Waterman, Leroy, 1875-1972

Bible scholar, translator, archaeologist, and professor of Semitics at University of Michigan.

Leroy Waterman, a distinguished Bible scholar, translator and archaeologist, and an author of several books and many articles based on his archaeological and linguistic research, was a professor of Semitics at the University of Michigan from 1915 to 1945. He was born in Pierpont, Ohio, July 4, 1875, the son of Hadley Alpha and Louisa (Lombard) Waterman. He received his preliminary education at public schools in Pierpont, and at New Lyme Institute, New Lyme, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a B.A. in 1898 and B.D. in 1900. He then studied at Oxford University (1900-02), the University of Berlin in (1906-07), and the University of Chicago where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1912.

During this same period of training, Waterman also taught, as a professor of Hebrew language and literature at the Divinity School of Hillsdale College from 1902 to 1910 and as a Fellow at the University of Chicago from 1910 to 1912. After receiving his doctorate, Waterman became a professor of the Old Testament and the history of religion at Meadville (Pa.) Theological School in 1913, and two years later joined the University of Michigan as head of the Department of Semitics, which later became the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures. He remained at the U-M until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1945.

A distinguished Biblical scholar, Waterman, during the years 1922-27, was one of five members of the translation committee of the University of Chicago, whose work resulted in The Bible: An American Translation, sometimes called the Chicago Bible; and during 1938-52 he was a member of a committee of 31 scholars appointed by the National Council of Churches of Christ in America, which produced the Revised Standard Version of the Bible in 1952.

He served as the annual professor at the American School of Oriental Research, Baghdad, Iraq in 1928-29, and was director of the Mesopotamian archaeological expedition at Tel-Umar, twenty-five miles south of Baghdad near the Tigris river, sponsored by the University of Michigan, the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, and the Cleveland (Ohio) Art Museum from 1928 to 1931. Waterman began the excavation of the ancient city of Seleucia, having located the site through his study of ancient writings and the use of aerial photos of an area of mounds in the desert. As director of the expedition for the first five seasons he established the site of the city, its general plan and architecture, and learned a great many new facts about the life of the times. Selucia, a city of 600,000 inhabitants, was the greatest city outside of Greece except for Alexandria. It was founded by Seleucus, a general of Alexander the Great. Some Parthian objects were discovered first, evidences of a later civilization, a mixture of Persian and Greek. Then a portion of a palace was excavated, and some very beautiful jewelry was found as well as pottery, coins, figurines, seals and other artifacts. Many bricks with the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar were found in the area. The results of the five seasons' work were published in the Preliminary Report Upon the Excavations at Tel Umar, Iraq (University of Michigan Press 1931) and the Second Preliminary Report (1933).

Waterman was also director of an archaeological expedition at Sepphoris, Galilee, near Nazareth during the summer of 1931 sponsored by the University of Michigan. Remains of a Roman theatre and an early Christian church were found, together with an aqueduct tunnel, pottery, coins, and numerous household objects of bone, and bronze, gold and iron jewelry. One objective of this project was to find materials that would enrich our knowledge of the life and times of Jesus. The results were published in the Preliminary Report of the University of Michigan at Sepphoris, Palestine (University, of Michigan Press, 1931).

In addition, Waterman also lectured for the University of Michigan Extension Service in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor during the period of 1945-65, and was a teacher of Bible courses at the First Baptist and the First Methodist churches in Ann Arbor during 1961-71.

His scholarly works included editing volume XIV of R.F. Harper's Assyrian and Babylonian Letters (1912), and translating Some Koujunjik Letters and Related Texts (1912), and Business Documents of the Hammurabi Period (1916) and The Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, consisting of four volumes (1930).

Professor Waterman's particular interest was in the Old Testament and its extension into the New. His studies and research in this field together with his intense interest in current events led to the publication of the following books: Religion Faces the World Crisis (1943), The Religion of Jesus (1952), The Historical Jesus: Hope of Mankind (1955), Forerunners of Jesus (1959), Religion's Role in Tomorrow's World (1963), and The Christian Objective (1969). He also published a translation and interpretation of the Song of Songs (1948) and contributed numerous articles to various religious and scholarly journals.

Professor Waterman received an honorary D. Litt. degree from Hillsdale College in 1925 and an Honorary D.D. degree from Butler University in 1961. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Oriental Society, 1915 - Life member, annual president, 1936; National Association of Biblical Instructors, 1915; Royal Asiatic Society; Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis (president, 1946); Society for Old Testament Study; Research Club of the University of Michigan; the University Club of Ann Arbor; and the Michigan Council of Churches and Christian Education, (president, 1937-42).

Leroy Waterman was married in Hillsdale, Michigan on July 24, 1906 to Mabelle Alice Walrath, daughter of Joseph Harvey and Lydia (Mount) Walrath of that city where her father was a Baptist minister. They had two children: Dorothea Lydia, who married George Ragland, Jr., and Donald Leroy (deceased 1931). Dr. Waterman died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on May 9, 1972.