Editing Ezra Abbot

{{Short description|American biblical scholar (1819–1884)}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix   = <!-- see [[MOS:CREDENTIAL]] and [[MOS:HONORIFIC]] -->
| name               = Ezra Abbot
| honorific_suffix   = 
| image              = Ezra Abbot.jpg
| image_size         = 
| alt                = 
| birth_name         = <!-- use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1819|04|28|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Jackson, Maine]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1884|03|21|1819|04|28|mf=y}}
| death_place        = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
| death_cause        = 
| region             = 
| nationality        = American
| citizenship        = 
| residence          = 
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Bussey Professor of [[New Testament]] Criticism and Interpretation in the [[Harvard Divinity School]]
| period             = 
| known_for          = Biblical scholar
| home_town          = 
| title              = 
| boards             = <!--board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation-->
| spouse             = 
| partner            = 
| children           = 
| parents            = Ezra and Phebe Abbot
| relatives          =
| awards             = Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]<!--notable national level awards only-->
| website            = 
| education          = [[Bowdoin College]]
| alma_mater         = <!--will often consist of the linked name of the last-attended higher education institution-->
| thesis_title       = 
| thesis_url         = 
| thesis_year        = 
| school_tradition   = 
| doctoral_advisor   = 
| academic_advisors  = 
| influences         = <!--must be referenced from a third party source-->
| era                = 
| discipline         = <!--major academic discipline – e.g. Physicist, Sociologist, New Testament scholar, Ancient Near Eastern Linguist-->
| sub_discipline     = <!--academic discipline specialist area – e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th Century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist-->
| workplaces         = [[Harvard Divinity School]]<!--full-time positions only, not student positions-->
| doctoral_students  = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students   = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = 
| notable_ideas      = 
| influenced         = <!--must be referenced from a third party source-->
| signature          = Appletons' Ezra Abbot signature.png
| signature_alt      = 
| signature_size     = 
| footnotes          = 
}}
'''Ezra Abbot''' (April 28, 1819, [[Jackson, Maine]]{{spaced ndash}}March 21, 1884, [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]) was an American biblical scholar.<ref>[[Chambers Biographical Dictionary]], {{ISBN|0-550-18022-2}}, page 2</ref>

==Life and writings==
Abbot was born at [[Jackson, Maine]], April 28, 1819; son of Ezra and Phebe Abbot.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}} He was educated at [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] and graduated from [[Bowdoin College]] in 1840.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}} In 1847, at the request of [[Andrews Norton]], he went to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] where he was principal of a public school until 1856. He was assistant librarian of [[Harvard University]] from 1856 to 1872, and planned and perfected an alphabetical card catalog, combining many of the advantages of the ordinary dictionary catalogs with the grouping of the minor topics under more general heads, which is characteristic of a systematic catalogue. From 1872 until his death he was Bussey Professor of [[New Testament]] Criticism and Interpretation in the [[Harvard Divinity School]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}}

Abbot's studies were chiefly in Southwest Asian languages and textual criticism of the New Testament, though his work as a bibliographer showed such results as the exhaustive list of writings (5300 in all) on the doctrine of the future life, appended to [[W. R. Alger|William Rounseville Alger]]'s ''History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, as it has prevailed in all Nations and Ages'' (1862), and published separately in 1864.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}}

Abbot's publications, though always of the most thorough and scholarly character, were to a large extent dispersed in the pages of reviews, dictionaries, concordances, texts edited by others, [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] controversial treatises, etc. However, he took a more conspicuous and personal part in the preparation (with [[Baptist]] scholar [[Horatio Balch Hackett]]) of the enlarged American edition of Dr. (afterwards Sir) [[William Robertson Smith|William Smith]]'s ''Dictionary of the Bible'' (1867–1870), to which he contributed more than 400 articles, as well as greatly improving the bibliographical completeness of the work. He was an efficient member of the American revision committee for the Revised Version (1881–1885) of the [[King James Bible]], and helped prepare [[Caspar René Gregory]]'s Prolegomena to the revised [[Greek language|Greek]] New Testament of [[Constantin von Tischendorf]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}}

He was one of the 32 founding members of the [[Society of Biblical Literature]] in 1880.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/SearchingScriptures.pdf|title=Searching the Scriptures:A History of the Society of Biblical Literature|author=Saunders, Ernest W.|year=1982}}</ref>

His principal single work, representing his scholarly method and conservative conclusions, was ''The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel: External Evidences'' (1880; 2nd ed. by J. H. Thayer, with other essays, 1889), originally a lecture. In spite of the compression due to its form, this work was up to that time probably the ablest defense, based on external evidence, of the Johannine authorship, and certainly the most complete treatment of the relation of [[Justin Martyr]] to this gospel.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}}

==Honors==
Abbot was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1861.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=18 March 2011}}</ref> Though a layman, he received the degree of S.T.D. from Harvard in 1872, and that of D.D. from [[Edinburgh]] in 1884.{{sfn|Johnson|1906|p=22}}

== Works ==
===Books===
* {{cite book|ref=none |author1-last=Abbot |author1-first=Ezra |author2-last=Hudson |author2-first=Charles F. |author2-link=Charles F. Hudson |author3-last=Hastings |author3-first=H. L. |author3-link=H. L. Hastings |title=A Critical Greek and English concordance of the New Testament |url=https://archive.org/details/criticalgreekeng00hudsrich |location=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Lippincott |date=1871 |edition=2nd. |oclc=17645776 }} - revised by Ezra Abbot<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/criticalgreekeng00hudsrich#page/n5/mode/2up |title=A critical Greek and English concordance of the New Testament |access-date=February 12, 2019 |date=1872 |publisher=Philadelphia, Lippincott }}</ref>
* ——— (1872). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xacXAAAAYAAJ Memoir of the Controversy Respecting the Three Heavenly Witnesses: I John V. 7]
* {{cite book|ref=none |author1-last=Abbot |author1-first=Ezra |author1-mask=3 |title=The authorship of the Fourth Gospel: external evidences |url=https://archive.org/details/authorshipfourt02abbogoog |location=Boston, MA |publisher=G.H. Ellis |date=1880 |oclc=1152377 }}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/authorshipoffour00abboiala |title=The authorship of the Fourth Gospel: external evidences |access-date=February 12, 2019|date=1880 }}</ref>
* {{cite book|ref=none |author1-last=Abbot |author1-first=Ezra |author1-mask=3 |author2-last=Harris |author2-first=J. Rendel |author2-link=J. Rendel Harris |title=Notes on Scrivener's "Plain introduction to the criticism of the New Testament" |location=Boston, MA |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin   |date=2009 |orig-date=1885 |oclc=1361022 |edition=3rd }}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/princeton_theological_seminary_272740_microfiche_1985_0008 |title=Notes on Scriveners' "Plain introduction to the criticism of the New Testament" |access-date=February 12, 2019 |date=1985|isbn=9780837020082 |last1=Abbot |first1=Ezra |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin }}</ref>
* {{cite book |ref=none |author1-last=Abbot |author1-first=Ezra |author1-mask=3 |title=The authorship of the Fourth Gospel, and other critical essays: selected from the published papers of the late Ezra Abbot |url=https://archive.org/details/authorshipfourt00abbogoog |location=Boston, MA |publisher=G.H. Ellis |date=2007 |orig-date=1888 |isbn=9780837020044 |oclc=2937371 }}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/authorshipfourt04abbogoog |title=The authorship of the Fourth gospel & other critical essays: selected from the published papers of the late Ezra Abbot |access-date=February 12, 2019 |date=1985 |publisher=Boston, G.H. Ellis }}</ref>

===Journal articles===
* {{cite journal |ref=none |author1-last=Abbot |author1-first=Ezra |author1-mask=3 |title=On the comparative antiquity of the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts of the Greek Bible |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=American Oriental Society
|volume=10 |date=1872 |pages=189–200 |doi=10.2307/592128 |jstor=592128 }}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/oncomparativeant00abbo |title=On the comparative antiquity of the Sinaitic and Vatican manuscripts of the Greek Bible |access-date=February 12, 2019|date=1872}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

'''Attribution'''
*{{BDA1906 |wstitle=Abbot, Ezra |volume=1 |page=23}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Abbot, Ezra|volume=1|page=22}} Endnote:
**See [[Samuel J. Barrows|S. J. Barrows]], ''Ezra Abbot'' (Cambridge, Mass., 1884).

==External links==
*{{cite Appleton's |ref=none|wstitle=Abbot, Ezra |url=http://virtualology.com/ezraabbot/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012160345/http://virtualology.com/ezraabbot/ |archive-date=2007-10-12  |short=x }}
*{{cite encyclopedia |ref=none |url=http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=a&word=ABBOT.EZRA |title=Abbot, Ezra |year=1927 |encyclopedia=[[Christian Cyclopedia]] |access-date=2009-02-14 |archive-date=2005-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050816183906/http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=A&word=ABBOT.EZRA |url-status=dead }}
*{{Cite Americana |ref=none |wstitle=Abbot, Ezra |short=x}}
* The [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00624/ historical records]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} of Ezra Abbot are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at [[Harvard Divinity School]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbot, Ezra}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century biblical scholars]]
[[Category:American religion academics]]
[[Category:American religious writers]]
[[Category:Bowdoin College alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard Divinity School faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University staff]]
[[Category:People from Waldo County, Maine]]
[[Category:Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:American biblical scholars]]
[[Category:New Testament scholars]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into English]]
[[Category:19th-century American translators]]
[[Category:Harvard University librarians]]
[[Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni]]