Origen (c. 186 255 CE) was one of the great thinkers and writers of the third-century Church. His Commentary on John, written between 226 and 229, represents the height of his biblical scholarship. In it, he combated rising Gnostic interpretations of the Johannine gospel that asserted doctrines such as the existence of two gods. Unfortunately, only nine books of the original work are extant. In this 1896 publication, biblical scholar Alan England Brooke (1863 1939) of Cambridge University provides the revised Greek text. Volume 1 includes an introductory discussion of extant manuscripts and...

Origen (c. 186 255 CE) was one of the great thinkers and writers of the third-century Church. His Commentary on John, written between 226 and 229, represents the height of his biblical scholarship. In it, he combated rising Gnostic interpretations of the Johannine gospel that asserted doctrines such as the existence of two gods. Unfortunately, only nine books of the original work are extant. In this 1896 publication, biblical scholar Alan England Brooke (1863 1939) of Cambridge University provides the revised Greek text. Volume 2 includes Books 19, 20, 28 and 32 together with various...

Edward Bean Underhill (1813 1901), the energetic and much-travelled secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, was active throughout his life in publishing and researching Baptist history. This 1881 biography of his recently-deceased friend James Phillippo (1798 1879) is based on diaries, a manuscript autobiography and papers made available to Underhill by Phillippo's family. Phillippo devoted over fifty years to Baptist missionary work in Jamaica and was a fierce advocate for the abolition of slavery. He landed in Jamaica in 1823, and developed a strong following, despite being banned from...

This book first appeared in 1849, during the renaissance of English Catholicism that followed the 1829 Relief Act. It contains three anonymous translations of early modern biographies. The first, published in Latin in Cologne in 1617 by Sebastiano Berettari (1543 1622), and translated here from an Italian manuscript version of 1670, focuses on the Jesuit missionary to Brazil Joseph Anchieta (1534 97), praising his 'talent and diligence in human affairs' and his 'heroic virtues'. The second, based on Caspar Peter Lull's account published in both Latin and German in 1682, briefly describes the...

In 1829 the Church Missionary Society began operations in the African kingdom of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). The Anglican clergyman Charles Isenberg (1806 64) joined the mission there in 1835, followed by Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810 81) in 1837. Soon afterwards, opposition to the Society's presence in Abyssinia caused them to leave. However, they were determined to establish a base in the central Ethiopian kingdom of Shoa (Shewa), and did so in 1839, entering from the Yemeni port of Mocha. Isenberg stayed in the capital, Ankobar, from 7 June until 6 November 1839, while Krapf remained until 1842 and...

The Revd Samuel Marsden (1765 1838) was an influential religious figure in Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and having spent time in Australia as a missionary to convicts and aborigines, from 1814 until his death he worked as a missionary to the Maori in New Zealand. First published in 1858, this biography, which uses Marsden's own letters and memoirs by friends and colleagues to explore his life and work, was edited by the historian J. B. Marsden (1803 70) who was not in fact related to his subject. Vivid and anecdotal, the work reveals Marsden's...

This two-volume biography of George Augustus Selwyn (1809 78), the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, after whom Selwyn College, Cambridge, was later named, was published in 1879. Selwyn was ordained in 1834 and served as curate at Windsor while tutoring at Eton; in 1840, when New Zealand was declared an independent British colony, he was chosen as first bishop of the newly established diocese. The declared aim was to develop an Anglican organisation for the growing European settlement, while resisting too much state control, and by 1857 Selwyn had drafted a constitution for the Church of...

The scholar and philosopher Philo Judaeus born around 25 BCE in Alexandria, blended his knowledge of Jewish law and scripture with his command of Greek philosophy in his influential works, ensuring that he became a subject of intellectual enquiry in his own right. However, James Rendel Harris (1852 1941), a biblical scholar, palaeographer and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, thought Philo too 'slenderly prized' in Britain. Harris intended this collection, published in 1886, to bring together surviving fragments of Philo's work. In a detailed introduction, he explains the complicated tasks...

A. Lukyn Williams (1853 1943) presents here a wide range of examples of Christian apologetic writings about Judaism. Taking material from the earliest years of the Christian Church until the Renaissance, the book investigates sources with Syriac, Greek, Spanish, and Latin origins. It includes observations on lost or possible books such as the first 'Book of Testimonies' posited by J. Rendel Harris (with whom Williams did not fully agree) which pre-dated the Biblical Gospels; incomplete early treatises; and scriptural extracts. Concerned more with historical detail than with exegesis,...

In this two-volume work, J. Rendel Harris (1852 1941) fundamentally shaped Biblical scholarship in the twentieth century, arguing for the existence of a 'first known treatise on Christian theology', antedating the New Testament. A palaeographer, Harris examined recurring textual corruptions of Old Testament passages in early Christian writers and surmised an underlying collection, which he called the 'Testimony Book'. The book, Harris believed, collected Biblical testimonia passages prophesying Christ in order to prove the legitimacy of the new Christian faith. These arguments against Judaic...