David Gordon Lyon (May 24, 1852 – December 4, 1935) was an American

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Biography

David Gordon Lyon was born in

Benton, Alabama Benton is a town in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States. Its population was 41 at the 2020 census, down from 49 at the 2010 census. Geography Benton is located at (32.306248, -86.817551). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has ...

on May 24, 1852, the son of a doctor. In 1875 he received his AB from Howard College in

Marion, Alabama Marion is a city in and the county seat of Perry County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 3,686, up 4.8% over 2000. First known as Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed for a hero of the American Revolut ...

. (Howard is now

Samford University Samford University is a Private university, private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded by Baptist Church, Baptists in 1841 as Howard College and located until 1887 in Marion, Alabama. It is governed by an in ...

and located in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

). He studied at the

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. The s ...

under

Crawford Howell Toy Crawford Howell Toy (March 23, 1836May 12, 1919), American Hebrew scholar, was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied at the University of Berlin from 1866 to 1868. From 1869 to 1879 he was pro ...

, and went to Germany, and received his PhD from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

in 1882, in the study of Syriac. While there, he met Tosca Woehler, whom he married in 1883. He occupied the Hollis Chair at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

from 1882 to 1910, when he assumed the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental languages. Six years after Tosca Woehler's death (1904) he married Mabel E. Harris (d. 1931). He was the founding curator of the

Semitic Museum The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE, previously the Harvard Semitic Museum) is a museum founded in 1889. It moved into its present location at 6 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1903. History Architectural firm A. ...

. He retired from Harvard in 1921. He died at Baker Memorial Hospital in Boston on December 4, 1935.

Diaries

David Gordon Lyon kept a diary for over 30 years of his life. In 2014, the Semitic Museum began a project entitled "Harvard and the Ancient Near East: The David Gordon Lyon Diaries", to digitize and transcribe the volumes into a human and machine-readable form.

References

1852 births 1935 deaths People from Benton, Alabama Harvard Divinity School faculty Samford University alumni Southern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Leipzig University alumni {{US-theologian-stub