Friday, May 10, 2024

It is the 10th of May 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Late 19th century Cambridge was a heady time amidst theological battles over higher criticism from Germany and the battle for the should of the Anglican Church between the high and low church factions. Cambridge was known for giants like Wescott and Hort, whose Greek New Testament would be the standard for its day, and J.B. Lightfoot, the theologian and Bishop, who wrote commentaries and a popular translation of the New Testament in modern English.

But amongst these giants was the lesser known, quiet and sickly and perhaps shy Henry Barclay Swete whose work would have a lasting impact on the Anglican Church and on subsequent generations of bible scholars.

Swete was born in 1835 to his father, John, a minister in the church of England, and his mother, Caroline. He was one of twelve but the only born to Caroline, who would die soon after his birth to pulmonary tuberculosis. The fact that he, too, would suffer from a weak chest made him anxious that he, too, would die young.

He was raised by his oldest sister, Anne, who imparted her love of scripture to him and taught him to read Greek. Fear of his indifferent stepmother made him shy, and he reveled in the privacy of the family garden. At 17, he went off to King’s College in preparation for Cambridge (he favored Oxford, but his father was wary of the Anglo-Catholic movement at the school).

He was at Cambridge from 1854 to 1858, taking a degree in the classics with an eye towards ordination and working in the Church of England. He graduated and was elected a fellow. He was ordained in 1858 and would work in a few parishes, one being under his father. He was surprised to be elected dean of his old college in 1865. He was not especially popular, but according to one source, he “learned, exact, and clear.”  

He preferred to be active in parish life. He was a supporter of the local Sunday school and asked the church of England’s Waif’s and Stray’s Society to open a boy's home in one of his parishes. His health caused him to leave England for a season in which he visited the holy lands and used his experience there to enliven his sermons with stories and recollections from the places he saw.

He was asked back to be a tutor at Cambridge in 1872. He would resign but stay on as a lecturer. He would teach preaching at King’s College- a practical class fitting his desire to be of practical service to the flock.

While he saw himself primarily as a pastor and preacher, he was assiduous in writing lectures, theological texts, a new translation of the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek), and bible commentaries. With the Regius Professor at Cambridge, Westcott, made bishop of Durham, Swete was surprised to be elected to that august position. He spent his time writing, occasionally venturing out on a tricycle (that’s right, a tricycle) to dine with friends. A contemporary wrote: “Dr. Swete will probably be more widely known to future generations by his edition of the Apocalypse than by any other of his works.” And it is momentary in the Apocalypse (the book of revelation) that he is best known.

He disliked innovation and saw the Apocalypse as being torn apart by higher critics who distrusted the traditional and foundational teachings of the church as well as the innovators tying contemporary history to the interpretation of the millennium and second coming. As a translator of the Septuagint, he noted that the Apocalypse is most steeped in Hebrew imagery of all the New Testament books. His view could be considered “preterist” as the events predicted he believed to have taken place in the past and the millennium to have begun with the finished work of Christ- he followed Augustine and other Fathers in this. He was familiar with new critics, but the commentary followed a simple verse-by-verse interpretation with the Greek and English text in columns and always with a practical view towards preaching. The history of the exegesis of the book of Revelation requires a nod to the shy scholar, the country parson and Regius Professor Henry Barclay Swete, who, despite his frailty, lived until this day, the 10th of May in 1917- born in 1835 Swete was 83 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and, appropriately from the Apocalypse- Revelation chapter 1:

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 10th of May 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who also does his parish visitations on Tricycles- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who would like to reintroduce and normalize tricycle riding- it’s sturdier- 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.