{{Short description|American clergyman and biblical scholar}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata = ALL | dateformat = mdy | suppressfields = citizenship | occupation = Educator, clergyman and biblical scholar }}
'''Joseph Addison Alexander''' (April 24, 1809 – January 28, 1860) was an American clergyman and biblical scholar.
==Early life and education== He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 24, 1809, the third son of Archibald Alexander and Janetta Waddel Alexander,<ref name="BDA1906" /> brother to James Waddel Alexander and William Cowper Alexander. He graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)<ref name="McKim2007" /> with the first honor, in the class of 1826,<ref name="BDA1906" /> having devoted himself especially to the study of Hebrew and other languages.<ref name="AlexanderLife" />
==Career== Along with Robert Bridges Patton, Alexander established Edgehill seminary in Mercer County, New Jersey, and in 1830 he was made adjunct professor of ancient languages in Princeton College, holding the professorship until 1833.<ref name="BDA1906" /> In 1834, he became an assistant to Dr. Charles Hodge, professor of oriental and biblical literature in the Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1838, he became associate professor of oriental and biblical literature there, succeeding Dr. Hodge in that chair in 1840 and being transferred in 1851 to the chair of biblical and ecclesiastical history, and in 1859 to that of Hellenistic and New Testament literature, which he occupied until his death at Princeton on January 28, 1860.<ref name="Chisholm1911" />
Alexander was distinguished in Oriental scholarship as well as in biblical learning, and was a thorough master of the modern European languages.<ref name="BDA1906" /> He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1839, and was well known for his pulpit eloquence. He was the author of ''The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah'' (1846), ''The Later Prophecies of Isaiah'' (1847), and an abbreviation of these two volumes, ''Isaiah Illustrated and Explained'' (2 vols., 1851), ''The Psalms Translated and Explained'' (3 vols., 1850), ''Commentary on Acts'' (2 vols., 1857) and ''Commentary on Mark'' (1858).<ref name="Julian1907" /> After his death there appeared his two volumes of ''Sermons'' (1860), ''Commentary on Matthew'' (1861) and ''Notes on New Testament Literature'' (1861).<ref name="BDA1906" /> Henry Carrington Alexander prepared a biography first published in 1869.<ref name="AlexanderLife" />
He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1845.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1844&year-max=1845&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-12|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
==References== ;Citations {{reflist|25em|refs= <ref name="AlexanderLife">{{harvnb|Alexander|1870}}</ref> <ref name="BDA1906">{{harvnb|Johnson|1906|p=76}}</ref> <ref name="Chisholm1911">{{harvnb|Chisholm|1911}}</ref> <ref name="Julian1907">{{harvnb|Julian|1907|p=39}}</ref> <ref name="McKim2007">{{harvnb|McKim|2007|p=107}}</ref> }}
;Sources * {{cite book | last = Alexander | first = Henry Carrington | author-link = | title = The life of Joseph Addison Alexander | work = Making of America | location = New York | publisher = C. Scribner | year = 1870 | url = http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AGU9827.0001 | access-date = 2007-01-29 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120910210349/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AGU9827.0001 | archive-date = 2012-09-10 }} [https://archive.org/stream/thelifeofjosepha01alexuoft#page/n9/mode/2up Alt URL] * {{EB1911|wstitle=Alexander, Joseph Addison|volume=1|page=565}} * {{BDA1906 |wstitle= Alexander, Joseph Addison |volume= 1 |page=76 |short=}} * {{cite dictionary | last = Julian | first = John | author-link = John Julian, D.D. | title = Alexander, Joseph Addison | dictionary = A Dictionary of Hymnology | date = June 1907 | page = 39 | location = London | publisher = John Murray | url = | access-date = }} {{PD-notice}} * {{cite book | last = McKim | first = Donald K. | title = Dictionary of major biblical interpreters | chapter = Alexander, J. A. | year = 2007 | page = 107 | location = Downers Grove, Ill. | publisher = IVP Academic | edition = 2nd | isbn = 978-0-8308-2927-9 }}
==External links== {{Wikisource}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20171031103140/http://www.richardsibbes.com/Princeton.Cemetery.Alexanders.htm Photographic tour of Joseph Addison Alexander's grave at Princeton Cemetery]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Joseph Addison}} Category:1809 births Category:1860 deaths Category:19th-century American male writers Category:19th-century American non-fiction writers Category:19th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Category:19th-century Christian biblical scholars Category:19th-century American Presbyterian ministers Category:American Calvinist and Reformed theologians Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American religious writers Category:Bible commentators Category:Burials at Princeton Cemetery Category:Calvinist and Reformed writers Category:Educators from Philadelphia Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Presbyterian writers Category:Princeton Theological Seminary faculty Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Princeton University faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:19th-century American biblical scholars