Crawford Howell Toy

Crawford Howell Toy

Crawford Howell Toy (born March 23, 1836 in Norfolk , Virginia , † May 12, 1919 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American theologian and Hebraist . He taught Semitic languages ​​and the Old Testament at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1868–1879) and at Harvard University (1880–1909).

Life

Crawford Howell Toy was the eldest son of the pharmacist Thomas Dallam Toy (1814–1879) and his wife Amelia Ann Toy b. Rogers (1816-1873). He studied from 1852 to 1856 at the University of Virginia and then taught at a girls' school, the Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville . In addition to his job, he continued his studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina , the oldest Baptist seminary in the United States. In the American Civil War he interrupted his studies and took part in the fighting as an infantryman and chaplain. After a brief imprisonment, he taught for a while at the University of Alabama , a Confederate cadet school.

After the end of the Civil War, Toy taught Greek at the University of Virginia from 1865 to 1866 and then went on an educational and research trip to Europe, where he deepened his theological studies at the University of Berlin (1866-1868). It was there that he first came into contact with historical-critical biblical research, which had a decisive influence on his theological views. He also studied Sanskrit and the Semitic languages .

During his stay in Berlin, Toy received an offer from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to take on a professorship in the Old Testament and Semitic Languages. He accepted the call and from 1868 taught at the seminary where he had previously studied. In addition to his teaching post, he continued to work on biblical criticism as he had got to know in Berlin. In doing so, he came into conflict with the Baptist Church . Toy examined the quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament and came to the conclusion that the authors of the New Testament, according to their rabbinical tradition, interpreted the Old Testament in such a way that they could use it to represent their own Christological views. The Christological references would not have existed a priori in the Old Testament . Toy argued against the unity of the Old and New Testaments, which was incompatible with the orthodoxy of his church. The president of the seminar then asked Toy to withhold his theses in academic classes. Toy refused and in April 1879 published an extract of his theses in The Sunday School Times . He was then released in May 1879.

In 1880 Toy accepted a call to Harvard University , where he taught as Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages (until 1909) and Dexter Lecturer on Biblical Literature (until 1903) for almost 30 years. He taught Hebrew , Arabic and Ethiopian , among others . In 1888, Toy left the Baptist Church and moved to the First Parish Unitarian Church, a Unitarian congregation.

Toy was a member of several learned societies: he was a founding member and board member of the American Philological Association (President 1879/80) and the American Oriental Society (President 1908). The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him a member in 1888.

Crawford Howell Toy was married to Nancy Saunders Toy († 1941).

Fonts (selection)

• The History of the Religion of Israel: An Old Testament Primer . Boston 1882
• Quotations in the New Testament . New York 1884
• Judaism and Christianity: A Sketch of the Progress of Thought from Old Testament to New Testament . Boston 1891
• Esther as Babylonian Goddess . Boston 1898
• A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs . New York 1899
• The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel . New York 1899
• Introduction to the History of Religions . Boston 1913

literature

• George F. Moore: An Appreciation of Professor Toy . In: American Journal of Semitic Languages ​​and Literatures . Volume 36 (1919), pp. 1-17
• David G. Lyon: Crawford Howell Toy . In: Harvard Theological Review . Volume 13 (1920), pp. 1-22
• Billy Gray Hurt: Crawford Howell Toy: Interpreter of the Old Testament . Dissertation, Greenville (SC) 1965
• Pope A. Duncan: Crawford Howell Toy: Heresy at Louisville . In: George H. Shriver (editor): American Religious Heretics: Formal and Informal Heresy Trials . Nashville (TN) 1966, pp. 56-88
• Pope A. Duncan: Crawford Howell Toy (1836-1919) . In: Dictionary of Heresy Trial in American Christianity . Westport (CT) 1997, pp. 430-438
• Paul R. House: Crawford Howell Toy and the Weight of Hermeneutics . In: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology . Volume 3 (1999), pp. 28-39

Web links

• About Crawford Howell Toy at Andover-Harvard Theological Library