Alfred Edersheim (March 7, 1825 - March 16, 1889) was a Jewish convert to Christianity and a Biblical scholar known especially for his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883). After preaching for a time in Aberdeen, Edersheim was appointed in 1849 to minister at the Free Church, Old Aberdeen. In 1861 health problems forced him to resign and the Church of St. Andrew was built for him at Torquay. In 1872 Edersheim's health again obliged him to retire, and for four years he lived quietly at Bournemouth. In 1875 he was ordained in the Church of England, and was Curate of the Abbey Church, Christchurch, Hants, for a year, and from 1876 to 1882 Vicar of Loders, Bridport, Dorset. He was appointed to the post of Warburtonian Lecturer at Lincoln's Inn 1880-84. In 1882 he resigned and relocated to Oxford. He was Select Preacher to the University 1884-85 and Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint 1886-88 and 1888-89.
Alfred Edersheim was an evangelical Anglican biblical scholar and expert on the Greek Old Testament.
A Jewish Christian, he was perhaps the foremost authority of his time on Judaism in the time of the New Testament. He was critical of scholars' tendency to reject Moses' authorship of the Pentateuch, and described liberal trends in biblical scholarship as fraud that shook "the whole basis of our religion.
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