Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Edersheim, Alfred
EDERSHEIM, ALFRED (1825–1889), biblical scholar, was born at Vienna of Jewish parents on 7 March 1825. His father, Marcus Edersheim, a banker and a man of culture and wealth, had come originally from Holland. His mother, Stéphanie Beifuss, was a member of a well-known Frankfort family. As a boy he was of precocious intellect, and his father's position gave him many educational advantages. His complete mastery of English, for example, was due largely to the fact that it was the language commonly used in his father's family.
As a youth he was educated partly in the gymnasium, partly in the Jewish school in connection with the synagogue, until, in 1841, he entered as a student in the university of Vienna. Before, however, he had completed his course here, ruin overtook his father, and he was thrown on his own resources. He journeyed to Pesth, supported himself by giving lessons in languages, and made the acquaintance of Dr. John Duncan (1796–1870) [q. v.] and other presbyterian ministers, who were acting at the time as chaplains to the Scottish workmen engaged in constructing the bridge over the Danube. Under their influence he embraced Christianity, accompanied Dr. Duncan on his return to Scotland, studied theology both in Edinburgh and also (under Hengstenberg, Neander, and others) in Berlin, and in 1846 entered the presbyterian ministry. Shortly afterwards he travelled abroad, and for a year preached as a missionary to Jews and Germans at Jassy in Roumania. Here he made the acquaintance of Mary Broomfield, who, after his return to Scotland, became in 1848 his wife. As preacher at a large church in Aberdeen Edersheim was peculiarly successful, and he was soon appointed minister of the free church, Old Aberdeen. Here he remained for twelve years, during which time he translated into English several German theological works, wrote his ‘History of the Jewish Nation from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Reign of Constantine the Great’ (1856), and contributed to the ‘Athenæum’ and other periodicals.
In the winter of 1860–1 his health took him to Torquay, where he lost his first wife, and where also he subsequently married Sophia, daughter of Admiral John Hancock, C.B. Through his influence the presbyterian church of St. Andrew was built at Torquay, and he became its first minister. In 1872, his health continuing poor, he decided to retire from active work and devote himself to literature; accordingly he resigned his charge at Torquay and removed to Bournemouth. In 1874 he published ‘The Temple: its Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus Christ,’ a work which, by bringing him the friendship of Dr. George Williams (author of ‘The Holy City’), led in 1875 to his taking orders in the English church. From 1876 to 1882 he held the country living of Loders, near Bridport, in Dorsetshire. Here he wrote his opus magnum, ‘The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah’ (1883), a work in two massive volumes, displaying indeed some lack of critical acumen, but a monument of learning, presented in eminently readable form, and a storehouse of information on every subject which comes within its range.
In 1880 Edersheim was appointed Warburtonian lecturer at Lincoln's Inn, an office which he held for the usual period of four years. In 1882 he removed from Loders to the more congenial surroundings of Oxford. His connection with the university had begun in 1881, when he was created M.A. honoris causa; he was also Ph.D. of Kiel and D.D. of Vienna, Berlin, Giessen, and New College, Edinburgh. He became now (1884–5) select preacher to the university, and (1886–8, 1888–90) Grinfield lecturer on the Septuagint. In 1885 appeared his Warburtonian lectures on ‘Prophecy and History in relation to the Messiah.’ Soon afterwards he wrote, with the co-operation of Mr. (now Professor) Margoliouth, a ‘Commentary on Ecclesiasticus’ for the ‘Speaker's Commentary on the Apocrypha’ (1888). He was contemplating a work on ‘The Life and Writings of St. Paul,’ and had in fact written some of the opening chapters when, on 16 March 1889, he was suddenly struck down by death at Mentone, where he had been spending the winter on account of his health.
Dr. Edersheim was gentle and amiable in disposition, bright and humorous in conversation, genial in manner, a ready and fluent writer, and effective preacher; possessed of a poetical imagination, which was apt to give a rhetorical redundance to his style; in literary and theological questions conservative, but tolerant.
Besides the works mentioned above, Edersheim published:
- ‘Bible History’ (of the Old Testament), 1876–87, 7 vols.
- ‘Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ,’ 1876.
Two elaborate articles on ‘Josephus’ (1882) and ‘Philo’ (1887) in Smith and Wace's ‘Dictionary of Christian Biography;’ stories, hymns, and minor religious writings; numerous articles in the ‘Bible Educator,’ the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ and other periodicals.
[Tohu-va-Vohu ('without form and void'): a Collection of Fragmentary Thoughts and Criticisms by Alfred Edersheim, edited (with a memoir and portrait) by Ella Edersheim, 1890; Guardian, 27 March 1889, p. 474.]