Dr. Oswald Thompson Allis, Ph.D., D.D.
[9 September 1880 - 12 January 1973]
(Photo source: "Our Faculty" brochure, 1931)
Among the Allan A. MacRae Papers, additional items include two folders of correspondence, 1927-1943, and several other publications by Dr. Allis.
Please note that this collection consists of materials gathered by the staff of the PCA Historical Center. The Papers of Dr. Oswald T. Allis are located in the archives at the Montgomery Library of the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Allan A. MacRae Papers; J. Gresham Machen Collection;
Robert Dick Wilson Papers; Princeton Theological Seminary Collection; Westminster Theological Seminary Collection.
Oswald Thompson Allis was born in Wallingford, Delaware county, Pennsylvania to Oscar Huntington Allis, M.D. and his wife Julia Waterbury Thompson Allis. He was raised in the family home at 1604 Spruce Street, in Philadelphia. Decades later, this same location was to serve as the cradle for the newly formed Westminster Theological Seminary.
His education included an A.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1901; the Bachelor of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1905; the A.M. degree from Princeton University in 1907; and finally the Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin in 1913
Dr. Allis first served as Instructor in Semitic Philology at the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1910-1922 and then as Assistant Professor of Semitic Philology at the same institution, from 1922-1929. Reorganization of the Princeton Seminary placed modernists in control of the school and so prompted the resignations of Drs. Allis, J. Gresham Machen, Robert Dick Wilson and Cornelius Van Til and the subsequent formation of the Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Allis served as Professor of Old Testament History and Exegesis at Westminster from 1929-1930 and as Professor of Old Testament at the same institution from 1930-1936. When Dr. Machen and others were forced in 1936 to leave the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. denomination over their involvement with the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, Dr. Allis chose to remain in the denomination, but retired from his teaching post. Independently wealthy, he was able to devote the remainder of his life to research and writing.
Dr. Allis was the editor of The Princeton Theological Review from 1918-1929 and, beginning in 1929, maintained a position as Editorial Correspondent for The Evangelical Quarterly up until the time of his death.
A 1931 promotional brochure for Westminster Theological Seminary prepared by the Student Committee on Publications had these comments regarding Dr. Allis and his teaching:
"It is the painstaking and thorough accuracy of Dr. Allis in whatever he does, that causes his students to marvel. We watch him unravel the intricacies of Hebrew syntax, and his patience is a constant example and inspiration to us."
"Dr. Allis' favorite class room pastime is to answer critics who seek to prove the Old Testament untrueand unreliable. He shows how these would-be Bible destroyers are often false or inaccurate, and fre-
quently so even in the realm of sheer facts. To sit under Dr. Allis to have one's faith renewed in the
Old Testament as the altogether reliable inspired Word of God."
Subject |
Box |
File |
Finding Aid |
261 |
1 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1917, “The Bearing of Archaeology upon the Higher Criticism of the Psalms,” offprint from The Princeton Theological Review, 15.2 (April 1917): 277-324. |
261 |
2 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1924, Jericho Prophets: Theological Liberals in the Days of Elijah and Today (Philadelphia, PA: Westbrook Publishing, for The Presbyterian, 1924), 30pp. |
261 |
3 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1925, “The Law and The Prophets” not The Prophets vs. The Law (Princeton, New Jersey, 1925), 32pp. |
261 |
4 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1925, “The Problems of Bible Translation,” in The Foreign Missions Convention at Washington, 1925 (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1925), pp. 347-351 |
261 |
5 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1925, A Modernistic View of Jeremiah, [reprint from The Princeton Theological Review, Volume 23, No. 1, January 1925, pp. 82 – 132.] |
261 |
6 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1925, Dr. Moffat’s ‘New Translation’ of the Old Testament, [reprint from The Princeton Theological Review, Volume 23, No. 2, April 1925, pp. 1 – 51.] |
261 |
7 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1926, Old Testament Emphases and Modern Thought, Part III [reprint from The Princeton Theological Review, Volume 24, No. 2, April 1926, pp. 252 – 307.] |
261 |
8 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1931, Review: The Lost Tribes A Myth: Suggestions toward Re-writing Hebrew History, by Allen H. Godbey, The Evangelical Quarterly, 3.2 (April 15th, 1931): 199-203. |
261 |
9 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1934, “The Short Bible—Its Meaning and Menace,” The Evangelical Quarterly 6.1 (January 15th, 1934): 7-25 [photocopy, 11pp.] |
261 |
10 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1936, Modern Dispensationalism and the Doctrine of the Unity of Scripture, [reprint from The Evangelical Quarterly, January 1936, 16pp.] |
261 |
11 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1936, “ Modern Dispensationalism and the Law of God,” The Evangelical Quarterly 8.3 (July 15th, 1936): 272-289. [photocopy, 10pp.] |
261 |
12 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1943, The Five Books of Moses (Philadelphia : The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1943), hb, 319pp.; 21 cm. |
261 |
13 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1944, Bible Numerics (Chicago : The Moody Bible Institute, 1944), 24pp.; 18 cm. |
261 |
14 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1951, God Spake By Moses (Nutley, NJ : The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1958, 1951), 159pp.; 21.5 cm. |
261 |
15 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1953, Revised Version or Revised Bible? A Critique of the Revised Standard Version of the Old Testament (1952), (Philadelphia : The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1953), 60pp.; 21.5 cm. |
261 |
16 |
| Allis, Oswald T., 1955, The Unity of Isaiah: A Study in Prophecy (Philadelphia, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 2d printing, 1955, © 1950), 134 p.; 24 cm. Foreword by Clarence E. Macartney. [Special edition presented to PCUSA pastors.] | 261 | 17 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1957, “A prince and a great man is fallen in Israel,” in Tributes to Clarence Edward Noble Macartney (Philadelphia, PA : s.n., 1957), 19pp.; 21 cm. [photocopy; one original copy located in the Center’s Clarence E.N. Macartney collection] |
261 |
18 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1969, The Five Books of Moses (Philadelphia : The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1943, 1949, 1969), pb, 355pp.; 21 cm. |
261 |
19 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1972, The Old Testament: Its Claims and Its Critics (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1972), hb, 509pp.; 22cm. |
261 |
20 |
Skilton, John H., editor, 1974, The Law and the Prophets: Old Testament Studies Prepared in Honor of Oswald Thompson Allis (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1974), 499pp.; 22cm. |
261 |
21 |
Wood, John Halsey, Jr., 2005, “Oswald T. Allis and the Question of Isaianic Authorship,” in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48.2 (June 2005): 249-261. |
261 |
22 |
| Obituaries and Biographical material, includes photocopies of 1. The Presbyterian Guardian, 42.2 (February 1973) 29; 2. The Presbyterian Journal, 31.40 (31 January 1973) 3; 3. Biographical entry in Dictionary of the Presbyterian & Reformed Tradition in America, page 17; 4. The Evangelical Quarterly, 45.2 (April/June 1973) 67-68. | 261 | 23 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1920, The Name Joseph [offprint, The Princeton Theological Review, 18.4 (October 1920): 645-659. |
|
25 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1923, “Thy Throne, O God, Is Forever and Ever” [offprint, The Princeton Theological Review, 21.2 (April 1923): 236-266. |
|
26 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1923, The Conflict over the Old Testament [offprint, The Princeton Theological Review, 21.1 (January 1923): 79-115. |
|
27 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1927-1929, Correspondence [6 Items, 13 leaves] |
|
30 |
Allis, Oswald T., 1931-1943, Correspondence [32 leaves] |
|
31 |
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