Goodspeed, Edgar J. (Edgar Johnson), 1871-1962

Goodspeed was born Oct. 23, 1871 in Quincy, IL; began teaching at Univ. of Chicago in 1894; he later became professor of the Bible and Patristic Greek; wrote more than fifty books, including translations of the Old and New Testaments, The story of the Bible (1957), How to read the Bible (1946), A life of Jesus (1950), and an autobiography titled, As I remember (1953); died Jan. 13, 1962.

Professor of New Testament Literature, University of Chicago, 1900-1937.

Biography

Goodspeed was born October 23, 1871 in Quincy, Illinois; began teaching at University of Chicago in 1894; he later became professor of the Bible and Patristic Greek; wrote more than fifty books, including translations of the Old and New Testaments, The Story of the Bible (1957), How to Read the Bible (1946), A Life of Jesus (1950), and an autobiography titled, As I Remember (1953); died January 13, 1962.

Edgar Johnson Goodspeed was born in Quincy, Illinois on October 23, 1871, son of Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed, one of the original incorporators of the University of Chicago. After graduation with the final preparatory class at the Old University of Chicago in 1886, he entered Denison University and received his B.A. degree in 1890. He then studied Semitics under William Rainey Harper at Yale for one year. Goodspeed returned to Chicago to teach classical languages at the Morgan Park Academy (1891-1892), and at the South Side Academy (1894-1898). Meanwhile, in 1892, he had entered the University of Chicago as a post-graduate fellow. He received his D.B. from the University in 1897, and his Ph.D. in 1898, the same year he joined the faculty as a teacher of Biblical and Patristic Greek. In 1923, after having firmly established himself as one of the leading papyrologists and experts on New Testament Greek in this country, he published his New Testament--An American Translation which caused an immediate and nationwide sensation. The same year he was appointed chairman of the New Testament Department and served until his retirement from the University in 1937.

Upon retirement, Goodspeed and his wife, the former Elfleda Bond, daughter of Joseph Bond, the noted Chicago industrialist, moved to the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, California, where he lectured for the University of California-Los Angeles from 1938 to 1942 while continuing his writing and scholarship. He was also Richards Lecturer at the University of Virginia in 1939, and a Lecturer in Biblical Literature at Scripps College from 1941 to 1942. From 1930 to 1946 he served on the American Standard Bible Committee under the direction of Luther Weigle from Yale, which published the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

During his lifetime he wrote 64 books, collaborated on 16 others, and published 189 major articles and countless reviews.

Edgar Goodspeed died in Los Angeles on January 13, 1962.