Letters and photographs of members of the Old Testament Revision Company, c.1870-85

Christian David Ginsburg (1821-1914), Biblical scholar and missionary, born in Warsaw, Poland. He pursued Bible studies, and through contact with the Warsaw mission of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, was baptised in 1846 and travelled to London under the Society's auspices. In 1850 he entered the British Society missionary school, Jews' College, in London, and studied Biblical Hebrew and Greek. In 1853 he was appointed a missionary for the British Society; in 1858 he was naturalised as a British citizen, and in 1867 he married his third wife, Emilie. He retired from missionary work due to ill health in 1863, and lectured and wrote on various Old Testament subjects. In 1870 he become a founding member of the Old Testament Revision Company. He edited the text of the Hebrew Bible and the Masorah, and his Masoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible was published in 1894 by the Trinitarian Bible Society. His great work The Massorah was published in four volumes in 1880-86. In 1904 he was elected editor of the BFBS New Critical Hebrew Bible, and by 1914 had completed the Pentateuch, Prophets and part of the writings. The edition was published in 1926.

The Old and New Testament Revision Companies were set up by Convocation in 1870, and included both Anglicans and non-Anglican scholars. They were instructed to introduce as few alterations in the text of the Authorised Version as possible. Changes had to be approved by a two-thirds majority; changes supported by only a simple majority appeared as marginal notes. This album is a collection of letters from, and photographs of, many of the original members of the Old Testament Company, collected by Mrs. Ginsburg, and presented to the Bible Society in 1932.

An album containing 65 photographs and letters written to C.D. and E. Ginsburg, of members of the Old Testament Revision Company

Presented by Mrs. Emilie Ginsburg, 1932

Please cite as Cambridge University Library: British and Foreign Bible Society's Library, Letters and photographs of members of the Old Testament Revision Company, c.1870-85, BSMS 651

Cambridge University Library, MSS Add.6923-6950, minute books and other papers of the Old Testament and New Testament Revision Companies