Samuel Davidson (September 18061 April 1898) was an Irish
biblical scholar.
Life
He was born at
Kellswater
Kellswater is a hamlet near to the village of Kells in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-ea ...
,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
, the son of Abraham Davidson, into a
Scots-Irish presbyterian. He was educated at the village school, under James Darragh, and then in Ballymena till 1824; and then became a student at the
Royal Belfast Academical Institution
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...
, destined for the presbyterian ministry. His college course included periods in Londonderry and Liverpool, and was completed in 1832.
In November 1833 Davidson was licensed to preach by the Ballymena presbytery. In 1835 the
Synod of Ulster made him the first professor of biblical criticism at Belfast College, and he held the post till 1841.
Congregationalist
Becoming a
Congregationalist, Davidson accepted in 1842 the chair of biblical criticism, literature and oriental languages at the
Lancashire Independent College, in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.
In the summer of 1844 Davidson paid the first of a series of visits to Germany, and made the acquaintance of
August Neander
Johann August Wilhelm Neander (17 January 178914 July 1850) was a German theologian and church historian.
Biography
Neander was born at Göttingen as David Mendel. His father, Emmanuel Mendel, is said to have been a Jewish peddler, but August ...
,
Hermann Hupfeld,
August Tholuck and others. He made lifelong friendships. A result of this trip was the translation of two volumes of
Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler's ''Compendium of Ecclesiastical History'' (Edinburgh, 1846-7). In 1847 the congregational lecture in London was delivered by Davidson and published in 1848 as the ''Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament.'' It was reprinted in 1854, contrary to the author's wish. His views had undergone changes, but he was not able to rewrite it.
Davidson was obliged to resign in 1857, clashing with the college authorities over the publication of an introduction to the
Old Testament, ''The Text of the Old Testament, and the Interpretation of the Bible, written for a new edition of Horne's Introduction to the Sacred Scripture''. The work began with an approach by Messrs. Longman, in 1854, for help with a reissue of
Thomas Hartwell Horne
Thomas Hartwell Horne (20 October 1780 – 27 January 1862) was an English theologian and librarian.
Life
He was born in London and educated at Christ's Hospital until he was 15 when his father died and he had to work. He then became a clerk ...
's well-known ''Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures''. Davidson undertook to rewrite the introduction to the Old Testament, and suggested
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles
Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (30 January 1813 – 24 April 1875) was an English biblical scholar, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, textual critic, and theologian.
Life
Tregelles was born at Wodehouse Place, Falmouth, of Quaker parents, but ...
should deal with the New Testament. Davidson's work appeared in October 1856 as part of vol. ii. of the tenth edition of Horne's ''Introduction'', as "The Text of the Old Testament Considered; with a Treatise on Sacred Interpretation, and a brief Introduction to the Old Testament Books and the Apocrypha." The reception was hostile. David never lost the feeling that he had from then been treated unjustly.
At the November meeting of the Lancashire College committee it was stated that alarm had been taken in many quarters at the views expressed by Davidson in the new ''Introduction''. A sub-committee was therefore appointed to report. The committee, in February 1857, requested Davidson to prepare "an explanation" of parts of his book deemed objectionable, and to "make concession where concession may be justly due". In May his pamphlet ''Facts, Statements, and Explanations'', was in print. The committee declared those explanations "far from satisfactory", and after correspondence Davidson resigned his post.
Controversy ensued: Davidson was accused of doctrinal unsoundness, and also charged with
plagiarism from German writers. A anonymous pamphlet of October 1857, ''Dr. Davidson: his Heresies, Contradictions, and Plagiarisms. By Two Graduates.'', along those lines, was by Enoch Mellor, of the
Square Chapel,
Halifax, who also engaged in the contemporary
''Rivulet'' controversy and
James Guinness Rogers
James Guinness Rogers (29 December 1822 – 20 August 1911), was a British Nonconformist clergyman.
Education
Rogers was born at Enniskillen, Ireland in 1822, where his Cornish-born father Thomas Rogers (1796–1854) was an Irish Evangeli ...
, of Albion Chapel,
Ashton-Under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...
.
Mellor and Rogers, who were close friends, were students from the first intake of the College. Rogers was on the College's committee, and is thought to have followed the lead of the conservative
Thomas Raffles on Davidson's reprimand and removal.
Alexander Gordon Alexander Gordon may refer to:
* Alexander Gordon, 1st Earl of Huntly (died 1470), Scottish magnate
* Alexander Gordon (bishop of Aberdeen) (died 1518), Precentor of Moray and Bishop-elect of Aberdeen
* Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly (died ...
writing in the ''
Dictionary of National Biography'' stated that "Nothing contributed more to the expulsion of Davidson from his chair in the Lancashire Independent College than
he pamphlet"
On the other side appeared ''Dr. Davidson's Removal from the Professorship of Biblical Literature in the Lancashire Independent College, Manchester, on account of alleged Error in Doctrine'', London, 1860, by Thomas Nicholas. At the end of this pamphlet
Connop Thirlwall
Connop Thirlwall (11 January 1797 – 27 July 1875) was an English bishop (in Wales) and historian.
Early life
Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, to Thomas and Susannah Thirlwall. His father was an Anglican priest who claimed descent from ...
,
Henry Alford and
William Cureton were quoted in Davidson's favour. An account of the whole proceedings was in Davidson's ''Autobiography'', written by
James Allanson Picton
James Allanson Picton (8 August 1832 – 4 February 1910) was a British independent minister, author, philosopher and Liberal politician. Picton promoted a philosophy known as Christian pantheism.
Life
Picton was born at Liverpool, the eldest ...
.
Later life
In 1862 Davidson moved to London to become scripture examiner in the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, and he spent the rest of his life in literary work.
Davidson is sometimes mistakenly listed as a member of the ''Old Testament Revision Committee'' for the Revised Version of 1881. The confusion is based on his sharing a surname with
Andrew Bruce Davidson, D. D., Professor of Hebrew, Free Church College, Edinburgh, of that committee.
Works
Among his principal works are:
* ''Sacred Hermeneutics Developed and Applied'' (1843), rewritten and republished as ''A Treatise on Biblical Criticism'' (1852)
* ''Lectures on Ecclesiastical Polity'' (1848)
* ''An Introduction to the New Testament'' (1848), Samuel Bagster
ublishingbr>
Google eBook full read* ''The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament Revised'' (1855)
* ''Introduction to the Old Testament'' (1862)
* ''On a Fresh Revision of the Old Testament'' (1873)
* ''The Canon of the Bible'' (1877)
* ''The Doctrine of Last Things in the New Testament'' (1883)
Also translations of the
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 ...
from
Tischendorf Tischendorf is a German surname
Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname'').
The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usu ...
's text,
Gieseler's ''Ecclesiastical History'' (1846), and Fürst's ''Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon''.
References
;Attribution
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Samuel
1807 births
1898 deaths
19th-century Christian biblical scholars
Academics of the University of London
Calvinist and Reformed biblical scholars
Irish biblical scholars
Irish Presbyterians
People from Ballymena