Edward Robinson (scholar)

Edward Robinson
Born	April 10, 1794 Southington, Connecticut
Died	January 27, 1863 New York City

Edward Robinson (April 10, 1794 – January 27, 1863) was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.”^[1]

Biography [edit]

Robinson was born in Southington, Connecticut and raised on a farm. He taught at East Haven and Farmington in 1810-11. He then attended Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., where his uncle, Seth Norton, was a professor.^[2] He graduated in 1816, and in 1821 went to Andover, Massachusetts, to publish his edition of books i-ix, xviii and xix of the Iliad. There he aided Moses Stuart in the preparation of the second edition (1823) of the latter's Hebrew Grammar, and rendered into English (1825) Wahl's Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti. After European study, largely in Halle and Berlin (1826–30), he returned to the United States where he was made professor extraordinary of sacred literature at Andover Theological Seminary (1830–33).^[3]

In 1828, he married the German writer Therese Albertine Luise Robinson.

Robinson was the founder of the Biblical Repository (1831), which he edited for four years.^[2] He also established the Bibliotheca Sacra (1843) into which was merged the Biblical Repository. He spent three years in Boston working on a scriptural Greek lexicon.^[2] Illness caused him to move to New York City where he was professor of biblical literature in Union Theological Seminary from 1837 until his death.

Exploration of Palestine [edit]

Robinson's arch, on the south-western flank of the Temple Mount, once supported a staircase which led to the temple.

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.^[1] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1847.^[4] Robinson, together with Smith, made scores of identifications of ancient places,^[1] including the tunnel dug by Hezekiah shortly before the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701/02 BCE, though the inscription at the southern end of the tunnel was to be found later. Robinson's Arch in the Old City of Jerusalem is named after him. They returned for further investigations in 1852.

Published works [edit]

• Dictionary of the Holy Bible for the Use of Schools and Young Persons (Boston, 1833)
• Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament (1836; last revision, New York, 1850), based on the Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti of Christian A. Wahl. This work superseded his translation of Wahl's work, became a standard authority in the United States, and was several times reprinted in Great Britain.
• Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries (three volumes, Boston and London, 1841; German edition, Halle, 1841; second edition, enlarged, 1856)
• Greek Harmony of the Gospels (1845; second edition, 1851)
• English Harmony of the Gospels (1846)
• Memoir of Rev. William Robinson, with some Account of his Ancestors in this Country (printed privately, New York, 1859) This is a sketch of his father, who for 41 years was pastor of the Congregational church in Southington.
• Physical Geography of the Holy Land (New York and London, 1865) This is a supplement to his Biblical Researches, and was edited by Mrs. Robinson.

Revised editions of the Greek and English “Harmonies,” edited by Matthew B. Riddle, were published in 1885 and 1886.

Robinson edited and translated:

• Philipp Karl Buttmann's Greek Grammar (1823; third edition, 1851)
• Georg Benedikt Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek (1825), with Moses Stuart
• Christian A. Wahl's Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti (1825)
• Wilhelm Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament, including the Biblical Chaldee (1836; fifth edition, with corrections and additions, 1854)

He revised:

• Augustine Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible (Boston, 1832)

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• R. D. Hitchcock, The Life, Writings, and Character of Edward Robinson (New York, 1863)
• 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
• Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century, Magnes Press/Hebrew University/Wayne State University Press, 1979
• Davis, Thomas W. Shifting Sands: The Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

External links [edit]

•  "Robinson, Edward". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.