RIGGS, Elias, missionary, born in New Providence, Union County, New Jersey, 19 November, 1810. He was graduated at Amherst in 1829, and at Andover theological seminary in 1832. He was a missionary at Athens and Argos, Greece, for the American board, from 1832 till 1838, and in Smyrna, Asia Minor, from 1838 till 1853. Since the latter date he has labored at Constantinople. He visited the United States in 1856, taught Hebrew in Union theological seminary in 1857-'8, and was invited to become professor there, but preferred to return to his foreign field The translation of the Scriptures into the Turkish language was placed in 1873 by the British and foreign Bible society and the American Bible society in the hands of a committee, of which he was a member. As a result of its labors, the entire Bible was published in both Arabic and Armenian characters in 1878. A revision was made by a larger committee, including Dr. Riggs, and the new work was issued in 1886. Mr. Riggs received the degree of D. D. from Hanover college, Indiana, in 1853, and that of LL, D. from Amherst in 1871. He is the author of "A Manual of the Chaldee Language, etc." (Andover, 1832; revised ed., New York, 1858: and several later editions); "The Young Forester, a Brief Memoir of the Early Life of the Swedish Missionary, Fjelstedt" (1840); . ' Translation of the Scriptures into the Modern Armenian Language," completed with the aid of ha-tire scholars (Smyrna, 1853 ; reprinted in many editions in Constantinople and New York) ;" Grammatical Notes on the Bulgarian Language " (Smyrna, 1844) ; " Grammar of the Modern Armenian Language, with a Vocabulary" (1847; 2d ed., Constantinople, 1856); "Grammar of the Turkish Language as written in the Armenian Character"; "Translation of the Scriptures into the Bulgarian Language" (1871 ; several editions, Constantinople and Vienna); "Suggested Emendations of the Authorized English Version of the Old Testament" (Andover, 1873); "A Harmony of the Gospels in Bulgarian" (Constantinople, 1880); "Suggested Modifications of the Revised Version of the New Testament" (Andover, 1883) ;"A Bible Dictionary," in Bulgarian (Constantinople, 1884); and minor publications, including tracts, hymns, and collections of hymns, in Greek, Armenian, and Bulgarian.