F. Wilbur Gingrich

Barth later updated and continued the work in Discovery and Promise: A History of Albright College, 1856-1981.

Felix Wilbur Gingrich (27 September 1901 – 19 October 1993) was an American educator, scholar of Biblical Greek, and Christian layman who spent his entire career working with students at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Gingrich published many books and articles, including a definitive translation of a Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament.

Gingrich was born on September 27, 1901, in Annville, Pennsylvania, the son of The Rev. Felix Moyer Gingrich and his wife, Minnie (Shiffer) Gingrich.

Gingrich had two brothers, Wendell and Newell, and a sister, Esther.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Lafayette College in 1923.

He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa while at the school.

After doing research work at the University of Pennsylvania from 1923 to 1925, he went to the University of Chicago where he received his master’s and doctorate degrees in 1927 and 1932 respectively.

Gingrich’s doctoral dissertation, carried out in the Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature, was entitled Paul’s Ethical Vocabulary, a treatise on the language and style of Saint Paul’s letters.

After graduation from Lafayette College in 1923, Gingrich was hired by Schuylkill College, Reading, Pa., as an assistant professor, teaching Greek, Latin, German, and the Bible.

Schuylkill College was an institution of the Evangelical Church, newly reunited from the United Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Association.

In 1928, it was decided to merge with Albright College at Myerstown with Schuylkill College.

The merged institution became Albright College, located on the Schuylkill campus in Reading.

On March 28, 1929, he married Lola Engel and they had three children, John, Barbara and Carolsue.

In the fall of 1949, Gingrich was granted a leave of absence to work on a new Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament, translating and adapting the work of Walter Bauer’s Greek-German lexicon in collaboration with William F. Arndt.

The work actually took 5 1⁄2 years.

Gingrich returned to his teaching duties in February 1955.

In 1956, the centennial year of the founding of Albright College and its predecessors, Gingrich and Dr. Eugene Barth wrote A History of Albright College, 1856-1956.

The 1957 publication of the first edition of A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: Translation and Adaptation of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der übrigen urchristlichen Literatur, fourth revised and augmented edition, 1952 was the first lexicon since the 1880s and was internationally recognized.

In 1965, Gingrich published the Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.

Gingrich became Professor of Greek and head of the Classical Languages Department, a position he held until his retirement in 1972.

At a retirement dinner in 1972, Gingrich was cited for his contributions to education and his research on New Testament Greek.

A Festschrift was published in his honor that year.

In 1979, Gingrich and Frederick William Danker produced a second English edition from Bauer’s 5th German edition.

The library at Albright College was renamed the F. Wilbur Gingrich Library in May 1980.

Danker revised this in 1983 and that version was the basis of the Portuguese translation by Júlio P. T. Zabatiero.

In addition to his work on the lexicon, Gingrich published many articles and book reviews, some of which are listed in the list of selected works.

The college awarded him an honorary doctor of letters in 1983.

In addition to international recognition for his years of work, he also received many awards and prizes honoring his research and teaching.

Lola Gingrich died on March 24, 1984.

Gingrich died in Reading, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1993, and is buried in Forest Hills Memorial Park in Reiffton, Pennsylvania.

Gingrich attended the Northeast High School in Philadelphia.