John Scott Porter

John Scott Porter (31 December 1801 – 5 July 1880) was an Irish biblical scholar and a preacher in the Presbyterian and Unitarian denominations.

Life He was born on 31 December 1801 in Newtownlimavady, County Londonderry, Ireland on 31 December 1801; he was eldest son of William Porter (1774–1843), a Presbyterian minister, by his first wife, Mary Scott. The barrister William Porter (1805–1880) was a younger brother, and the minister Classon Emmett Porter (1814–1885) a half-brother.

After schools at Dirtagh and Derry, he was admitted as a student for the ministry under the care of Strabane presbytery. He took his arts course at the Belfast Academical Institution in 1817–19 and 1821–3, acting in the interim as tutor in a private family in County Kilkenny. In 1823–5 he studied Hebrew and divinity under Thomas Dix Hincks and Samuel Hanna.

Porter was licensed in October 1825 by Bangor presbytery, without subscription. Criticism, on the lines of Griesbach and Hug. Servetus and Calvin: Three Lectures, &c., 1854. Bible Revision: Three Lectures, 1857. Lectures on the Doctrine of Atonement, 1860. The National System and the National Board, 1864, (anon.) Is the "National" or the "Denominational" System of Education the best?, 1868. The Fourth Gospel is the Gospel according to John, 1876. A defence (1876) of the authenticity of St. John's Gospel.

Porter contributed to the Bible Christian (which for a time he edited), the Ulster Journal of Archæology and the Christian Reformer.