Agnes Smith Lewis
English Orientalist
1843 – 1926 A.D.

Agnes Smith Lewis, an English Orientalist, daughter of John Smith, a Scottish jurist. She was educated in private schools and by tutors, and became especially proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, and Syriac.

Before her marriage in 1887 to Rev. S.S. Lewis, she wrote a number of novels and accounts of travel. In 1892, with her twin sister, Mrs. Margaret Dunlop Gibson, she discovered in the library of the convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai, the palimpsest containing the Four Gospels in Syriac, representing the oldest text yet known of any part of the new Testament.

Her services were recognized by the bestowal upon her of honorary degrees from Halle, Wittenenberg, St. Andrews, Heidelberg, and Dublin.

Mrs. Lewis wrote a number of learned works on Scripture antiquities.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.