# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Driver, Samuel Rolles

​DRIVER, SAMUEL ROLLES (1846–1914), regius professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, was born at Southampton 2 October 1846, the only son of Rolles Driver, of that city, by his wife, Sarah Smith, of Darlington. His parents were originally Quakers. At the age of sixteen he entered Winchester as a commoner, and it was at school that he began the study of Hebrew. From Winchester he passed with a classical scholarship to New College, Oxford. An undergraduate career of exceptional distinction was followed by a fellowship (1870) and a tutorship in classics (1875) at his college. His training had been unusually wide, and the scientific bent of his mind had declared itself early. During this period he wrote A Treatise on ​the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew (1874, revised 1881 and 1892). It was the first attempt in English to expound the principles of Hebrew syntax on lines at once philosophical and scientific. The work of Heinrich von Ewald served as a starting-point, but Driver developed it in a way altogether his own. All modern study of Hebrew has been founded on the Tenses: it remains perhaps the most interesting and original book that Driver wrote. His reputation as a hebraist, thus early established, gained him a seat in the Old Testament revision company (1875–1884).
Meanwhile, on 16 September 1882, Dr. Pusey died; and on 23 October Mr. Gladstone offered Driver, on behalf of the Crown, the vacant regius professorship and canonry of Christ Church. At the time Driver was only in deacon’s orders (December 1881); he was ordained priest in December 1882, and the letters patent were dated 5 January 1883. From June of that year until his death he resided in Christ Church. Dr. Pusey was a scholar of the old school, and had problems of his own to face; Driver, by temperament and training a very different man, was called to a different task. The way had been prepared for him. In England, some time before, John William Colenso [q. v.] and Samuel Davidson [q. v.] had questioned traditional views of the Old Testament; later on, through the translation and popularizing of the works of Ewald, Kuenen, and Wellhausen, the new learning had made its way into theological schools. The teaching of Andrew Bruce Davidson [q.v.] and W. Robertson Smith [q.v.] in Scotland, and the writings of Thomas Kelly Cheyne [q.v.], had influenced a widening circle; at the same time the religious world was agitated by a general unsettlement of opinion. Driver more than any one else came to be trusted as a guide through the period of transition: ‘he taught the faithful criticism, and the critics faith.’
During the thirty-one years of his professorship Driver devoted himself, with deliberate concentration, to teaching and writing and encouraging the work of younger men. The output of this period was remarkable. In the philological department his Notes on Samuel (1890, enlarged 1913), and his contributions to the Oxford Hebrew Lexicon (1891-1905), set a standard which raised the whole level of Hebrew scholarship. He wrote commentaries in one form or another on nearly half of the Old Testament, distinguished rather by sound judgement and exactness than by original or creative thought; he took Dillmann for a model; he was at his best when dealing with objective facts; imaginative insight and passion for ideas were not his gifts. Of all his books the Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (1891, ninth edition, 1913) had the widest influence. Characteristically Driver did not accept the Graf-Wellhausen theory of the Pentateuch until he had worked over the field for himself; but between 1882 and 1889 he became convinced; and in the Introduction he set out the critical process in detail, and surveyed the entire literature from the modern point of view. To ardent spirits Driver’s caution and moderation seemed disappointing; in general, however, the book was welcomed as authoritative, and it was singularly well-timed.
At close quarters with his pupils Driver followed the inductive method; he would insist upon a thorough discipline with grammar and lexicon before any attempt was made to enter the higher regions. Retiring and self-effacing by nature, he did not shrink from controversy if the need arose; while many a preface acknowledges the time and trouble he would spend on the work of others. Through all the changes of opinion which he helped to bring about, his loyalty to the Christian faith remained unshaken.
He married in 1891 Mabel, elder daughter of Edmund Burr, of Burgh, Norfolk, and had three sons and two daughters. He died 26 February 1914, aged sixty-seven.
[Ideals of the Prophets, edited by G. A. Cooke, 1915, Appendix B, giving a full bibliography; Expository Times, ix and xxv; W. Sanday, The Life-Work of S. R. Driver, 1914; Oxford Magazine, March 1914; Contemporary Review, April 1914; Expositor, May 1914; Proceedings of the British Academy, 1915; Harvard Theological Review, 1916; personal knowledge.]
G. A. C.