Gleason Archer Jr (1916-2004)

Gleason was a biblical scholar, theologian, educator and author.
He was born in Norwell, Massachusetts and became a Christian at a young age through the influence of his mother, Elizabeth.

He received an LL.B from Suffolk Law School in 1939 and the same year admitted to the Massachusetts bar. Gleason Archer Sr. was the founder of the school.

He attended both Harvard University (BA.,M.A., PhD) and Princeton Theological Seminary (BD).

His first pastoral role was at Park Street Church in Boston (!945-8). He then became Professor of Biblical Languages at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena (1948-65) He then served as Professor of Old Testament and Semitics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois (1965-86). He became an emeritus faculty member in (1989-91). The reminder of his life was spent researching, writing and lecturing.

At Princeton he studied Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. He taught languages at Suffolk University in Boston. Some have estimated that he spoke about 30 languages which must have helped when he was translating.

He was also an assistant pastor at Park Street church in Boston and assistant dean of the Boston Evening School of the Bible. In the Netherlands he was the visiting Professor of the Old Testament at Tyndale Theological Seminary.

In 1971 he was one of the 50 original translators of the New American Standard Bible (NASB). He also worked on the New International Version (NIV) in (1978).
A number of summers were spent translating. His family went with him on these trips which took him to Scotland, Greece, Spain and Belgium.

Gleason did a great deal of other translations, wrote a number of books and had many articles published in magazines. ( See para. 5 of Memorials and Books)

He was the 57th charter member of the Evangelical Theological Society - joined 28th February 1950- president in 1986.

Gleason passed into the presence of the Lord on 27th April 2004, aged 87. He was buried beside his wife Sandra at the Willow Lawn cemetery in Mundelein, Illinois.

Sources
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
wikipedia
Amazon