LIGGINS, JOHN: Protestant Episcopalian; b. at Nuneaton (9 m. n.e. of Coventry), Warwickshire, England, May 11, 1829. He was educated at the Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and the theological seminary at Alexandria, Va. He was ordered deacon in 1855 and ordained priest two years later. After being curate at the Church of the Ascension, New York City, for a short time in 1855, he went to China as a missionary, remaining in that country until 1859. He then spent a year in Japan, where he was the first Protestant missionary. Because of impaired health he returned to America in 1860, and has since devoted his energies to literary work. In addition to contributing to The Spirit of Missions from 1862 to 1900 and to the American Church Sunday School Magazine since 1885, he has written: One Thousand Familiar Phrases in English and Japanese (Boston, 1860); Missionary Picture Gallery (1870); Oriental Picture Gallery (1870); England's Opium Policy (New York, 1883); Gems of Illustration from the Sermons and Writings of Rev. Dr. Guthrie (1885); and The Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions (1889).

LIGHTFOOT, JOHN: English Biblical critic and Hebraist; b. at Stoke-upon-Trent (38 m. n. by w. of Birmingham), Staffordshire, Mar. 29, 1602; d. at Ely, Cambridgeshire, Dec. 6, 1675. After completing his education at Christ's College, Cambridge, he taught at Repton, Derbyshire, for two years and then took orders. Appointed curate of Norton-in-Hales, Shropshire, he became chaplain to the Hebraist Sir Rowland Cotton, who urged him to study Hebrew and other Semitic languages. He accompanied Cotton when he removed to London, and then became rector of Stone, Staffordshire, for about two years, but in 1628 changed his residence to Hornsey, Middlesex, in order to be able to consult the rabbinical collections at Sion College, London. During his residence at Hornsey he wrote his first work, dedicated to Cotton and entitled Erubhin, or Miscellanies, Christian and Judaical, penned for Recreation at vacant Hours (London, 1629). In the following year he was presented to the rectory of Ashley, Staffordshire, which he held twelve years, after which he settled in London and became rector of St. Bartholomew's. Presbyterian in his sympathies, he took the parliamentary side in the Civil War and was a member of the Westminster Assembly. After a year at St. Bartholomew's, he was appointed rector of Great Munden, Hertfordshire, and held it for the remainder of his life. In 1650 he was chosen master of St. Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and four years later became vice-chancellor. He again sided with the Presbyterians in the Savoy Conference of 1661, but accepted the Act of Uniformity in the following year. In 1667 he was appointed a prebendary at Ely. His Oriental library was bequeathed to Harvard College, but was burned in 1769.

Lightfoot was a prolific writer and is noteworthy as the first Christian scholar to call attention to the importance of the Talmud. His chief works, in addition to the one already mentioned, are as follows: A Few and New Observations on the Book of Genesis (London, 1642); A Handful of Gleanings out of the Book of Exodus (1643); Harmony of the Four Evangelists among themselves and with the Old Testament (3 vols., 1644-50); Harmony, Chronicle, and Order of the Old Testament (1647); The Temple Service as it stood in the Days of our Saviour (1649); The Temple, especially as it stood in the Days of our Saviour (1650); Harmony, Chronicle, and Order of the New Testament (1655); and the work which has done most to preserve his fame, Horæ Hebraicæ et Talmudicæ (6 vols., Cambridge and London, 1658-1678). The first edition of his collected works, those originally in Latin translated into English, was edited by G. Bright and J. Strype, 2 vols. London, 1684; and a Latin edition, including those at first written in English, was prepared by J. Texellius, 2 vols., Rotterdam, 1686. A complete edition of his writings was made by J. R. Pitman, 13 vols., London, 1822-25. It should also be noted that Lightfoot revised the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch for Walton's Polyglot Bible.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Life is prefixed to the Works, ed. of 1684, and one may be found in vol. i. of the Pitman edition; D. M. Welton, John Lightfoot, the English Hebraist, London, 1878. Consult further: W. M. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Edinburgh, 1878; A. F. Mitchell The Westminster Assembly; its History and Standards, London, 1883; DNB, xxxiii. 229-231.