Robinson, EDWARD, philologist and biblical scholar, was born at Southington, Connecticut, April 10, 1794, graduated at Hamilton College, New York, in 1816, and there remained till 1821, when he went to Andover, Massachusetts, to see through the press an edition of part of the Iliad. Here he studied Hebrew under Professor Stuart, but in 1826 went to Germany, where he studied under Gesenius and Neander, and married as his second wife Therese A. L. von Jakob, daughter of a professor at Halle. In 1830 he became extra-ordinary professor of Sacred Literature at Andover, in 1837 professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. He now made an extensive survey of Palestine, collecting materials for Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries (3 vols. 1841). A second visit in 1852 yielded fruit for its second edition (1856). Robinson died in New York, 27th January 1863.
His other works are a translation of Buttmann's Greek Grammar (1832); Greek and English Lexicon of the
New Testament (1836; 1850); Harmony of the Gospels, in Greek (1845), and in English (1846). He was also editor of the Biblical Repository, Bibliotheca Sacra, Calmet's Bible Dictionary, and a translation of Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon.
His wife, THERESE ALBERTINE LOUISE VON JAKOB, well known to the world of letters as 'Talvi,' a name composed of her initials, was born at Halle, January 26, 1797. At ten she went to Kharkoff in Russia, where her father had become professor, but in 1810 they removed to St Petersburg. In 1816 they returned to Halle, and here she studied Latin, and wrote her volume of tales, Psyche (1825). As 'Ernest Berthold' she published translations of Scott's Black Dwarf and Old Mortality, and also two volumes of Servian popular songs, Volkslieder der Serben (1825-26). In 1828 she married Robinson, and in 1830 accompanied him to America. After his death she lived mostly at Hamburg, where she died 13th April 1869.