​SMITH, HENRY PRESERVED (1847-⁠) , American Biblical scholar, was born in Troy, Ohio, on the 23rd of October 1847. He graduated at Amherst College in 1869 and studied theology in Lane Theological Seminary in 1869-1872, in Berlin in 1872- 1874 and in Leipzig in 1876-1877. He was instructor in church history in 1874-1875, and in Hebrew in 1875-1876, and was assistant -professor in 1877^1879 and professor in 1879-1893 of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis in Lane Theological Semin- ary. In 1892 he was tried for heresy by the Presbytery of Cincinnati, was found guilty of teaching (in a pamphlet entitled Biblical Scholarship and Inspiration, 1891) that there were "errors of historic fact," suppressions of "historic truths," &c, in the books of Chronicles, and that the " inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is consistent with the unprofitableness of portions of the sacred writings,"— in other words, that inspiration does not imply inerrancy, — and he was suspended from the ministry. Dr Smith retired from the denomination, and in 1893, upon becoming a professor at Andover Theological Seminary, entered the ministry of the Congregational Church. From 1897 to 1906 he was a professor in Amherst College, and in 1907 became ? professor in the Meadville (Pennsylvania) Theological School.

He published The Bible and Islam (1897), Commentary on the Books of Samuel (1899, in the " International Critical Commentary ") and Old Testament History (1903, in the " International Theologica) Library"). In Inspiration and Inerrancy (Cincinnati, 1893), he reprinted the papers on which the heresy charge was made, and outlined the case.