Benjamin Kennicott (4 April 1718 – 18 September 1783), was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
churchman and
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
scholar.
He was born at
TotnesTotnes is a market town at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
. He succeeded his father as master of a charity school, but the generosity of some friends enabled him to go to
Wadham College, OxfordWadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
, in 1744, and he distinguished himself in Hebrew and divinity. While an undergraduate he published two dissertations,
On the Tree of Life in Paradise, with some Observations on the Fall of Man, and
On the Oblations of Cain and Abel, which obtained him a B.A.
Benjamin Kennicott (4 April 1718 – 18 September 1783), was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
churchman and
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
scholar.
He was born at
TotnesTotnes is a market town at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
,
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
. He succeeded his father as master of a charity school, but the generosity of some friends enabled him to go to
Wadham College, OxfordWadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
, in 1744, and he distinguished himself in Hebrew and divinity. While an undergraduate he published two dissertations,
On the Tree of Life in Paradise, with some Observations on the Fall of Man, and
On the Oblations of Cain and Abel, which obtained him a B.A. before the statutory time. In 1747 he was elected a fellow of
Exeter College, OxfordExeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, and in 1750 he took his degree of
M.A.A master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
In 1764 he was made a fellow of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
, and in 1767 keeper of the Radcliffe Library. He was also a canon of
Christ Church, OxfordThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
(1770), and rector of
CulhamCulham is a village and civil parish on the north bank of the River Thames, just over south of Abingdon in Oxfordshire.-From Saxon times until the English Civil War:...
(1753) in
OxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
, and was subsequently given the living of
MenheniotMenheniot is a small village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, UK. It has a population of 1,605 , a state primary school, a , one pub, one shop and a post office....
,
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
, which he was unable to visit and resigned two years before his death.
His chief work is the
Vetus Testamentum hebraicum cum variis lectionibus (1776-1780). Before this appeared he had written two dissertations entitled
The State of the Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament considered, published respectively in 1753 and 1759, which were designed to combat contemporary ideas as to the "absolute integrity" of the received Hebrew text. The first contains "a comparison of
I Chron.The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible . In the masoretic text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim...
xi. with
2 Sam.The Books of Samuel are part of the Tanakh and also of the Christian Old Testament. The work was originally written in Hebrew, and the Book of Samuel originally formed a single text, as they are often considered today in Hebrew bibles.Together with what is now referred to as the Book of Kings,...
v. and xxiii. and observations on seventy manuscripts, with an extract of mistakes and various readings"; the second defends the claims of the
Samaritan PentateuchThe Samaritan Torah or Samaritan Pentateuch is a version of the Torah or Pentateuch that is used by the Samaritans....
, assails the correctness of the printed copies of the Aramaic translation, gives an account of Hebrew manuscripts of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
known to be extant, and catalogues one hundred manuscripts preserved in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1760 Kennicott issued proposals for collating all Hebrew manuscripts of date prior to the invention of printing. Subscriptions to the amount of nearly £10,000 were obtained, and many scholars agreed to participate, Bruns of Helmstadt making himself specially useful as regarded manuscripts in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. Between 1760 and 1769 ten "annual accounts" of the progress of the work were given; in its course 615 Hebrew manuscripts and 52 printed editions of the Bible were either wholly or partially collated, and use was also made (but often very perfunctorily) of the quotations in the
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
.
The materials thus collected, when properly arranged and prepared for the press, extended to 30 volumes. The text finally followed in printing was that of Van der Hooght—unpointed however, the points having been disregarded in collation—and the various readings were printed at the foot of the page. The Samaritan Pentateuch stands alongside the Hebrew in parallel columns. The
Dissertatio generalis, appended to the second volume, contains an account of the manuscripts and other authorities collated, and also a review of the Hebrew text, divided into periods, and beginning with the formation of the Hebrew canon after the return of the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s from the exile.
Kennicott's great work was in one sense a failure. It yielded no materials of value for the emendation of the received text, and by disregarding the
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Publications
A full facsimileA facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible using, normally, some form of photographic technique...
of the Bodleian Library's Kennicott Bible, Ms Kennicott 1, has been published.