Goodspeed, Edgar Johnson (1871-1962), was an American Bible scholar. He did archaeological exploring in Palestine. His major work was to show that the Greek in which the New Testament was first written was the daily language used during the time of Jesus. He showed that the language was not, as had been supposed, established especially for literary purposes. Goodspeed wrote The New Testament: An American Translation (1923), and many books to explain the Bible. He wrote Twelve, the story of Christ's apostles, in 1957. He was born in Quincy, Illinois, and studied at Denison University, Yale University, University of Chicago, and European universities.