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 Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

Early life and education

He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

on April 24, 1809, the third son of Archibald Alexander and Janetta Waddel Alexander, brother to James Waddel Alexander and William Cowper Alexander. He graduated at the College of New Jersey (now

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

) with the first honor, in the class of 1826, having devoted himself especially to the study of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and other languages.

Career

Along with Robert Bridges Patton, Alexander established Edgehill seminary in 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 Charles Hodge (December 27, 1797 – June 19, 1878) was a Reformed Presbyterian theologian and principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was a leading exponent of the Princeton Theology, an orthodox Calvinist theo ...

, 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 university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

, 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 Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

and

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

literature, which he occupied until his death at Princeton on January 28, 1860. Alexander was distinguished in Oriental scholarship as well as in

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

learning, and was a thorough master of the modern European languages. He had been ordained as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

minister in 1839, and was well known for his

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

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) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1845.

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Joseph Addison 1809 births 1860 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians 19th-century Christian biblical scholars 19th-century American Presbyterian ministers American biblical scholars American Calvinist and Reformed theologians American male non-fiction writers American religious writers Bible commentators Burials at Princeton Cemetery Calvinist and Reformed writers Educators from Philadelphia People from Princeton, New Jersey Presbyterian writers Princeton Theological Seminary faculty Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society