" (1846).

References

Bibliography

* R. D. Hitchcock, "The Life, Writings, and Character of Edward Robinson" (New York, 1863)

* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9231%28193912%2958%3A4%3C379%3ATCFOER%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K A Centennial Symposium on Edward Robinson: The Critical Faculty of Edward Robinson] by W. F. Stinespring Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Dec., 1939), pp. 379-387

*Williams, JAY G. "The Times and Life of Edward Robinson: Connecticut Yankee in King Solomons Court." Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999.

*" Biblical researches in Palestine, 1838-52: A journal of travels in the year 1838, " E. Robinson and E. Smith. Drawn up from the original diaries, with historical illustrations, by Edward Robinson, University of Michigan Library [http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AFG7241.0002.001

*Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, "The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century", Magnes Press/Hebrew University/Wayne State University Press, 1979