Background

Samuel Rolles Driver was born at Southampton on the 2nd of October 1846.

Education

Driver was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, where he had a distinguished career, taking a first class in Literae Humaniores in 1869. He was awarded the Pusey and Ellerton scholarship in 1866, the Kennicott scholarship in 1870 (both Hebrew). He received the honorary degrees of doctor of literature of Dublin (1892), doctor of divinity of Glasgow (1901), doctor of literature of Cambridge (1905).

Career

From 1870 Samuel was a fellow, and from 1875 also a tutor, of New College, and in 1883 succeeded Pusey as regius professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church. He was a member of the Old Testament Revision Committee (1876-1884) and examining chaplain to the bishop of Southwell (1884-1904), and was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1902.

Among his more general works are: Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew (1892); Isaiah, his Life and Times (1893); Introd. to the Literature of the Old Test. (1897, ed. 1909); Sermons on Subjects connected with the Old Testament (1892); The Parallel Psalter (1904); Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, known as "BDB" (Brown Driver Briggs) (in collaboration, 1906); Modern Research as illustrating the Bible (1909); articles in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Biblica, Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible and Dictionary of National Biography.

Achievements

• Driver was awarded the Houghton Syriac prize in 1872. His chief works were commentaries on: Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (Hebrew text, 1890); Book of Leviticus (1894 Hebrew text, 1898 trans. and notes); Book of Joel and the Book of Amos (1897); The Book of Daniel, with Introduction and Notes (1900); Book of Deuteronomy (1902); Book of Job (1905); The Book of the; Prophet Jeremiah (1906); The Minor Prophets, Book of; Nahum to Book of Malachi (1905); Book of Genesis (1909); The Book of Exodus (1911).

Works

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  • The Book of Leviticus: A New English Translation, Printed in Colors Exhibiting the Composite Structure of the Book; With Explanatory Notes and Pictorial Illustrations (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Book of Leviticus: A New English Transla...)

  • An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Isaiah : His Life and Times and the Writings Which Bear His Name

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The International critical commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments - DEUTERONOMY - under the present editorship of Alfred Plummer ; planned and for years edited by Samuel Rolles Driver, Alfred Plummer, and Charles Augustus Briggs

    (This commentary has been prepared not less for the reader...)

  • A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Job.

    (This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book publ...)

  • The Fifty-Third Chapter Of Isaiah: According To The Jewish Interpreters (1877)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon

    (A trio of eminent Hebrew Bible scholars-Francis Brown, R....)

  • Christianity and other religions : three short sermons

    (Christianity and other religions : three short sermons.)

  • A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Deuteronomy

    (Format Paperback Subject History)

Membership

Member of the Old Testament Revision Committee

Fellow of the British Academy

Connections

Driver married in 1891, Mabel, daughter of Edmund Barr, of Burgh, near Aylsham, Norfolk, and had two sons and two daughters.

Spouse:

Mabel

Son:

Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver

Bible scholar