Life

He was born in London, the son of Henry Field

Henry Field (apothecary)

-Life:Born on 29 September 1755, was the eldest son of John Field, an apothecary in extensive practice in Newgate Street, London, by his wife, Anne, daughter of Thomas Cromwell, grocer, who was a grandson of Henry Cromwell, lord deputy of Ireland...

, and educated at Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

 and Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, where he obtained a fellowship in 1824. He was ordained in 1828, and began a close study of patristic theology.

Eventually he published an emended and annotated text of Chrysostom's Homiliae in Matthaeum (Cambridge, 1839), and some years later he contributed to Edward Pusey's Bibliotheca Patrum (Oxford, 1838–1870), a similarly treated text of Chrysostom's homilies on Paul's epistles.

In 1839 he had accepted the living of Great Saxham

Great Saxham

Great Saxham is a village in Suffolk, England. The village appears as Sexham in the Domesday Book, and Saxham Magna in 1254....

, in Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, and in 1842 he was presented by his college to the rectory of Reepham in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

. He resigned in 1863, and settled at Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

, in order to devote his whole time to study.

Twelve years later he completed the Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt (Oxford, 1867–1875), now well known as Field's Hexapla

Hexapla

Hexapla is the term for an edition of the Bible in six versions. Especially it applies to the edition of the Old Testament compiled by Origen of Alexandria, which placed side by side:#Hebrew...

, a text reconstructed from the extant fragments of Origen

Origen

Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...

's work of that name, together with materials drawn from the Syro-hexaplar version

Syro-hexaplar version

The Syro-hexaplar version is the Syriac translation of the Septuagint, as revised by Origen of Alexandria in his Hexapla....

and the Septuagint of Robert Holmes and James Parsons (Oxford, 1798–1827). Field was appointed a member of the Old Testament revision company in 1870.

In his old age he published Notes on select passages of the Greek Testament : chiefly with reference to recent English versions (1881). This was reprinted posthumously with additions by the author under the title Notes on the translation of the New Testament (1899).

External links

• Notes on the translation of the New Testament