Conant. I. Thomas Jefferson, an American Biblical scholar, born at Brandon, Vt., Dec. 13, 1802. He graduated at Middlebury college in 1823, pursued philological studies for two years in New York, was for a short time tutor in Columbian college at Washington, and afterward professor of languages in Waterville college, Maine. He resigned this post in 1833, and took up his residence near Boston, where he could more advantageously prosecute his studies in the oriental languages. He had become convinced of the necessity of a fresh translation of the Scriptures, which should fully represent the original text; and to this his life has been chiefly devoted. In 1835 he accepted the appointment of professor of Biblical literature and criticism in the Baptist theological seminary at Hamilton, N. Y., which he held till 1850, although two of the intervening years were spent in Europe, mainly in Halle and Berlin. While professor at Hamilton he translated the Hebrew grammar of Gesenius, with the additions of Rodiger, a work which has become the standard text book in America and Great Britain. In 1850 he became professor of Biblical literature in the university of Rochester, N. Y., but resigned in 1857, and removed to Brooklyn, to devote himself exclusively to the labor of Biblical revision, in the service of the American Bible union.

His work in this department consists of revised versions, with critical and explanatory notes, of "The Book of Job" (1857), "The Gospel by Matthew " (1860), " The Book of Genesis" (1868), "The Book of Psalms" (1868*; also, with some additional notes, in the American edition of Lange's "Commentary," 1872), and "The Book of Proverbs" (1872). In 1860 he published "Conant I Thomas Jefferson 050076 its Meaning and Use philologically and historically investigated." He is now (1873) a member of the Old Testament company of the American committee, cooperating with the committee of the convocation of Canterbury, England, in the revision of the authorized English version of the Bible. II. Hannah Chaplin, wife of the preceding, born at Danvers, Mass., in 1809, died in Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 18, 1865. She was the daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, president of Waterville college, and was married to Mr. Conant in 1830. She was a frequent contributor to literary and religious periodicals, and in 1838 became editor of the "Mother's Journal," a monthly periodical. In 1844 she translated " Lea, or the Baptism in the Jordan," from the German of Strauss, the evangelical court preacher of Berlin. In 1850-52 she translated the commentaries of Neander on the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, on the Epistle of James, and on the first Epistle of John. In 1855 she wrote "The Earnest Man," a biographical sketch of the missionary Judson; and in 1857 translated from the German "The New England Theocracy," a sketch of the early ecclesiastical history of New England, by Uhden. Her most elaborate work is "The English Bible; a History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue " (New York, 1856).