Francis Burkitt
From Textus Receptus
Francis Crawford Burkitt FBA (3 September 1864 – 1935) was an English theologian. As Norris Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1905 until shortly before his death, Burkitt was a sturdy critic of the notion of a distinct "Caesarean Text" of the New Testament put forward by B. H. Streeter and others.
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Education and career
Burkitt was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, graduating BA as 28th Wrangler in 1886, and gained first-class honours in the theological tripos in 1888. Received MA in 1890, and Bachelor of Divinity and Doctorate in Divinity in 1915. Lecturer in Palaeography in 1903-1905, Norrisian Professor of Divinity, Cambridge 1905-1936 Chief promoter of and author of the Preface for the English translation of Albert Schweitzer's book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, by W. Montgomery.
Burkitt accompanied Robert Bensly, James Rendel Harris, and sisters Agnes and Margaret Smith on the 1893 expedition to Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt to examine a Syriac palimpsest of the Gospels discovered there the previous year by the sisters. Burkitt played an important role in deciphering the text and in subsequent publication of the team's findings.
Burkitt was a noted figure at Cambridge in 1912–1935 for his chairmanship of the Cambridge New Testament Seminar, attended by other prominent theologians, including Robert Newton Flew, who left an account of it in an obituary for Burkitt in the Proceedings of the British Academy. He was also president of the Cambridge Philological Society from 1904 to 1905.
The Burkitt Medal, awarded by the British Academy, is named in his honour.
Works
Books
Burkitt, Francis C. (1894). The Book of Rules of Tyconius: newly edited from the mss., with an introduction and an examination into the text of the Biblical quotations. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 6132125.
———; Bensly, Robert L.; Harris, J. Rendel (1894). The Four Gospels in Syriac, transcribed from the Sinaitic palimpsest. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780837013770. OCLC 2433500.
——— (1896). The Old Latin and the Itala: With an appendix containing the text of the S. Gallen Palimpsest of Jeremiah. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 3314332.
——— (1899). Early Christianity Outside the Roman Empire, two lectures delivered at Trinity College, Dublin . Cambridge, England: The University Press. OCLC 457206218 – via Wikisource. [scan Wikisource link]
——— (1901). Two Lectures on the Gospels. London & New York: Macmillan. OCLC 3381853.
——— (1901). Saint Ephraim's Quotations From The Gospel. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 3792630.
———; Kenyon, Frederic G.; Headlam, Arthur C.; et al. (1902). Criticism of the New Testament: St. Margaret's Lectures 1902. New York: Scribners Sons. OCLC 4107994.
——— (1904). Early Eastern Christianity: Saint Margaret's Lectures on the Syriac Speaking Church 1904. London: John Murray. OCLC 941047442.
——— (1904). Evangelion da-mepharreshe: The Curetonian Version of the Four Gospels, with the readings of the Sinai Palimpsest. I. Text; II: Introduction and Notes. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 557772466.
——— (1907). The Gospel History and its Transmission. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
——— (1914). Jewish and Christian Apocalypses: Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 1913. London: The British Academy. OCLC 458985970.
——— (1924). Christian Beginnings: Three Lectures. London: University of London Press. OCLC 253528260.
——— (1925). The Religion of the Manichees: Donnellan Lectures 1924. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 79046876.
———; Robinson, Theodore H.; Hunkin, Joseph W. (1929). Palestine in General History: Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 1926. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1091929228.
——— (1930). Christian Worship. Christian religion, its origin and progress. 3. The church of to-day, pt. 2. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 1014109.
———; Gardner-Smith, P.; Raven, Charles E. (1930). The Christian Religion and Its Origin and Progress, Volume 3 :The Church of Today. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 912955287.
——— (1932). Jesus Christ: An Historical Outline. London: Blackie & Son. OCLC 472794866.
——— (1932). Church and Gnosis: a Study of Christian Thought and Speculation in the Second Century: The Morse lectures for 1931. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 640005752.
———; Goad, Harold E.; Little, A. G. (1932). Franciscan Essays II. British Society of Franciscan Studies, Extra series. Manchester: The University Press. OCLC 1096531998.
