Joseph Addison Alexander (April 24, 1809 – January 28, 1860) was an American clergyman and

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...

Early life

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1809, the third son of Archibald Alexander and Janetta Waddel Alexander, brother to

James Waddel Alexander James Waddel Alexander (March 13, 1804 – July 31, 1859) was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rev. Archibald Alexander. Early life Alexander was born in 1804 in Louisa County, Vir ...

and William Cowper Alexander. He graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) with the first honor, in the class of 1826, having devoted himself especially to the study of Hebrew and other languages.

Career

He thereupon, in connection with Robert Bridges Patton, established Edgehill seminary at

Mercer County, New Jersey Mercer County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its county seat is Trenton, also the state capital, but also directly borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is included within the Federal Communications Commission's ...

, 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 theol ...

, professor of oriental and biblical literature in the Princeton Theological Seminary, 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 Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

and New Testament literature, which he occupied until his death at Princeton on January 28, 1860. Alexander was distinguished in

Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

scholarship as well as in

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

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

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 in 1845.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Joseph Addison 1809 births 1860 deaths American Calvinist and Reformed theologians American Presbyterians People from Princeton, New Jersey Burials at Princeton Cemetery Princeton Theological Seminary faculty Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Educators from Philadelphia American biblical scholars Bible commentators