The Biographical Dictionary of America/Abbot, Ezra

ABBOT, Ezra, biblical scholar, was born at Jackson, Me., April 28, 1819; son of Ezra and Phebe (Abbot) Abbot. He was educated at Phillips Exeter academy; graduated at Bowdoin college. A.B., 1840, A.M., 1843, and engaged in teaching school in Maine, 1840-47, and in Cambridge, Mass., 1847-55. He was assistant librarian at Harvard, 1856-72; university lecturer on the textual criticism of the New Testament, 1869-72, and Bussey professor of Sacred Literature there, 1872-84. He was married in 1843 to Catherine Meder of Jackson, Me., and in 1854 to Emily Everett of Cambridge, Mass. He received the honorary degree A.M. in 1861, and D.D. in 1872 from Harvard, and LL.D. from Yale in 1869, and from Bowdoin in 1879. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Oriental Society. He was an exact and erudite biblical scholar, and gave valuable assistance as a member of the American committee to revise the New Testament. He also contributed largely to the pronunciation of names in Worcester's Dictionary. In textual criticism he was unexcelled. He made a revision and collation of the learned quotations of Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying," edited Hudson's "Greek and English Concordance of the New Testament," prepared an appendix to Alger's "Critical History of a Future Life," embracing an exhaustive catalogue of books on the subject, and contributed in the department of biblical criticism to various periodicals; published several catalogues and books of reference for Sunday school teachers; contributed regularly to Unitarian periodicals, being himself a member of that sect; and occasionally to the "North American Review." His chief original work is "The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel," which is considered authoritative. He gave his large and valuable library, comprising 5000 volumes chiefly of rare books and a collection of scarce editions of Greek New Testaments, to Harvard university, and the balance of his books, including his working library, he left to the Divinity school of Harvard, the gift being conditional: "There shall be secured as soon as possible a more adequate and safe place of keeping." A memorial of Dr. Abbott, edited by Samuel J. Barrows, was published by the Harvard divinity school alumni in 1884. Among his other works are "Literature of the Doctrine of a Future Life," and "New Discussions of the Trinity." He edited Norton's "Statement of the Reason for not Believing in the Doctrines of the Trinitarians," Lamson's "Church of the First Three Centuries," and similar controversial works, as well as an addition and valuable exposition to the 8th edition of Tischendorf's "Greek Testament." He died at Cambridge, Mass., March 21, 1884.