Wednesday, June 19, 2024

It is the 19th of June 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I begin with apologies as I teased a show that is NOT forthcoming yesterday. You see, today’s date came with a special note on my desk from a friend of the show and listener: Dr. Richard from Ladysmith, Wisconsin- home of many, many water parks and where I wish they would take their rights to the Upper Peninsula a little more seriously.  

Richard noted that it was on this, the 19th of June in 1915, that Pat Buttram was born- he studied to become a Methodist minister in his home state of Alabama before his sense of humor and unique voice made him a star in radio and early TV. Maybe this would work for the almanac, as he didn’t become a minister but instead, a celebrity who used his money to help his brother become a minister and to create a camp for the disabled. Of course, Buttram interests me not only for his cameo in Back to the Future III in a saloon but also as the one and only voice of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Disney’s animated Robin Hood.

But being a villain in my favorite animated movie- even as a minister in training and long-time Christian in Hollywood and friend of Gene Autry- the singing Cowboy and original owner of the Los Angeles Angels doesn’t allow him to elbow past John Brown- a Scottish divine with a remarkable story who died on this, the 19th of June in 1787.

This is John Brown of Haddington- 1722 to 1787. Not John Brown the Abolitionist or John Brown the evangelist in the American South after whom the Arkansas college is named after.

This John Brown was born in Eastern Scotland to poor parents- the son of a weaver. He only attended school for a few terms but learned Latin then and, from that, the ability to learn other languages using grammar and primers.

He was orphaned at a young age and took up odd jobs from government soldier against the Jacobite’s to that of shepherd. His first shepherding job was a with pious but illiterate shepherd that John would read the Scriptures too.

Obsessed with the Bible and leaning the original languages John set out one morning from Perthshire to walk the 48 miles to St. Andrews to a University bookstore. The story is told that the threadbare shepherd asked for a copy of the Greek New Testament and was told “boy, if you can read that you can have it for free”. The 16 year old boy walked home that day with his new prize.

A story is told that he was accused of witchcraft on account of his seemingly preternatural abilities to learn other languages- but this may be a story told later to emphasize his unique abilities.

He would serve as a schoolmaster for some time before being called to minister to the Secession church in Haddington- the Secession church was one of the divisions of the Presbyterian church in Scotland as it dealt with fights over who had the authority to appoint pastors: the people or patrons.

Nevertheless, Brown’s ministry and later teaching at the denominational school would stress the need to communicate the breadth of the Scriptures to the congregation. He was a simple and self-educated man who believed the Scriptures to be self-interpreting and validating- the only rule for life and faith. This would lead him to publish the work he is best known for his Self Interpreting Bible (along with his Dictionary of the Bible). The Self Interpreting Bible was first published in Edinburgh in 1778, with the first American edition printed in 1792 under the subscription model and sent to, among others, George Washington.

“Self-interpreting” was a reference to the copious notes and 200,000 cross-references included by Brown. The Bible would become a favorite in the UK and United States, being sold with various frontispieces and illustrations (although this would be controversial as the book would become a kind of coffee table book, and the illustrations were sometimes criticized for taking away from the content of the book). While Brown served as a minister and professor, his legacy is not only his “self-interpreting” Bible but also his ability to take Scriptures, doctrine, and church history and distill the marrow of the topic for the relatively unlearned. The poor shepherd with the common name would spawn generations of Scottish ministers with his name but also countless more with his dictionary, portraits from church history, and one of the first more “inductive study bibles,” the “Self Interpreting Bible” of 1778. John Brown, born in 1722, died on the 19th of June in 1787 at the age of 65.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Psalm 52- after the famous penitential Psalm 51 and after the Psalm begins with a woe to evil ends with a word of comfort.

But I am like an olive tree
    flourishing in the house of God;


I trust in God’s unfailing love

    for ever and ever.

For what you have done I will always praise you

    in the presence of your faithful people.


And I will hope in your name,

    for your name is good.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 19th of June 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who swears by his Manga Bible as a replacement for his older Brick and Action bibles- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who read his son from the Brick /Lego bible- the book of Revelation, and neither of us has completely healed- 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.