BRIGGS, Charles Augustus. – Orientalist and theologian, b. in New York on 15 Jan. 1841, d. there in Jan. 1913. Until 1893 he belonged to the Presbyterian Church, then to the Episcopalian. After further studies in Berlin, he held at Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he had studied, the chair of Hebrew and Semitic languages (1874), of Biblical Theology (1890), and of General and Dogmatic Theology (1907). Of indefatigable literary activity, especially in the biblical field, he introduced into the Churches of America the critical-historical study of the Bible.
Director of the *Presbyterian Review*, he published in it several articles on the inspiration and authority of the Bible, defended the documentary theory of the Hexateuch, and denied the authenticity of Deutero-Isaiah. For this he was condemned and excommunicated by the Union Church (1893). He was also co-editor of the *International Critical Commentary* and contributor to the *Hebrew and English Lexicon* (1891).
Among his biblical publications are: *Biblical Study* (New York 1883); *Messianic Prophecy* (ibid. 1886); *The Bible, the Church and the Reason* (ibid. 1892); *The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch* (ibid. 1893); *The Messiah of the Gospels* (ibid. 1894); *The Messiah of the Apostles* (ibid. 1895); *General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture* (ibid. 1899); *A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms* (*International Critical Commentary*, Edinburgh 1906); *The Papal Commission and the Pentateuch* (London 1906; his correspondence with the Catholic friend F. von Hügel).