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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1898)
Vout. VIII. No. 12. Price Tren Cenrs. NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1898. BIBLICAL LITERATURE. And Semitic Languages—The Condi- tion of the Department at Yale. As a formally organized branch of the University the Department of Semitic Languages and Biblical Lit- erature is comparatively young. In 1886 the University chair of Semitic Languages was founded. Professor William Rainey Harper, Ph.D., Yale 1875, who came from the chair of He- brew in Morgan Park Seminary, was the first incumbent (1886-1891). In 1889 the Woolsey Professorship of Bib- lical Literature was established, Pro- fessor Harper also assuming the re- sponsibilities of this chair (1889-1801). Since 1889 the instruction along these two lines of investigation has been given by the same set of teachers. In 1897 an important forward step of or- ganization was taken in the formal recognition by the Philosophical Fac- ulty of the incumbents of the Divinity School professorships of Hebrew, New Testament Greek and Biblical Theology as members of this department for Uni- versity instruction, thus affording at the present time a staff of one full professor, two instructors, and two assistants for the department as a whole, and three other full professors for special courses. THE EARLY INSTRUCTORS. No history of Semitic studies at Yale would be complete that failed to acknowledge the obligation of the de- partment to Professor Edward E. Salis- bury, LL.D., who was Professor of Arabic from 1841 to 1856. Not only was he a strong factor in those earlier days in the progress of Semitic studies in this country, but he collected and gave to the University a special Semitic library, particularly rich in Arabic literature, known as the Salisbury col- lection. Professor Salisbury continues to show his interest in this work by providing for the enlargement of this library to keep pace with the rapid ad- REV. GEORGE E. DAY, D.D. HOLMES PROFESSOR OF HEBREW, EMERITUS, - vance of Semitic research. The value of this working basis is inestimable. The long and unselfish service ren- dered to Yale and to the cause of Biblj- cal scholarship by Rev. Professor George E. Day, who held the Holmes professorship of Hebrew for 25 years (1866-1891), should receive honorable mention. Professor Day continues his interest in Semitic subjects, but no longer offers instruction. THE WORKING STAFF. At the present time the department is not at its full strength, the Univer- sity chair of Semitic Languages being vacant. In the records of the instruc- tors who are at work, however, there is the best possible proof of its activity and effectiveness. Professor Edward L. Curtis, Yale *74, Union Theological Seminary ’79, took his doctorate at Berlin after study- REV. BDWARD *3..- CURTIS,- -PHD,,:-D.D. HOLMES PROFESSOR OF HEBREW. ing there from 1879 to 1881. For the next ten years he held the chair of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at the McCormick Theol. Seminary, Chicago. Since 1891 he has been the Holmes Professor of Hebrew at Yale. Aside from constantly contributing to the leading Biblical periodicals, he was assigned the article on the Hexateuch in Johnson’s Encyclopedia and a num- ber in the new Dictionary of the Bible. For the Haupt Polychrome Bible he contributes Zephaniah and for the In- ternational Critical Commentary he is to prepare the book of Chronicles. In graduate work he offers studies in the text, interptetation and archaeology of the Old Testament. . Professor Frank C. Porter, Beloit ’80, Yale Divinity School ’86, Ph.D. ’89, was made Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology in 1891. As a historical stu- dent his specialty is the period before and during the life of Christ. On the literature of this obscure period he is a recognized authority on both sides of the Atlantic. He contributed to the new Dictionary of the Bible an article on the “Apocrypha” which has excited widespread approval. To the Inter- national Theological. Library he is to contribute a volume on the Contem- porary History of the New Testament. For graduate students Professor Por- ter offers special courses in Palestinian and Hellenistic Jewish Literature and a seminar on the sources and methods of Gospel criticism. Professor Benjamin W. Bacon, Yale "81, Yale Divinity School ’84, became in 1896 the Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpre- tation, having previously won an en- viable and widespread reputation, while a pastor at Lyme, Conn., and Oswego, N. Y., for brilliant and accurate scholarship. He too is a contributor to the Bible Dictionary and to the leading critical journals. At present he is preparing a volume in the new Handbook series on New ‘Testament Introduction. For graduate students he holds a seminar on the Teachings of Jesus. Professor Frank K. Sanders, Ripon, "82, spent four years in India as a col- lege instructor, came to Yale for ad- vanced studies and took his doctorate in 1889. Appointed in 1888 as assistant to Professor Harper he became in course of time his successor as Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature with charge of the combined department. He is well known as a public lec- turer, an instructor at Summer assem- blies and as a promoter of popular Bible study, and constantly contributes to periodical literature. He is co-editor of an important series entitled the Stu- dent’s Historical Series, just about to be announced by Scribner’s. He has recently published a. volume entitled “The Messages of the Earlier Pro- phets,” the first of a contemplated series and is at work upon two volumes of Outlines for the Study of Biblical His- tory and Literature. With graduate students his work varies according to the special need of classes. It always includes a seminar on some problem of Biblical history and literature. YOUNGER INSTRUCTORS. Of the other instructors for the current year Dr. Harlan Creelman, Yale Di- vinity School ’89 and Ph.D. ’94, gives especial attention to courses in Hebrew and Biblical Literature while Dr. H. W. Dunning, Yale ’o4, Ph.D. ’o7,. offers advanced courses in Arabic Syriac and Ethiopic. Mr. William J. Moulton, Amherst ’88, and Yale Divinity School, 93, took the Hooker fellowship and spent three years at Gottingen. He has returned to Yale and offers valuable courses in the Critical Use of the Sep- tuagint and on the Maccabean period. REV. FRANK C. PORTER, PH.D., D.D. WINKLEY PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY. Mr. Wolodarsky, a student at Nemerof and Kief in Russia and for some years at Yale, offers reading courses in Rab- binic literature and instruction in modern Hebrew. The ‘departmental instructors and students maintain a club which meets at least monthly to discuss original papers and reviews. THE OUTLOOK. That a still broader type of work might be done goes without saying in view of the vacant chair. That the department has had a strong and suc- cessful career during the thirteen years of its existence is evinced by the dou- ble fact that it has furnished occupants of no less than sixteen important Bibli- cal or Semitic chairs in this and other countries and has trained as many more who did not aim at professional work.’ The latter function of the department is an increasingly important one. There are many clergymen who desire the breadth of outlook and the ripe scholarship implied by the winning. of the doctorate degree, but do not care to abandon their chosen profession. REV. BENJ. W. BACON, LITT.D., D.D. BUCKINGHAM PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTA- MENT CRITICISM AND INTER- PRETATION. To train such men as these and send them forth is an enterprise as much in line with Yale’s historic mission as to swell the ranks of those who wish to give instruction. ree 6 % YALE WINS IN DEBATE (revetment + Fifth Annual Contest at New Haven— Sketch of the Men. The fifth annual debate between Yale and Princeton, held at the College Street Hall in New Haven on Tuesday night, Dec. 6, was won by Yale, sup- porting the negative of the question: Re- FRANK K. SANDERS, PHsD: 5 5 WOOLSEY PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL. to LITERATURE. ~~ annex Cuba. . - us © fe . — mes a Ng ye ages ~ dude te ee ec Fj a solved: That the United States should — Coming so.close to the WEEKLY’s hour of going to press, it 1s *
