David Gordon Lyon was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 theologian.

Biography

Lyon was born in Benton, Alabama

Benton, Alabama

Benton is in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States. The population was 47 at the 2000 census. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the town had a population of 45. It is part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, the son of a doctor. He received his A.B. from Howard College (now Samford University

Samford University

Samford University, founded as Howard College is a private, coeducational, Alabama Baptist Convention-affiliated university located in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It includes the , Cumberland School of Law, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Brock School of Business, Ida V....

) in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, in 1875. He studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...

 under Crawford Howell Toy

Crawford Howell Toy

Crawford Howell Toy , American Hebrew scholar, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on 23 March 1836. He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1856, and studied at the University of Berlin from 1866 to 1868...

, and went to Germany, where he married Tosca Woehler (d. 1904) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 in 1882, in the study of Syriac

Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...

.

He occupied the Hollis Chair

Hollis Chair

The Hollis Chair may refer to one of several Chairs established at Harvard College:* Hollis Chair of Divinity* Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy...

 at Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...

 from 1882 to 1910, when he assumed the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental languages. Six years after Tosca Woehler's death (1904) he married Mabel E. Harris (d. 1931). He was the founding curator of the Semitic Museum

Semitic Museum

The Semitic Museum at Harvard University was founded in 1889, and moved into its present location at 6 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1903....

. He retired from Harvard in 1921.