Henry Eyster Jacobs (November 10, 1844 – July 7, 1932) was an American religious educator,
Biblical commentator
This is an outline of commentaries and commentators. Discussed are the salient points of Jewish, patristic, medieval, and modern commentaries on the Bible. The article includes discussion of the Targums, Mishna, and Talmuds, which are not regarded ...
and
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
Biography
Jacobs was born in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town.
Gettysburg is home to th ...
, the son of professor Michael and Juliana M (Eyster) Jacobs. His sister
Julia Jacobs Harpster became a missionary in India; his brother Michael William Jacobs became a judge. He graduated from
Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Gettysburg Seminary) was a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was one of seven ELCA seminaries, one of the three seminaries in the Eastern ...
in 1865. Between 1870 and 1883, he was
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
at Pennsylvania College. He was then appointed professor of
systematic theology in
The Lutheran Theological Seminary in
Mount Airy, where he also assumed the office of
dean in 1894. In 1920, he became President of the Seminary when the office of
dean was abolished.
He served as president of his church's board of foreign missions (1902–07), of the
General Council of Lutherans (1899, 1902, 1904), of the
American Society of Church History (1907–08), and of the
Pennsylvania German Society (1910–11). He also translated various German theological works and editing the ''Lutheran Church Review'' (1882–96), and ''Lutheran Commentary'' (1895-98). Henry Eyster Jacobs, working with John A.W. Haas, published ''The Lutheran Cyclopedia'' in 1899.
Lutheran Archives Center in Philadelphia holds a large collections of materials relating to Lutheran clergy, theologians and church workers including personal papers of Henry Eyster Jacobs.
Selected works
*'' First Free Lutheran Diet in America, Philadelphia, December 27–28, 1877'' (1878)
*'' The Lutheran movement in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and its literary monuments'' (1890)
*''The Lutheran Movement in England'' (1891)
*''History of the Lutheran Church in America'' (1893)
*''Elements of Religion'' (1894)
*''Annotations on the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and I. Corinthians'' (1896)
*''Annotations on the Epistles of Paul to I. Cortinthians VII-XVI, II. Corinthians and Galatians'' (1897)
*''Martin Luther, the hero of the reformation'' (1898)
* ''The German Emigration to America, 1709- 40'' (1899)
* ''Summary of the Christian Faith '' (1905)
References
*
Other sources
*Wolf, Edmund Jacob. ''The Lutherans in America; a story of struggle, progress, influence and marvelous growth'' (J. A. Hill & Company, New York: 1890)
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External links
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The Philadelphia Seminary biographical record, 1864-1923
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Henry Eyster
American theologians
American Lutherans
American non-fiction writers
American translators
People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
American Lutheran hymnwriters
1844 births
1932 deaths
German–English translators
Seminary presidents
Gettysburg College alumni
Heads of universities and colleges in the United States