Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver (20 August 1892 – 22 April 1975), known as G. R. Driver, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Orientalist noted for his studies of

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and Assyriology.J. A. Emerton, 'Driver, Sir Godfrey Rolles (1892–1975)'. In ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

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, 2004. He is considered the "most distinguished British Hebraist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries".

Life

Driver was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

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, son of the noted English biblical scholar

Samuel Rolles Driver Samuel Rolles Driver (2 October 1846 – 26 February 1914) was an English divine and Hebrew scholar. He devoted his life to the study, both textual and critical, of the Old Testament. He was the father of Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver, also a disti ...

, and educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and New College, Oxford, (1911–1915) where he won the Pusey and Ellerton and Senior Kennicott Hebrew Scholarships and the

Gaisford Prize The Gaisford Prize is a prize in the University of Oxford, founded in 1855 in memory of Thomas Gaisford, Dr Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855). For most of its history, the prize was awarded for Ancient Greek, Classical Greek Verse and Prose. The priz ...

for Greek prose (1913) and for Greek verse (1916). After serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, with tasks as varied as hospital work, postal censorship, and intelligence, in 1919, he was named fellow and classical tutor in Magdalen College, Oxford. He remained at Oxford for his entire career, ultimately as Professor of Semitic Philology, and produced a steady stream of scholarly articles on subjects including vocabulary of the Old Testament, and words and texts in the Akkadian,

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, and Syriac languages. From 1937 to 1938 Driver was the president of the Society for Old Testament Study, unusually for a two-year period. In 1959, he was the president of the third congress of The International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. He directed the translation of the Old Testament for the

New English Bible The New English Bible (NEB) is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1961 and the Old Testament (with the Apocrypha) was published on 16 March 1970. In 1989, it was significantly revised and republished as the R ...

from its inception in 1949, completed and first published in 1970.

Selected works

* ''Letters of the first Babylonian dynasty'', OECT III, 1925. * ''Studies in Cappadocian Tablets'', Paris, 1927. * ''Semitic Writing: From Pictograph to Alphabet'', 1948 (

Schweich Lectures Schweich is a town in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Moselle, approx. northeast of Trier. Schweich is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Schweich an der ...

for 1944). * ''The Babylonian Laws'', with J. C. Miles, Oxford, 1952–1955. * ''Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B.C.'', Oxford, 1954 (Abridged and Revised edition 1957). * ''Canaanite Myths and Legends'', Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1956. * ''The Judaean scrolls: The problem and a solution'', Oxford: Blackwell, 1965.

References

Sources

*
CDLI Wiki
*

F.F. Bruce Frederick Fyvie Bruce (12 October 1910 – 11 September 1990), usually cited as F. F. Bruce, was a Scottish biblical scholar who supported the historical reliability of the New Testament. His first book, ''New Testament Documents: Are They ...

Godfrey Rolles Driver (1892–1975)
''The Witness'', 105, No. 1255, pp. 266–267 (July 1975). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Driver, Godfrey Rolles 1892 births 1975 deaths People from Oxford People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford English orientalists English Assyriologists Christian Hebraists Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Recipients of the Military Cross Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study