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ALEXANDER GEDDES (1737-1802)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 547 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALEXANDER See also:GEDDES (1737-1802)  , Scottish See also:Roman See also:Catholic theologian, was See also:born in Rathven, See also:Banffshire, on the 14th of See also:September 1937 . He was trained at the Roman Catholic See also:seminary at Scalan and at the Scottish See also:College in See also:Paris, where he studied biblical See also:philology, school divinity and See also:modern See also:languages . In 1764 he officiated as a See also:priest in See also:Dundee, but in May 1765 accepted an invitation to live with the See also:earl of See also:Traquair; where, with abundance of leisure and the See also:free use of an adequate library, he made further progress in his favourite biblical studies . After a second visit to Paris, which was employed by him in See also:reading and making extracts from rare books and See also:manuscripts,he was appointed in 1769 priest of Auchinhalrig and Preshome in his native See also:county . The freedom with which he fraternized with his See also:Protestant neighbours called forth the rebuke of his See also:bishop (See also:George See also:Hay), and ultimately, for See also:hunting and for occasionally attending the See also:parish See also:church of See also:Cullen, where one of his See also:friends was See also:minister, he was deprived of his See also:charge and forbidden the exercise of ecclesiastical functions within the See also:diocese . This happened in 1779; and in 178o he went with his friend See also:Lord Traquair to See also:London, where he spent the See also:rest of his See also:life . Before leaving See also:Scotland he had received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of See also:Aberdeen, and •had been made an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries, in the institution of which he had taken a very active See also:part . In London See also:Geddes soon received an See also:appointment in connexion with the See also:chapel of the imperial See also:ambassador, and was also helped by Lord See also:Petre in his See also:scheme for a new Catholic version of the See also:Bible . In 1786, supported also by such scholars as See also:Benjamin See also:Kennicott and See also:Robert See also:Lowth, Geddes published a See also:Prospectus of a new See also:Translation of the See also:Holy Bible, a considerable See also:quarto See also:volume, in which the defects of previous See also:translations were fully pointed out, and the means indicated by which these might be removed . It was well received, and led to the publication in 1788 of Proposals for See also:Printing, with a specimen, and in 1790 of a See also:General See also:Answer to Queries, Counsels and Criticisms . The first volume of the translation itself, which was entitled The Holy Bible . . faithfully translated from corrected Texts of the Originals, with various Readings, explanatory Notes and See also:critical Remarks, appeared in 1792, and was the See also:signal for a See also:storm of hostility on the part of both Catholics and Protestants .

It was obvious enough—no small offence in the eyes of some—that as a critic Geddes had identified himself with C . F . Houbigant (1686-1783), Kennicott and J . D . See also:

Michaelis, but others did not hesitate to stigmatize him as the would-be " corrector of the Holy See also:Ghost." Three of the vicars-apostolic almost immediately warned all the faithful against the " use and reception " of his translation, on the ostensible ground that it had not been examined and approved by due ecclesiastical authority; and by his own bishop (See also:Douglas) he was in 1793 suspended from the exercise of his orders in the London See also:district . The second volume of the translation, completing the See also:historical books, published in 1797, found no more friendly reception; but this circumstance did not discourage him from giving forth in 1800 the volume of Critical Remarks on the See also:Hebrew Scriptures, which presented in a some-what brusque manner the then novel and startling views of See also:Eichhorn and his school on the See also:primitive See also:history and See also:early records of mankind . Geddes was engaged on a critical translation of the See also:Psalms (published in 1807) when he was seized with an illness of which he died on the 26th of See also:February 1802 . Athough under ecclesiastical censures, he had never swerved from a consistent profession of faith as a Catholic; and on his See also:death-See also:bed he duly received the last See also:rites of his communion . Besides See also:pamphlets on the Catholic and See also:slavery questions, as well as several fugitive jeux d'esprit, and a number of unsigned articles in the See also:Analytical See also:Review, Geddes also published a free metrical version of Select Satires of See also:Horace (1779), and a verbal rendering of the First See also:Book of the Iliad of See also:Homer 1792) . The See also:Memoirs of his life and writings by his friend See also:John See also:Mason See also:Good appeared in 1803 .

End of Article: ALEXANDER GEDDES (1737-1802)
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