Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver (20 August 1892 – 22 April 1975), known as G. R. Driver, was an English Orientalist noted for his studies of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

and

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...

. His father was considered the "most distinguished British Hebraist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries".

Life

Driver was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, son of the noted English

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 ...

Samuel Rolles Driver, and educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, (1911–1915) where he won the Pusey and Ellerton and Senior Kennicott Hebrew Scholarships and the Gaisford Prize for Greek prose (1913) and for Greek verse (1916). After serving in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, with tasks as varied as hospital work, postal censorship, and intelligence, in 1919, he was named fellow and classical tutor in

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

. He remained at Oxford for his entire career, ultimately as Professor of Semitic Philology, and produced a steady stream of scholarly articles on subjects including vocabulary of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

, and words and texts in the Akkadian,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

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

Syriac language The Syriac language ( ; ), also known natively in its spoken form in early Syriac literature as Edessan (), the Mesopotamian language () and Aramaic (), is an Aramaic#Eastern Middle Aramaic, Eastern Middle Aramaic dialect. Classical Syriac is ...

s. From 1937 to 1938 Driver was the president of the Society for Old Testament Study, unusually for a two-year period. In 1959, he was the president of the third congress of The International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. He directed the translation of the Old Testament for the

New English Bible The New English Bible (NEB) is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1961 and the Old Testament (with the Apocrypha) was published on 16 March 1970. In 1989, it was significantly revised and republished as the ...

from its inception in 1949, completed and first published in 1970. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1968.

Selected works

* ''Letters of the first Babylonian dynasty'', OECT III, 1925. * ''Studies in Cappadocian Tablets'', Paris, 1927. * ''Semitic Writing: From Pictograph to Alphabet'', 1948 ( Schweich Lectures for 1944). * ''The Babylonian Laws'', with J. C. Miles, Oxford, 1952–1955. * ''Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B.C.'', Oxford, 1954 (Abridged and Revised edition 1957). * ''Canaanite Myths and Legends'', Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1956. * ''The Judaean scrolls: The problem and a solution'', Oxford: Blackwell, 1965.

References

Sources

*
CDLI Wiki
* F.F. Bruce
Godfrey Rolles Driver (1892–1975)
''The Witness'', 105, No. 1255, pp. 266–267 (July 1975). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Driver, Godfrey Rolles 1892 births 1975 deaths People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford English orientalists English Assyriologists Christian Hebraists Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Recipients of the Military Cross Presidents of the Society for Old Testament Study Regius Professors of Hebrew (University of Oxford)