George Bush (Biblical scholar)

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Portrait of the scholar

George Bush (1796–1859) was an American biblical scholar, pastor, abolitionist, Christian Restorationist academic, and a graduate of Dartmouth College, class of 1818. He is distantly related to the Bush political family.[1] Bush held a chair in Hebrew at New York University.[2]

His first book The Life of Mohammed was the first American written biography of the religious leader. It refers to Muhammad as "this remarkable man" and “irresistibly attractive", but is largely negative toward him. It also takes a dim view of the state of Christianity of Muhammad's age. The book fell out of print, but became briefly controversial in Egypt in 2004.[3]

In 1844 Bush published a book entitled The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived. In it he denounced “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust,” and called for “elevating” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by re-creating the Jewish State in the land of Israel. This, according to Bush, would benefit not only the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a “link of communication” between humanity and God. “It will blaze in notoriety...". “It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth.”[4]

When he wrote those books he was a Presbyterian, but in 1845 he embraced Swedenborgianism and went on to write many defenses of his new faith.[5]

[edit] Published works

  • The life of Mohammed; founder of the religion of Islam, and of the empire of the Saracens (New York, 1830)[1] [1]
  • Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia, 1845)
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis, 2 vols. (New York, 1857)
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Exodus (Boston, 1871)
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Leviticus
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Numbers
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Joshua
  • Notes, Critical and Practical, on the Book of Judges (New York, 1862)
  • The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived (New York, 1844)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Is the Author of a Book Critical of Islam an Ancestor of President Bush?", biographical statement issued by United States Department of State, 20 Dec 2004
  2. ^ Goldman, Shalom. "Professor George Bush: American Hebraist and Proto-Zionist." American Jewish Archives. 43, no.1 (1991). Goldman, Shalom. God's Sacred Tongue: Hebrew and the American Imagination. The University of North Carolina Press, 2004, referenced in Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren REVIEWED BY HILLEL HALKIN, Commentary, Januare 2007http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/power--faith--and-fantasy-by-michael-b--oren-10818
  3. ^ "Reconsideration: George Bush I", Ted Widmer, New York Times Magazine, July 22, 2007
  4. ^ Goldman, Shalom. "Professor George Bush: American Hebraist and Proto-Zionist." American Jewish Archives. 43, no.1 (1991). Goldman, Shalom. God's Sacred Tongue: Hebrew and the American Imagination. The University of North Carolina Press, 2004, referenced in Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren REVIEWED BY HILLEL HALKIN, Commentary, Januare 2007http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/power--faith--and-fantasy-by-michael-b--oren-10818
  5. ^ American Presbyterian review By Henry Boynton Smith, pg 185

[edit] External links

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