Gibbs Josiah W, Lld

Gibbs Josiah W., Ll.D., professor in the theological department of Yale College, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, April 30, 1790. He graduated at Yale College in 1809, and was tutor in the College from 1811 till 1815. He then spent some years at Andover, Masschusetts, devoting himself to the study of Hebrew and Biblical literature. While there he published a translation of Starr on The Historical Sense of the New Testament (Boston, 1817, 12mo), and also prepared a translation of Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicoin, which appeared in 1824; also London, 1827, 2d edit. 1832; in abridged form Manual Hebrew and English Lexicon, including Biblical Chaldee, 1828; 2d edit. enlarged, New Haven 1832, 8mo. In 1824 he was called to be lecturer of sacred literature in the theological school of Yale College. In 1826 a professorship in that branch was founded, to which Mr. Gibbs was called. He remained in this post until his death, March 25, 1861, at New Haven. Professor Gibbs was a constant contributor to periodicals, especially on the points of Biblical criticism, archaeology, and philological science. Many of his valuable papers appeared in newspapers, often anonymously. Others were published in the Christian Spectator, Biblical Repository, New Englander, and American Journal of Science. During his later years his attention was chiefly given to comparative grammar, and in this branch, as in every other which he touched, his work was that of a thorough scholar. For several years he was one of the publishing committee of the American Oriental Society. Some of his essays were collected, with additions, under the title Phiological Studies, with English Illustrations (New Haven, 1856), and Teutonic Etymology (New Haven, 1860). — Fisher, in New Englander, July 1861, art. 2.