Humphry, an eminent English divine, was born in 1659 at Oldcombe in Somersetshire. In 1676 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, of which he was chosen fellow in 1684, and in which, in after life, he founded ten scholarships to promote the study of Greek and Hebrew. At the age of twenty-one he published his Dissertation against the History of the Seventy-two Interpreters by Aristeas. In this production Hody shows that the story told by Aristeas as to the occasion of the Septuagint translation is the invention of some Hellenist Jew; that it is full of blunders and anachronisms; and that it was originally circulated on purpose to recommend the Greek version of the Old Testament. This dissertation was received with much approbation by the learned, excepting Isaac Vossius, who published an angry and scurrilous reply to it in the appendix to his Observations on Pompilius Mela. In 1704 Hody published his four books, De Bibliorum textis originatibus, versionibus Graecis, et Latina Vulgata; the first containing his dissertation on Aristeas's history, the second treating of the true authors of the Greek version called the Septuagint; the third comprising a history of the Hebrew text, the Septuagint version, and the Latin Vulgate; and the fourth giving an account of the other Greek versions—namely, those of Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion, with the Hexapla of Origen, and other ancient editions. In 1689 Hody wrote the Prolegomena to the Chronicle of John Malela, printed at Oxford; and in 1690 he was made chaplain to Stillington, bishop of Worcester. The deprivation of the norjuring bishops involved him in a controversy with Mr Dodwell, and gave occasion to a number of polemical pieces, which have long ceased to possess any interest. His support of the ruling party of the church in this controversy recommended him to Tillotson, archbishop of Canterbury, who appointed him his domestic chaplain, an office which he continued to hold under Dr Tenison. In 1698 he was appointed regius professor of Greek in the University of Oxford, and in 1704 he was instituted to the archdeaconry of the same place. Hody died Jan. 20, 1705. He left behind him in manuscript a valuable work, published in 1742 by Dr Jebb, under the title of De Graecis Illustribus linguae Graece literarumque humaniorum Instauratoribus, eorum vitis, scriptis, et elogiosis libri duo. Prefixed to it is an account in Latin of the author's life, extracted from a manuscript in English left by himself.