Joshua Hall McIlvaine (1815–1897) was an American clergyman known for his work in philology and orientalism. McIlvaine was born in Lewes, Delaware, 4 March 1815. McIlvaine graduated from Princeton in 1837 and from the theological seminary there in 1840. He then pastored successively of Presbyterian churches at Little Falls, Utica, and Rochester, New York. From 1860-1870 he was professor of belles-lettres at Princeton. From 1870-1874 he was pastor of the High Street church in Newark, New Jersey. While at Rochester, he opposed evangelist Charles Finney, but changed his mind when he saw the results that followed Finney's evangelistic work (Wright, 1891).