REVIEW AND PURCHASE THE ARAMAIC LITERATURE OF J. RENDEL HARRIS

One of the leading luminaries in the bringing forth of the ancient Syriac Bible (and many other ancient Syriac Biblical manuscripts) was J. Rendel Harris, Professor of Biblical Languages at Cambridge. He spent as much time in the Middle East as possible, and during a leave of absence in 1889-90, he purchased 47 Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Ethiopic rolls and codices dating from as early as the 13th century on biblical and grammatical themes. Harris, with Walter Wood, class of 1867, presented these manuscripts to the College. Asked about the source of the documents, Harris replied that "they were all acquired by the lawful, though sometimes tedious, processes of Oriental commerce."

It was Dr. Harris who provided Dr. Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson with the contacts in Egypt that enabled them to visit the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mt. Sinai. This collaboration led to the discovery of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. After showing the photographs of the Palimpsest to Dr. Harris, he decided to return to Mt. Sinai with a team of scholars that included the sisters, F.C. Burkitt, R.L. Bensley, their wives, and himself. In the time spent at Mt. Sinai, the team of Biblical scholars successfully transcribed the ancient manuscript completely and in so doing documented the oldest Biblical document in existance.

Woodbrooke, a Quaker study centre, was established in 1903 to strengthen the religious life of the Society of Friends. It was the founding member of the Selly Oak Colleges at Birmingham, England. From its beginnings, Woodbrooke's educational program attracted an international student body, representing a variety of religious faiths. Early on, Woodbrooke enrolled numbers of Dutch students, due to the Dutch academic connections of its first head, J. Rendell Harris.

The first Director of Studies was J. Rendell Harris. A visitor to Woodbrooke will see there a photograph of an elderly bearded figure taken in later years; and perhaps will think "a venerable Doctor indeed, but a figure of the past". A different impression is received if one reads his address on "The Bible and modern thought" to the Manchester Conference, delivered only eight years before going to Woodbrooke; this address was one of those which prompted a Friend to urge the Society to register a protest against what was being said. Rendell Harris went to Woodbrooke from a Professorship at Leyden in Holland and some of his Dutch students, not wishing to lose him as a teacher, followed him there. This was the beginning of the international connections which have always been such an important part of Woodbrooke life.

A regular course of study became established at Woodbrooke, based on the studies of Quakerism, the Bible, and International Relations. The students were by no means limited to British Friends. Many came from overseas to learn more about Quakerism and to take their experience back to their own countries. There came a time when it was not unusual to have 20 or more different nationalities together at Woodbrooke at one time.

There have naturally been very considerable changes over the years in the nature of the studies and the service which Woodbrooke provides for the Society; but Woodbrooke has been a strength to the Society and a unifying factor throughout its history. There has always been a welcome for Friends (which of course includes Attenders) from any part of the world and of all religious or theological affinities, although there have doubtless been times when more evangelical Friends will have felt out of sympathy with the liberal approach of most of the Woodbrooke scholars.

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