John Eadie

John Eadie (9 May 1810 – 3 June 1876) was a Scottish theologian and biblical critic.

Life

He was born at Alva, in Stirlingshire. Having taken the arts curriculum at the University of Glasgow, he studied for the ministry at the Divinity Hall of the United Secession Church, a dissenting body which, on its union a few years later with the Relief Church, adopted the title United Presbyterian.

In 1835 he became minister of the Cambridge Street Secession church in Glasgow, and for many years he was generally regarded as the leading representative of his denomination in Glasgow. As a preacher, though he was not eloquent, he was distinguished by good sense, earnestness and breadth of sympathy. In 1863 he removed with a portion of his congregation to a new church at Lansdowne Crescent.

In 1843 Eadie was appointed professor of biblical literature and hermeneutics in the Divinity Hall of the United Presbyterian body. He held this appointment along with his ministerial charge till the close of his life.

He received the degree of LL.D from Glasgow in 1844, and that of D.D. from St Andrews in 1850. He died at Glasgow on 3 June 1876. His library was bought and presented to the United Presbyterian College.

Works

His publications were connected with biblical criticism and interpretation, some of them being for popular use and others more strictly scientific. To the former class belong the Biblical Cyclopaedia, his edition of Alexander Cruden's Concordance, his Early Oriental History, and his discourses on the Divine Love and on Paul the Preacher; to the latter his commentaries on the Greek text of St Paul's epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Galatians, published at intervals in four volumes.

His last work was the History of the English Bible (2 vols, 1876). He rendered service as one of the revisers of the authorized version.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.