The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Bush, George

BUSH, George, an American theologian, born at Norwich, Vt., June 12, 1796, died in Rochester, N. Y., Sept. 19, 1859. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1818, studied at Princeton theological seminary, received ordination in the Presbyterian church, was for four years a missionary in Indiana, and in 1831 became professor of Hebrew and oriental literature in the university of the city of New York. In 1832 he published a &ldquo;Life of Mohammed,&rdquo; and in 1833 a &ldquo;Treatise on the Millennium,&rdquo; in which he regards the millennial age as the period during which Christianity triumphed over Roman paganism. About the same time he compiled a volume of &ldquo;Scriptural Illustrations;&rdquo; in 1835 published a Hebrew grammar; and in 1840 began the issue of a series of commentaries on the Old Testament, which extended to seven volumes. He edited in 1844 the &ldquo;Hierophant,&rdquo; a monthly magazine, devoted to the explanation of the nature of the prophetic symbols. In the same year appeared his &ldquo;Anastasis,&rdquo; in which he opposed that view of the resurrection which implies a physical reconstruction of the body. This work attracted much attention, and he answered the many attacks which were made upon it in a treatise entitled &ldquo; The Resurrection of Christ.&rdquo; He connected himself with the &ldquo;New Jerusalem church&rdquo; in 1845, translated from the Latin the diary of Swedenborg, and afterward, as editor of the &ldquo;New Church Repository&rdquo; and otherwise, labored to develop and maintain the principles of that philosopher. In 1847 he published a work on the higher phenomena of mesmerism, which he deemed a confirmation of the truths of Swedenborg's revelations; and in 1857 &ldquo;Priesthood and Clergy unknown to Christianity.&rdquo; His memoirs, by W. M. Fernald, were published in 1860.