Thursday, November 10, 2022

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 10th of November 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Ok- we’ve got a character for you today- one of those people you may not have heard of, but you know many of the people and events with which they were involved.

He was Granville Sharp, born on the 10th of November in 1735. He Was the 9th of 14 children of Judith and John Sharp. John was a theologian and author whose father was the Archbishop of York. Granville would remain in the Anglican Church, although he was fond of working with any believing Christians (his work with a para-church ministry caused the vicar of his church to refuse him a funeral sermon!).

He went to school in Durham, where he was born, but then went to London as an apprentice draper. But he was an autodidact (self-taught man). As a draper, he would work with a quaker, a Presbyterian, a Catholic, an Atheist, and a Socinian (that’s like a Unitarian). He would get into theological debates but was uncertain of his arguments and had not learned the original Greek and Hebrew. And so he taught himself both languages. In biblical Greek, there was for years something called the Sharps Rule- in short; it argued that in Greek, when the copulate καὶ connects two personal nouns of the same case, if the former has the definite article and the latter has not, they both belong to the same person. This would mean that when the New Testament referenced God and Jesus but only used the article for one, it asserted that God and Jesus were the same. If this is the stuff that floats your boat, google “Granville sharp rule Daniel Wallace”- that will give you a bigger picture of this.

Granville became a fishmonger and then a civil servant working in the tower of London. His Uncle, an Anglican priest, tried to get him to take holy orders, but he was more interested in writing.

In 1765 an event took place at his brother's house that would change the direction of his life. His brother was a surgeon who often saw the poor in his house. One such man needing attention was an enslaved Barbadian named Jonathan Strong. Strong had been beaten by his master and left for dead. After the Sharps rehabilitated him over two years, his old master recognized him, abducted him, and sold him to another man. Granville would get a writ of Habeus Corpus, thus sending the matter before the courts. The court ruled in favor of the slave trader, but it sent Granville on a mission- he would write on the abolition of slavery and help begin the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave trade. While he would not live to see Wilberforce and others end slavery in Britain, he contributed to many of the arguments used.

He was also the leading force behind the ill-fated colony of Sierra Leone. This project would repatriate enslaved Africans but collapse under prejudice, greed, and native concerns.

He also had a 30+ year correspondence with Benjamin Rush, an American Founding Father with whom he discussed the problem of slavery for Christians. He also corresponded with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. Sharp effectively argued for the removal of the oath of supremacy for American Anglicans who needed to be ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury for reasons of apostolic succession.

His fondness for the American colonies, the French revolutionaries, and the Irish independence movement cost him his clerical job with the state. Still, by then, he had other means of supporting himself.

In 1804 he was chosen as the first chairman of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He would continue to write theological tracts but begin to be a little eccentric in his old age. He would write on prophecy and current events- he suggested that Napoleon was the Little Horn in Daniel chapter 8 (fun fact: Napoleon wasn’t short- he was likely 5’7” but was portrayed as quick in British propaganda for reasons beyond the scope of this podcast).

The work of Granville Sharp was recognized in his lifetime by Harvard College, the College of William and Mary, Providence College, Rhode Island College, and Williamsburg with honorary doctorates.

Granville Sharp would die in 1813; Westminster Abbey has a memorial for him. Born in 1735, he was 77 years old.

The Last Word for today comes from the lectionary for today from Isaiah 57:

And it will be said:

“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”

For this is what the high and exalted One says—
 he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
 but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
 and to revive the heart of the contrite.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 10th of November 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517. org.

The show is produced by a man taller than Napoleon, Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose favorite Napoleon is the one in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.