George Foot Moore (1851-1931)

Professor of Theology, 1902-1904
Frothingham Professor, 1904-1928

George Foot Moore was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on 15 October 1851. He received an A.B. from Yale in 1872 and attended the Union Theological Seminary (1877). Soon thereafter, he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry (1878) and served a parish in Zanesville, Ohio (1878-83).

G.F. Moore began his teaching career at the Andover Theological Seminary, where he remained from 1883 until 1901. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1902. His universal knowledge became almost a myth, and he was consulted by all sorts of inquirers on every kind of subject. Moore was well diversified in his teaching and scholarship, although he focused much of his time on the Hebrew Bible and the history of Judaism. His monumental three-volume Judaism (1927-1930) was revolutionary in not attempting to modernize or theologize in a Christian sense Jewish sources.

He also held many non-teaching positions, including syndic at Harvard University Press (1913-1924) and editor of the Harvard Theological Review (1908-1914 and 1921-1931). Among his various organizational affiliations were the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Oriental Society.

Source of information:

Dictionary of American Biography. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1928-1958.