Edward Robinson (scholar)

Edward Robinson
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Born	April 10, 1794 Southington, Connecticut
Died	January 27, 1863 New York City

Edward Robinson (April 10, 1794 – January 27, 1863) was an American biblical scholar. His work in Biblical Geography and Biblical Archaeology done in the Ottoman-ruled Palestine region, bought him the position of "Father of Biblical Geography" and "founder of modern Palestinology."

Biography

Robinson was born in Southington, Connecticut and raised on a farm. He taught at East Haven and Farmington in 1810-11. He then attended Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., where his uncle, Seth Norton, was a professor. He graduated in 1816, and in 1821 went to Andover, Massachusetts, to publish his edition of books i-ix, xviii and xix of the Iliad. There he aided Moses Stuart in the preparation of the second edition (1823) of the latter's Hebrew Grammar, and rendered into English (1825) Wahl's Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti. After European study, largely in Halle and Berlin (1826–30), he returned to the United States where he was made professor extraordinary of sacred literature at Andover Theological Seminary (1830–33).

In 1828, he married the German writer Therese Albertine Luise Robinson.

Robinson was the founder of the Biblical Repository (1831), which he edited for four years. He also established the Bibliotheca Sacra (1843) into which was merged the Biblical Repository. He spent three years in Boston working on a scriptural Greek lexicon. Illness caused him to move to New York City where he was professor of biblical literature in Union Theological Seminary from 1837 until his death.

Exploration of Palestine

Robinson's arch, on the south-western flank of the Temple Mount, once supported a staircase which led to the temple.

In 1836 Robinson published both a translation of Wilhelm Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon and a Greek New Testament Lexicon.

Robinson traveled to Palestine in 1838 in the company of Rev. Eli Smith, leading to the publication of Biblical Researches in Palestine in 1841, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1842. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1847. Robinson, together with Smith, made scores of identifications of ancient places, and the work created his enduring reputation as a "Founder" by setting the compass of future archaeological field work. Examples from Jerusalem include the Siloam tunnel, and Robinson's Arch in the Old City, which is named after him.

They returned for further investigations in 1852. 1856 saw the simultaneous German and English printings of Biblical Researches in its enlarged edition. Among those who acknowledged Robinson’s stature, in 1941 G. Ernest Wright, reviewing the pioneering survey contained in Nelson Glueck's The Other Side of the Jordan, makes a just comparison and fitting testimonial: "Glueck's explorations are second to none, unless it is those of Edward Robinson."

Published works

• Dictionary of the Holy Bible for the Use of Schools and Young Persons (Boston, 1833)
• Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament (1836; last revision, New York, 1850), based on the Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti of Christian A. Wahl. This work superseded his translation of Wahl's work, became a standard authority in the United States, and was several times reprinted in Great Britain.
• Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries (three volumes, Boston and London, 1841; German edition, Halle, 1841; second edition, enlarged, 1856)
• Greek Harmony of the Gospels (1845; second edition, 1851)
• English Harmony of the Gospels (1846)
• Memoir of Rev. William Robinson, with some Account of his Ancestors in this Country (printed privately, New York, 1859) This is a sketch of his father, who for 41 years was pastor of the Congregational church in Southington.
• Physical Geography of the Holy Land (New York and London, 1865) This is a supplement to his Biblical Researches, and was edited by Mrs. Robinson.

Revised editions of the Greek and English “Harmonies,” edited by Matthew B. Riddle, were published in 1885 and 1886.

Robinson edited and translated:

• Philipp Karl Buttmann's Greek Grammar (1823; third edition, 1851)
• Georg Benedikt Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek (1825), with Moses Stuart
• Christian A. Wahl's Clavis Philologica Novi Testamenti (1825)
• Wilhelm Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament, including the Biblical Chaldee (1836; fifth edition, with corrections and additions, 1854)

He revised:

• Augustine Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible (Boston, 1832)

Further reading

• R. D. Hitchcock, The Life, Writings, and Character of Edward Robinson (New York, 1863)
• "The Development of Palestine Exploration: Being the Ely Lectures for 1903", Frederick Jones Bliss. (London,1906), Lecture V "Edward Robinson" pp. 184 ff.
• A Centennial Symposium on Edward Robinson: The Critical Faculty of Edward Robinson by W. F. Stinespring Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Dec. 1939), pp. 379–387
• Williams, Jay G. The Times and Life of Edward Robinson: Connecticut Yankee in King Solomons Court. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999.
• Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century, Magnes Press/Hebrew University/Wayne State University Press, 1979

External links

• Works by Edward Robinson at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Robinson, Edward, 1794-1863, on HathiTrust