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BORN 20 March 1924 in Glasgow, Scotland, James Barr was the son of the Reverend Professor Allan Barr, professor of New Testament at the Joint Congregational and United Free Church College in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the grandson of the Reverend James Barr, a Labour member of Parliament 1924-31 and 1935-45. He served during World War II as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, 1942-45, one highlight of which was his low reconnaissance flight over the Channel during the night leading to D-Day. Following the war, Barr studied at Edinburgh University, completing the M.A. with first-class honors in Classics in 1948 and the B.D. with distinction in Old Testament in 1951. He also received the M.A. from Manchester University in 1969, and the M.A. and D.D. in, respectively, 1976 and 1981 from Oxford University. Over the course of his long academic career ten universities bestowed honorary doctorates on him. He died on 14 October 2006 in Claremont, California, at the age of eighty-two.
In 1950 Barr married Latin scholar Jane J. S. Hepburn. After his ordination in 1951, he served as minister of the Church of Scotland in Tiberias, Israel, in 1951-53, during which time he acquired fluency in both modern Hebrew and Arabic. Later in life he and Mrs. Barr often reminisced about their adventurous times in Israel and the Middle East during those early days before major tourism had developed. In Greece, for example, they were among the first foreigners seen by many Greeks after the war.
Barr's first academic appointment was as professor of New Testament at Presbyterian College, Montreal, in 1953-55, following which he took his first Old Testament position as professor of Old Testament literature and theology at Edinburgh University, 1955-61. He then moved to the United States to teach Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary until 1965. During 1965-76 he was professor of Semitic languages and literatures at Manchester University. His longest tenure occurred at Oxford University, first as Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture in 1976-78 and then as Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1978-89 (emeritus beginning in 1989). Following a year as the Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt University in 1989-90, he was appointed...