Davidson, Samuel

D.D. (hon., Halle, 1848), LL.D. (hon., Marischal College, Aberdeen, 1838); b. at Kells water, near Bally men a, County Antrim, Ireland, Sept. 23, 1807; educated at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, completing the course in 1832. From 1835 to 1841, when he l'esigned, he was profe or of biblical criticism at Belfast to the Presbyterian body called the General Synod of Ulster. In 1842 he became profe or of biblical literature and ecclesiastical history in the Lancashire Independent College at Manchester. In 1857 he resigned this position in consequence of an adverse vote of the managing committee, apparently founded upon the view of inspiration expre ed in the second volume of the tenth edition of Home's Introduction (see below). Dr. Davidson enjoyed the friendship of Tholuck, Hupfeld, Roediger, Erdmann, Bleek, Liicke, Gieseler, Neander, Ewald, Tischendorf, and other distinguished German theologians. His own theological standpoint is rationalistic. His biblical scholarship is evinced by the following works: (1) Lectures on Biblical Criticism, Edinburgh, 1839; (2) Sacred Hermeneutics, 1843; (3) Gieseler's Compendium of Ecclesiastical History, translated from the German, 1846-47, 2 vols.; (4) Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, London, 1848, 2d ed. 1854; (5) Introduction to the New Testament, 1848, 1849, 1851, 3 vols.; (6) A Treatise on Biblical Criticism (superseding No. 1), Edinburgh, 1852, 2 vols.; (7) The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament revised from Critical Sources, London, 1855; The Text of the Old Testament considered; loith a Treatise on Sacred Interpretation, and a brief Introduction to the Old-Testament Books and the Apocrypha (forming vol. 2 of the tenth edition of Home's Introduction to the Scriptures), 1856, 2d ed. 1859; (9) An Introduction to the Old Testament, critical, historical, and theological, 1862-63, 3 vols.; (10) Fiirst's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, translated from the German, 1865, 4th ed. 1871 (11) An Introduction to the New Testament (superseding No. 5), 1868, 2 vols., 2d ed. 1882; (12) On a Fresh Revision of the English Old Testament, 1873; (13) The New Testament, translated from the Critical Text of Von Tischendorf, with an Introduclion on the Criticism, Translation, and Interpretation of the Book, 1875, 2d ed. 1876; (14) The Canon of the Bible, 1876, 3d ed. 1880; (15) The Doctrine of Last Things contained in the New Testament, compared with the Notions of the Jews and the Statements of the Church Creeds, 1882.