William Greenfield (1799–1831) was an English philologist and biblical scholar whose brief but brilliant career was marked by an extraordinary aptitude for languages. Born in London, Greenfield spent part of his childhood in Jedburgh before returning to the capital, where he was educated by his maternal uncles. While apprenticed to a bookbinder in 1812, he began learning Hebrew from a Jewish reader of the law who resided in his master's house. This early instruction sparked a lifelong devotion to linguistics and biblical criticism, prompting him to leave business in 1824 to focus entirely on his scholarly pursuits.
Greenfield first gained widespread public attention in 1827 with the publication of The Comprehensive Bible, a work featuring a general introduction and extensive notes. Although the book faced fierce criticism from some orthodox figures, it became highly popular, particularly among Unitarians, and was later abridged as The Pillar of Divine Truth (1831). Greenfield's scholarly reputation was further cemented by his spirited defenses of various Bible translations. In 1830, he published Defence of the Serampore Mahratta Version of the New Testament, a pamphlet written in just five weeks despite Greenfield having no prior knowledge of the Mahratta language.
His impressive defense caught the attention of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which appointed him superintendent of its editorial department in April 1830. During his nineteen months with the society, Greenfield worked on translations spanning twenty-one languages across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, acquiring knowledge of tongues as diverse as Surinam Creole, Chippeway, and Berber. He was also a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. His final project was a revision of the Modern Greek Psalter, but his ambitious plans—including a projected grammar in thirty languages—were cut short when he died of brain fever in November 1831 at the age of thirty-two.
