author
Frederick Carl Eiselen
1872–1937
A Methodist biblical scholar and teacher, this early 20th-century writer helped make Old Testament study more accessible to ministers, students, and general readers. His books blend historical research with a practical interest in how scripture was taught and understood.
1 Audiobook
The Christian View of the Old Testament
by Frederick Carl Eiselen
About the author
Born in 1872 and active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Frederick Carl Eiselen wrote widely on the Old Testament and related biblical subjects. Surviving library and catalog records connect him with works such as Prophecy and the Prophets in Their Historical Relations, The Worker and His Bible, The Psalms and Other Sacred Writings, and The Abingdon Bible Commentary.
A memorial notice published after his death in 1937 describes him not only as a scholar, but also as an educational leader, serving as executive secretary for the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church and as president of the Council of Church Boards of Education. That combination of scholarship and church service helps explain the tone of his writing: serious about history and interpretation, but meant to be useful in teaching and ministry.
Today, Eiselen is remembered mainly through his books, which reflect a period when Protestant biblical scholarship was trying to bring academic study into conversation with everyday Christian reading. For listeners interested in classic religious studies, his work offers a window into how the Bible was explained to English-speaking readers in the early 1900s.