Joseph Addison Alexander (April 24, 1809 – January 28, 1860) was an American

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and biblical scholar.

Early life

He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

on April 24, 1809, the third son of

Archibald Alexander Archibald Alexander (April 17, 1772 – October 22, 1851) was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He served for 9 years as the President of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia and for 39 yea ...

and Janetta Waddel Alexander, brother to James Waddel Alexander and William Cowper Alexander. He graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) with the first honor, in the class of 1826, having devoted himself especially to the study of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and other languages.

Career

He thereupon, in connection with Robert Bridges Patton, established Edgehill seminary at Mercer County, New Jersey, and in 1830 he was made adjunct professor of ancient languages in Princeton College, holding the professorship until 1833. In 1834, he became an assistant to Dr. Charles Hodge, professor of oriental and biblical literature in the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

, and in 1838, he became associate professor of oriental and biblical literature there, succeeding Dr. Hodge in that chair in 1840 and being transferred in 1851 to the chair of biblical and ecclesiastical history, and in 1859 to that of

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

literature, which he occupied until his death at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

on January 28, 1860. Alexander was distinguished in Oriental scholarship as well as in biblical learning, and was a thorough master of the modern European languages. He had been ordained as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister in 1839, and was well known for his pulpit eloquence. He was the author of ''The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah'' (1846), ''The Later Prophecies of Isaiah'' (1847), and an abbreviation of these two volumes, ''Isaiah Illustrated and Explained'' (2 vols., 1851), ''The Psalms Translated and Explained'' (3 vols., 1850), ''Commentary on Acts'' (2 vols., 1857) and ''Commentary on Mark'' (1858). After his death there appeared his two volumes of ''Sermons'' (1860), ''Commentary on Matthew'' (1861) and ''Notes on New Testament Literature'' (1861). Henry Carrington Alexander prepared a biography first published in 1869. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1845.

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Joseph Addison 1809 births 1860 deaths American Calvinist and Reformed theologians American Presbyterians People from Princeton, New Jersey Burials at Princeton Cemetery Princeton Theological Seminary faculty Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Educators from Philadelphia American biblical scholars Bible commentators