Peter Ackroyd (biblical scholar)

Peter Runham Ackroyd (15 September 1917 – 23 January 2005) was a British Biblical scholar, Anglican priest, and former Congregational minister. From 1961 to 1982, he was the Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of London. He was also President of the Society for Old Testament Study in 1972.

Ackroyd was born in Bristol, and brought up and educated in London. He studied languages at Downing College, Cambridge, and then theology at the University of London. Returning to Cambridge, where he joined Trinity College, Cambridge, he completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1945.

Ackroyd was ordained a Congregational minister in 1940, and ministered at two churches in the 1940s. Having left his ministry to return to academia, he was drawn to Anglicanism in the 1950s and was ordained in the Church of England in 1958. He ministered at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, from 1957 to 1961; his only parish post. He was later a Select Preacher at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

Ackroyd's academic career started as a lecturer at the University of Leeds (1948–1952), before being appointed a lecturer at the University of Cambridge (1952–1961). In 1961, he joined the University of London as the Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies. He held this professorship until his retirement in 1982.