Benjamin Wilson (Biblical scholar)

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Benjamin Wilson (1817-1900) was an autodidact Biblical scholar and writer of the Emphatic Diaglott translation of the Bible (which he translated between 1856 and 1864). He was also a co-founder of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith.

Wilson was born in Halifax, England, but spent the majority of his life in the USA (to which he moved, initially to Geneva, Illinois, with his family, in 1844), where he died on May 8, 1900, in Sacramento, California.

Although originally Baptists, Wilson's family joined the growing Campbellite movement in 1840, but began to distance themselves from the Campbellites whilst in Geneva. By 1865 the group of Christians Benjamin Wilson was then associated with had become known by the name Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith (later, in 1921, this group split into two, both taking the name Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith, resulting in some confusion today. The smaller group, which held to the same beliefs as Wilson, is now sometimes know as the Church of the Blessed Hope to distinguish itself from the larger, more divergent group, the Church of God General Conference.

Wilson published a monthly religious magazine, the Gospel Banner, which ran from 1855 to 1869, when it was merged with his nephew Thomas Wilson's magazine, Herald of the Coming Kingdom. He also had connections with John Thomas, the founder of the Christian group later to be called the Christadelphians.

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