BLAYNEY, BENJAMIN:
English divine and Hebraist; born 1728; died Sept. 20, 1801. He was educated at Oxford, took the master's degree in 1735, and became fellow and vice-principal of Hertford College in 1768. He was employed by the Clarendon Press to prepare a corrected edition of the Authorized Version. This appeared in 1769, but most of it was destroyed by fire in the Bible warehouse, Paternoster Row, London. Blayney then studied Hebrew, and in 1787 took his degree as doctor of divinity.
His principal works are: "A Dissertation by Way of Inquiry into the True Import . . . of Dan. ix. 24 to the End," etc., 1775-97, which was translated into German by J. D. Michaelis; a new translation of Jeremiah and Lamentations, 1784; an edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch in Hebrew characters, 1790; a new translation of Zechariah, 1797. He was a good scholar and a useful writer.
- Gentleman's Magazine, lxxi. 1054; lxxiii. 1108;
- Dict. Nat. Biog. v. 208.
