Memorial: Allan Alexander Macrae

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 1998

Allan MacRae was born on February 11, 1902, in Calumet, Michigan, where his father was a medical doctor. Allan came to Christ as a young boy and soon read the Bible from cover to cover. When he was nine years old, the family spent nine months in Italy for the benefit of his father's health. There Allan attended school in the mornings and visited the sites of Rome each afternoon, thus kindling a desire to travel. On their return from Italy the MacRae family moved to Los Angeles, a warmer climate necessary for his father's health.

Allan was graduated from Franklin High School at the age of sixteen and enrolled in Occidental College in Los Angeles. Four years later, in 1922, he was Phi Beta Kappa valedictorian of his graduation class. He had been editor of the school paper and a member of the debate team. He then spent one year studying Bible under R. A. Torrey at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Upon Torrey's advice he entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1924, studying under Robert Dick Wilson and J. Gresham Machen. By 1927 Allan completed his Bachelor of Theology degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and concurrently was graduated with a Master of Arts degree in Semitic philology from Princeton University.

Awarded a doctoral fellowship, Allan entered the University of Berlin to study Babylonian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic and Syriac. He also became proficient in German. During his second year abroad he traveled to Palestine, where he met Sir Flinders Petrie and studied for four months under William F. Albright at the American Schools of Oriental Research.

In 1929 he was asked by Robert Dick Wilson to help in the founding of a new seminary, necessitated by the liberalization of Princeton. After some hesitancy he accepted the position of instructor in Semitic philology and Old Testament criticism at Westminster Theological Seminary. The next year he was promoted to assistant professor of Old Testament and continued at Westminster for a total of eight years. During this time he resumed his doctoral studies and was graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1936.

In the summer of 1937 MacRae joined with Carl McIntire and others to found Faith Theological Seminary. They met at the First Independent Church of Wilmington, Delaware, with twenty-five students, who included Vernon Grounds and Jack Murray.

On May 22, 1944, Allan was married to Grace E. Sanderson of Baltimore, Maryland, in the backyard of his home in Wilmington. four years later their only child, John, was born. John now pastors the Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

MacRae continued as president of Faith Theological Seminary for thirtyfour years until 1971. Then, at the age of sixty-nine, he felt the need to begin another school, so Biblical Theological Seminary was started in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. MacRae served as president until he retired in 1983 and then continued to serve as chancellor.

Allan's writing and translation work were extensive. He was one of the editors of the New Scofield Reference Bible and a translator of the New International Version. He penned books on Isaiah and Daniel and wrote countless articles that appeared in scholarly journals, Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries, and laymen's magazines. He encouraged many younger scholars and counted among his many students such men as Francis Schaeffer, Joseph Bayly, Kenneth Kantzer, Arthur Glasser, G. Douglas Young, Samuel Schultz, Jack Murray and R. Laird Harris.

MacRae was a vice-president of the American Scientific Affiliation and a charter member of ETS, joining in 1950. He served as vice-president of the Society in 1959 and as president in 1960. In June of 1991 Allan and Grace MacRae moved to the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community. Grace went to be with the Lord in September, 1995, and Allan joined her two years later on September 27, 1997. Allan MacRae's life spanned ninety-five years, seven months and sixteen days. He is survived by his son, John, and his wife Signe Mentgen MacRae and their two children: Betsy, age fifteen, and Doug, age twelve.