Alfred Edersheim was born at Vienna, March. 7, 1825 of Jewish parentage, and received his earliest education in a college preparatory school of his native city and in the Talmud Torah attached to a Viennese synagogue. In 1841 he continued his studies at the University of Vienna, but left it before taking his degree on account of the financial reverses of his father. Going to Pesth as a teacher of languages, he came under the influence of John Duncan, a Scotch Presbyterian chaplain and was converted to Christianity. Edersheim accompanied Duncan on his return to Scotland and studied theology at New College, Edinburgh, and at the University of Berlin. In 1846 he was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. He was a missionary for a year to the Jews at Jassy, Romania. In 1849, he was installed at the Free 
Church, Old Aberdeen. From that time forward he held various posts throughout England and Scotland. He died at Menton, France on March 16, 1889.
His works include: History of the Jewish Nation after the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; The Temple Its Ministry and Services at the Time of Jesus Christ; Bible History; Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ; The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (his greatest work); and Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah.
This was adapted from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
