Kirsopp Lake
Encyclopedia
Kirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School
. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism
, Greek palaeography
, theology, and archaeology. He is probably best known for the massive five-volume work The Beginnings of Christianity—an edition, translation, commentary, and study of the Acts of Apostles—that he conceived and edited with F. J. Foakes-Jackson
.
, England
, on 7 April 1872, the elder of two surviving children of George Anthony Kirsopp Lake, a physician, and Isabel Oke Clark. His father came from a family of Scottish origin and Kirsopp was the family name of the boy's paternal grandmother. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and then went up to Lincoln College, Oxford
, matriculating in 1891. He attended as an Exhibitioner
and was the Skinners' Company's Scholar in 1893, finally graduating (B.A., 1895) with a second class in theology. He also attended Cuddesdon Theological College in 1895. He originally had intended to read law and to pursue a career in politics. However, an overdose of exercise, too soon after influenza, affected his heart and he was told by doctors that law and politics were out of the question. According to his son, "he was delicate and the church seemed to give the opportunity for a living and for some influence over the society
that interested him."
(1895) and served as curate
in Lumley, Durham
, where he preached to the pitmen and miners in that North Country mining district. "I do not believe that theology entered very much into his sermons," recalls his son, "but he did conduct The Mikado
and he still tells the story of the brawny pitman who, having rescued him from the attack of a drunken navvy from a neighbouring village and listened to his comments on the situation, said 'Mon, he's no much to look at, but has he no a bonny tongue?!'" After a years service he was ordained priest (1896), however he had further issues with his heart and decided to return to Oxford, to the less rigorous climate of the South in order to improve his health.
He earned his M.A. in 1897 and from that year to 1904 he served as curate
of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford
, a much more academic atmosphere. During these years, in order to supplement his income, he also took a job cataloging Greek manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
. That activity aroused in him an interest in the Synoptic problem and matters of New Testament textual criticism, and saw the publication of his first book, the very useful handbook The Text of the New Testament (1900). Some sixty years later Stephen Neill
describes the 6th ed. (1928) as "still the best short introduction to New Testament textual criticism that exists in any language." It was most likely the influence exerted over him by F. C. Conybeare, Fellow of University College, Oxford
, which was the main factor in Lake's development. It was Conybeare who initiated Lake into the mysteries and problems of New Testament palaeography and textual criticism. Lake's palaeographical interests lead him in search of more manuscripts and in 1898 he undertook a trip to the libraries of Basel
, Venice
, and Rome
. The fruits of that trip were published in Codex 1 of the Gospels and Its Allies (1902). Lake had discovered a textual family of New Testament
manuscripts known as Family 1
(also known as Lake group). To this family belong minuscules: 1
, 118
, 131
, and 209
. In the summers of 1899 and 1903 (and many thereafter) he undertook trips in search of manuscripts to the Greek monasteries on Mount Athos
. He published (1903, 1905, 1907) editions of several manuscripts uncovered there, a catalogue of all the manuscripts inspected, and even a history of the monasteries themselves (1909). In 1902 he won the Arnold Essay Prize at Oxford University for his study "The Greek Monasteries in South Italy," which was published in four installments in the Journal of Theological Studies, vols. 4 and 5.
On 10 November 1903, he married Helen Courthope Forman (1874 – 22 October 1958), the daughter of Freda Gardiner and Sidney Mills Forman, a businessman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland
. They had two children, Gerard Anthony Christian Kirsopp (27 December 1904 – 3 September 1972) and Agnes Freda Isabel Kirsopp
(31 July 1909 – 3 November 1993). It was also during these later years of his curacy that Lake "began to doubt the teachings of the church and to think in terms of history and exegesis rather than theology and parish difficulties." As his son reports, my father "has often said that the turning point in his belief in the church came when his Vicar suggested that prayers be said at Vespers
for a Mr. Brown, since the doctor had just announced that there was no hope for him. The story may be apocryphal but I think it is indicative of his point of view." His daughter Agnes, "in conversations, was less polite and oblique: 'Heresy' was her word, pronounced with glee and gusto." This type of thinking may have run in the family, for Lake told Alfred North Whitehead
in 1922 that his father, the physician, "being asked late in life what had done the most in his lifetime to relieve human suffering, answered, 'Anaesthesia and the decay of Christian theology.'"
, the oldest university in the Netherlands
. He taught there for ten years, from 1904 until 1914. His inaugural lecture, which he delivered in English, was on "The Influence of Textual Criticism on the Exegesis of the New Testament." At the close of the lecture he looked his students in the face. "I am very sorry," he said, "that for a few months I shall be handicapped by my inability to use your language, but I hope that by next September I shall be in a position to lecture in Dutch
, at least partially, even though it may be necessary to apologize for frequent solecisms, and for an imperfect pronunciation." He kept his promise and quickly learnt to lecture in Dutch
. The lecture was published in 1904 and has proven to be a seminal study; though, as Elliott has noted: "It has taken nearly a century for his general thesis that textual variants must be used as an invaluable source for our study of the history of the church to bear fruit in a determined way."
In addition to his inaugural lecture, Lake published two important books on historical and exegetical matters concerning the New Testament during his time in Leiden: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1907) and The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin (1911). As Metzger explains: "These studies, particularly the latter, revealed Lake's ability to analyze and evaluate complex historical and literary data and to set forth scholarly reconstructions with clarity and a certain persuasiveness." In Historical Evidence Lake sets forth his approach: "The first task of the historical inquirer is to collect the pieces of evidence; the second is to discuss the trustworthiness and meaning of each separate piece; and the third is to reconstruct the events to which the evidence relates" (p. 6). As for the reconstruction, he explains: "In any such attempt it is desirable to remember that the reconstruction of an original tradition from forms of later dates and of divergent contents must be guided by exactly the same principle as is the reconstruction of an original text from a number of extant MSS. In each case the fundamental problem is the retracing of the line of development followed by the various authorities, and the solution depends chiefly on the ability to detect errors of transmission and to explain their existence" (p. 167). As for The Earlier Epistles, Neill
writes: "I think that those of us who read Lake when we were young will be inclined to think that this is one of the best books on the New Testament that has ever been written in the English language. This is the way it ought to be done. Under Lake's skillful guidance, we feel ourselves one with those new and struggling groups of Christians, in all the perplexities of trying to discover what it means to be a Christian in a non-Christian world. And there is the Apostle, so very much in working clothes and without a halo; we feel in our bones the passionate eagerness of Paul for better news from Corinth, the passionate relief when the good news arrives." The book brought the conclusions of the German History of religions
school to the attention of English-speaking world for the first time, and all later New Testament study has been influenced by this book.
True to the second component of his professorship, Lake produced a number of works on early Christian literature. He was a member of a special committee of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology charged with investigating the text of the New Testament as it has been preserved in the Apostolic Fathers
. His specific responsibility was the Didache
and the results of his investigations were published in 1905. For the Loeb Classical Library
series he prepared a new edition of the Greek
texts of the Apostolic Fathers
, which in keeping with the series were furnished with a facing English translation and a short introduction. The finished work was issued in two volumes, Nos. 24 and 25, published in 1912 and 1913. Also during this time he traveled to the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg together with his first wife Helen during the summer of 1908 and photographed the very important Codex Sinaiticus
and then published in facsimile
the New Testament along with the Epistle of Barnabas
and the Shepherd of Hermas (1911) and the Old Testament (1922), following another visit to the library in 1913. These volumes were furnished with valuable introductions and were a marked improvement from the earlier editions of Tischendorf
. In 1913 Lake was a favored candidate for lecturer in theology at Trinity College, Cambridge
, but word of his unorthodox views reached the Master of Trinity, Henry Montagu Butler
, and the choice in consequence fell on the other candidate Frederick Tennant. Again, in early 1914 some of his friends sought to secure his appointment to a canonry in Westminster Abbey
, but the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
, having read Lake's Historical Evidence, decided that he could not nominate him. As his friend H. D. A. Major explained, Lake "would gladly have remained in England. But his intellectual originality combined with the fearlessness of his utterances—he was neither a 'safe man' nor a 'yes man'—proved detrimental to his promotion both in academic and ecclesiastical circles."
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
and to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston
. Just before he was to leave for Europe he was offered a position at Harvard Divinity School
, which he accepted. In the announcement of his hiring it was reported: "He comes when there is no definite gap to be filled, but merely because his eminent scholarship could add to the teaching strength of Harvard." From 1914 until 1919 he was professor of early Christian literature. Then in 1919, following the retirement of Ephraim Emerton
, he was appointed to a Harvard chair becoming the Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, which he held until 1932. From 1915 to 1919 he was also a lecturer in New Testament at Union Theological Seminary
in New York City.
While at Harvard Lake labored to bring forth the monumental five volume work The Beginnings of Christianity. Beginnings was a project that had been conceived during conversations with F. J. Foakes-Jackson
while Lake was still at the Leiden University
, sometime before 1912 (vol. v, p. vii). It sought to investigate the view "that Christianity in the first century achieved a synthesis between the Greco-Oriental and the Jewish religions in the Roman Empire. The preaching of repentance, and of the Kingdom of God begun by Jesus passed into the sacramental cult of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the details are complex and obscure. What were the exact elements in this synthesis? How was it effected?" (vol. i, p. vii). The undertaking began at Cambridge University in the form of a seminar, presided over by F. C. Burkitt. It "was largely attended by scholars of the most varied interests in the University, not only theological, but historical, classical, mathematical, and Oriental ... Lake paid frequent visits from Leiden" and "the United States and Canada were not unrepresented" (vol. v, p. vii). The project was to be a grand endeavor. The five volumes that were ultimately published only comprise "Part I". As they explain: "Before, however, attempting to reconstruct this history we believed it necessary to study Acts in the light of the results of modern criticism. ... Later on we hope to return to the subject and reconsider the narrative of the life of Jesus, and the influence on the Church of his own teaching and of the teaching of others about him" (vol. ii, p. v). As it turned out they were never able to "return to the subject" and complete the project. "In sum," writes Baird, "The Beginnings of Christianity is a monumental work—the most extensive investigation of a NT book by English-speaking scholarship" (cf. vol. v, p. ix).
In 1932 Lake's personal affairs produced quite a scandal. On 18 August 1932, Lake obtained a Reno divorce from his first wife Helen, whom he had been separated from for five years. Then, on 16 December 1932, he married his former student and collaborator Silva Tipple New (18 March 1898 – 30 April 1983). She was 26 years his junior, married, with four children. They had one child John Anthony Kirsopp (b. 13 June 1928). At the time Silva was a professor of classics at Bryn Mawr
, and an accomplished scholar in her own right. She would continue to collaborate with Lake for the rest of his life. The divorce caused such a stir that Lake was forced to resign the Winn chair on 28 September 1932 and became professor of history in Harvard College, a position he held until his retirement in 1938. Perhaps their most significant project was a magnificent series of ten large albums of facsimiles entitled Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts to the Year 1200 (1934-39). These portfolios of reproductions were organized by location and contained photographic specimens of some 400 manuscripts. These were important publications, for they encouraged scholars to look beyond the more well known manuscripts and realize the worth of encompassing a wide range of textual variants in any editing of the Greek text. Together they also founded in 1934 a series of monographs entitled Studies and Documents and contributed a valuable study in 1941 on Family 13
(The Ferrar Group) another New Testament manuscript group.
During his 23 years at Harvard, Lake continuously taught one very popular course, the Bible in English, familiarly known as "English 35". When he taught the course for the first time in 1914, the course had less than 40 students, whereas his final year there were over 250—a "625 per cent increase," as the Harvard Crimson touted when announcing his final lecture would be 16 December 1937. His book An Introduction to the New Testament (1937) is a "skeleton of the course." However, "it does not give the flesh put on that skeleton by the lecturer" (p. ix). It was of course that "flesh" which made the course so interesting, due to Lake's lively imagination and engaging wit. As he himself explains: "The most important thing in a teacher's life is not to impart the knowledge of facts—which can be found much better in books—but to encourage another generation to look steadfastly at the vision which it sees, and to face its own problems in the light of that vision, controlled and guided by an understanding of what the past has done or not done" (Paul, His Heritage and Legacy, 1934, p. xii). He seems to have been effective, for James Luther Adams
, one of his students during 1924-27, recalls: "It was his characteristic interest to make historical figures come alive, so that we might see their significance today and not merely study them as so many items from a dead past." "Something we all recognized in Kirsopp Lake," writes Adams, "was that he had the imagination of a Sherlock Holmes
. He took an almost childlike interest in digging out alternative answers to historical questions ... Students who thought themselves completely secularized and immune to any 'religious nonsense' attended his lectures and heard him publicly burrow down into the biblical concepts, taking as his point of departure something highly imaginative in one of the parables, and then rise up to fly with it. The students used to call his courses 'Kirsopp's Fables.'"
In later years, Lake became increasingly involved in archeological expeditions. He had remarkable abilities as an organizer and an uncanny skill in finding the necessary money to fund his various undertakings. In the spring of 1927, with Robert P. Blake, he traveled to Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
in order to study biblical manuscripts. While passing through Cairo
they met the Egyptologist Alan H. Gardiner who suggested that on their return they might stop by Serabit el-Khadim
, which was in the neighborhood of the monastery, and attempt to locate a number of previously noticed inscriptions in a Proto-Sinaitic script. As Lake remarked in his account of the adventure: "It should be noted that 'in the neighborhood' is a relative matter, for, stated in terms of time instead of space, the monastery was about as far from Serabit as New york is from San Francisco" (HTR 21 (1928): 3-4). After a week's journey on camels they were able to locate the site and the inscriptions, as well as identify two additional inscriptions not previously known. The results were published in 1928. Lake would return to further investigate the site, as well as the adjacent temple of Hathor
in 1930, this time accompanied by Silva (his future second wife), at the time a Guggenheim fellow, who would handle the photography. The results were published in 1932. A final trip was made in 1935, unfortunately this time Lake was injured during the trip. He received internal injuries when bumped by a camel, but continued the journey, and was carried by litter to the top of the mountain. After supervising the start of the excavation, his condition worsened and he was rushed to Jerusalem with his wife to receive medical attention. In 1929, Lake approached John W. Crowfoot of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem
(BSAJ) about a joint excavation with some other institutions of Samaria
, to complete the earlier work of Harvard's George A. Reisner. The dig began in 1931 and Lake was there for four seasons (1931-34), accompanied again by Silva and Blake. The joint team also had Eleazar Sukenik from Hebrew University and Kathleen Kenyon
from the BSAJ. The excavation would yield many important results. As for accommodations in the camp, Kenyon reports that "although they had a hotel-trained Egyptian cook and Palestinian servants to do the washing, the expedition staff lived in tents, sleeping on camp beds" and "the social life of the dig consisted of having cocktails at the end of the day, playing bridge after dinner, and in 1933, listening to jazz records." In 1938-39, Lake along with Silva and Robert P. Casey from Brown University
were allowed to conduct a small excavation of Van Fortress
in Turkish Armenia. For 15 years he had been seeking permission from the Turkish government to make the expedition. He told the press that until 1937, "the savage tribes of Turkish Armenia, the Kurds, have not been sufficiently pacified for the government to recommend the trip." Details of the expedition were published in 1939.
In addition to the Lowell Lectures which he delivered at the Lowell Institute
and King's Chapel
in Boston in 1913, Lake was the Haskell Lecturer at Oberlin College
in 1919; the Ingersoll Lecturer for 1922 at Harvard University
; Ichabod Spencer Lecturer at Union College
, Schenectady in 1923; and Flexner Lecturer at Bryn Mawr College
in 1932. Lake served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature
for two terms, 1941-42. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, a corresponding member of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften
, and in 1941 honorary fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford
. He received the honorary degrees of D.D. from the University of St Andrews
(1911), Th.D. from Leiden University
(1922), Litt.D. from the University of Michigan
(1926), and Ph.D. from Heidelberg University (1936). Also in 1936 he was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies from the British Academy
. Lake was a mason
and one of the driving forces in establishing The Harvard Lodge A.F. & A.M., the first academic Masonic Lodge
in the country, on 18 May 1922 and served as chaplain. His recreations were golf, chess, and croquet. Lake died of arteriosclerotic heart failure at his home in South Pasadena, California
on 10 November 1946. He was buried at Glen Haven Memorial Park, San Fernando, California.
Lake's daughter Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels
was a noted classical scholar. In later years she reflected on the impact he had on her life: "my general interests should be attributed mainly to the influence of my father who was a New testament scholar with a classical education and a passionate love of beauty. He told me the stories of the classics and, long before I could understand them, read to me a strange assortment of Browning
and the Bible; Swinburne
, Tennyson
, and Josephus
. His attitude to his own work made me think of scholarship as the opening to a world of adventure, not as a retirement from reality." His grandson Anthony Lake
is a diplomat.
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
, Greek palaeography
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
, theology, and archaeology. He is probably best known for the massive five-volume work The Beginnings of Christianity—an edition, translation, commentary, and study of the Acts of Apostles—that he conceived and edited with F. J. Foakes-Jackson
F. J. Foakes-Jackson
Frederick John Foakes Jackson was a Church historian. For thirty-four years he taught at Jesus College, Cambridge, serving as dean from 1895 to 1916. Then, at the age of 61, he became the Briggs Professor of Christian Institutions at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, finally becoming...
.
Early life
Kirsopp Lake was born in SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, England
England
England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, on 7 April 1872, the elder of two surviving children of George Anthony Kirsopp Lake, a physician, and Isabel Oke Clark. His father came from a family of Scottish origin and Kirsopp was the family name of the boy's paternal grandmother. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and then went up to Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, matriculating in 1891. He attended as an Exhibitioner
Exhibition (scholarship)
-United Kingdom and Ireland:At the universities of Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge, and at Westminster School, Eton College and Winchester College, and various other UK educational establishments, an exhibition is a financial award or grant to an individual student, normally on grounds of merit. The...
and was the Skinners' Company's Scholar in 1893, finally graduating (B.A., 1895) with a second class in theology. He also attended Cuddesdon Theological College in 1895. He originally had intended to read law and to pursue a career in politics. However, an overdose of exercise, too soon after influenza, affected his heart and he was told by doctors that law and politics were out of the question. According to his son, "he was delicate and the church seemed to give the opportunity for a living and for some influence over the society
that interested him."
Curate in England
Following graduation Lake was ordained a deacon in the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
(1895) and served as curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
in Lumley, Durham
Great Lumley
Great Lumley is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated south east of Chester-le-Street, near Lumley Castle. It has a population of 3,843.-The Lumley Family, East and West Halls:...
, where he preached to the pitmen and miners in that North Country mining district. "I do not believe that theology entered very much into his sermons," recalls his son, "but he did conduct The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
and he still tells the story of the brawny pitman who, having rescued him from the attack of a drunken navvy from a neighbouring village and listened to his comments on the situation, said 'Mon, he's no much to look at, but has he no a bonny tongue?!'" After a years service he was ordained priest (1896), however he had further issues with his heart and decided to return to Oxford, to the less rigorous climate of the South in order to improve his health.
He earned his M.A. in 1897 and from that year to 1904 he served as curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford
University Church of St Mary the Virgin
The University Church of St Mary the Virgin is the largest of Oxford's parish churches and the centre from which the University of Oxford grew...
, a much more academic atmosphere. During these years, in order to supplement his income, he also took a job cataloging Greek manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
. That activity aroused in him an interest in the Synoptic problem and matters of New Testament textual criticism, and saw the publication of his first book, the very useful handbook The Text of the New Testament (1900). Some sixty years later Stephen Neill
Stephen Neill
Stephen Charles Neill was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was proficient in a number of languages including Greek, Latin and Tamil. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge...
describes the 6th ed. (1928) as "still the best short introduction to New Testament textual criticism that exists in any language." It was most likely the influence exerted over him by F. C. Conybeare, Fellow of University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
, which was the main factor in Lake's development. It was Conybeare who initiated Lake into the mysteries and problems of New Testament palaeography and textual criticism. Lake's palaeographical interests lead him in search of more manuscripts and in 1898 he undertook a trip to the libraries of Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. The fruits of that trip were published in Codex 1 of the Gospels and Its Allies (1902). Lake had discovered a textual family of New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
manuscripts known as Family 1
Family 1
Family 1 is a group of Greek Gospel manuscripts, varying in date from the 12th to the 15th century. The group takes its name from the minuscule codex 1, now in the Basel University Library. "Family 1" is also known as "the Lake Group", symbolized as f1. Hermann von Soden calls the group Ih...
(also known as Lake group). To this family belong minuscules: 1
Minuscule 1
Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2, Minuscule 1 , δ 254 ; formerly it was designated by 1eap...
, 118
Minuscule 118
Minuscule 118 , ε 346 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Paleographically it has been assigned to the 13th century...
, 131
Minuscule 131
Minuscule 131 , δ 467 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 15th century. It has marginalia.- Description :...
, and 209
Minuscule 209
Minuscule 209 , δ 457 and α 1581 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Paleographically it has been assigned to the 14th century, with an exception to the Book of Revelation which was added to the codex in the 15th century...
. In the summers of 1899 and 1903 (and many thereafter) he undertook trips in search of manuscripts to the Greek monasteries on Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
. He published (1903, 1905, 1907) editions of several manuscripts uncovered there, a catalogue of all the manuscripts inspected, and even a history of the monasteries themselves (1909). In 1902 he won the Arnold Essay Prize at Oxford University for his study "The Greek Monasteries in South Italy," which was published in four installments in the Journal of Theological Studies, vols. 4 and 5.
On 10 November 1903, he married Helen Courthope Forman (1874 – 22 October 1958), the daughter of Freda Gardiner and Sidney Mills Forman, a businessman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. They had two children, Gerard Anthony Christian Kirsopp (27 December 1904 – 3 September 1972) and Agnes Freda Isabel Kirsopp
Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels
Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels known as "Nan" to her friends, was a leading twentieth century scholar of Roman religion and daily life and a daughter of the Biblical scholar Kirsopp Lake ....
(31 July 1909 – 3 November 1993). It was also during these later years of his curacy that Lake "began to doubt the teachings of the church and to think in terms of history and exegesis rather than theology and parish difficulties." As his son reports, my father "has often said that the turning point in his belief in the church came when his Vicar suggested that prayers be said at Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
for a Mr. Brown, since the doctor had just announced that there was no hope for him. The story may be apocryphal but I think it is indicative of his point of view." His daughter Agnes, "in conversations, was less polite and oblique: 'Heresy' was her word, pronounced with glee and gusto." This type of thinking may have run in the family, for Lake told Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
in 1922 that his father, the physician, "being asked late in life what had done the most in his lifetime to relieve human suffering, answered, 'Anaesthesia and the decay of Christian theology.'"
Professor in Leiden
In line with these new interests and activities, Lake accepted an offer in 1903 to become professor (ordinarius) of New Testament exegesis and early Christian literature at the Leiden UniversityLeiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, the oldest university in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. He taught there for ten years, from 1904 until 1914. His inaugural lecture, which he delivered in English, was on "The Influence of Textual Criticism on the Exegesis of the New Testament." At the close of the lecture he looked his students in the face. "I am very sorry," he said, "that for a few months I shall be handicapped by my inability to use your language, but I hope that by next September I shall be in a position to lecture in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, at least partially, even though it may be necessary to apologize for frequent solecisms, and for an imperfect pronunciation." He kept his promise and quickly learnt to lecture in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
. The lecture was published in 1904 and has proven to be a seminal study; though, as Elliott has noted: "It has taken nearly a century for his general thesis that textual variants must be used as an invaluable source for our study of the history of the church to bear fruit in a determined way."
In addition to his inaugural lecture, Lake published two important books on historical and exegetical matters concerning the New Testament during his time in Leiden: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1907) and The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin (1911). As Metzger explains: "These studies, particularly the latter, revealed Lake's ability to analyze and evaluate complex historical and literary data and to set forth scholarly reconstructions with clarity and a certain persuasiveness." In Historical Evidence Lake sets forth his approach: "The first task of the historical inquirer is to collect the pieces of evidence; the second is to discuss the trustworthiness and meaning of each separate piece; and the third is to reconstruct the events to which the evidence relates" (p. 6). As for the reconstruction, he explains: "In any such attempt it is desirable to remember that the reconstruction of an original tradition from forms of later dates and of divergent contents must be guided by exactly the same principle as is the reconstruction of an original text from a number of extant MSS. In each case the fundamental problem is the retracing of the line of development followed by the various authorities, and the solution depends chiefly on the ability to detect errors of transmission and to explain their existence" (p. 167). As for The Earlier Epistles, Neill
Stephen Neill
Stephen Charles Neill was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was proficient in a number of languages including Greek, Latin and Tamil. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge...
writes: "I think that those of us who read Lake when we were young will be inclined to think that this is one of the best books on the New Testament that has ever been written in the English language. This is the way it ought to be done. Under Lake's skillful guidance, we feel ourselves one with those new and struggling groups of Christians, in all the perplexities of trying to discover what it means to be a Christian in a non-Christian world. And there is the Apostle, so very much in working clothes and without a halo; we feel in our bones the passionate eagerness of Paul for better news from Corinth, the passionate relief when the good news arrives." The book brought the conclusions of the German History of religions
History of religions
The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious experiences and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,000 years ago in the Near East. The prehistory of religion relates to a study of religious beliefs that existed prior to the...
school to the attention of English-speaking world for the first time, and all later New Testament study has been influenced by this book.
True to the second component of his professorship, Lake produced a number of works on early Christian literature. He was a member of a special committee of the Oxford Society of Historical Theology charged with investigating the text of the New Testament as it has been preserved in the Apostolic Fathers
Apostolic Fathers
The Apostolic Fathers are a small number of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, although their writings were not included in the New Testament...
. His specific responsibility was the Didache
Didache
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century...
and the results of his investigations were published in 1905. For the Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
series he prepared a new edition of the Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
texts of the Apostolic Fathers
Apostolic Fathers
The Apostolic Fathers are a small number of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, although their writings were not included in the New Testament...
, which in keeping with the series were furnished with a facing English translation and a short introduction. The finished work was issued in two volumes, Nos. 24 and 25, published in 1912 and 1913. Also during this time he traveled to the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg together with his first wife Helen during the summer of 1908 and photographed the very important Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the four great uncial codices, an ancient, handwritten copy of the Greek Bible. It is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in the 4th century in uncial letters on parchment. Current scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of...
and then published in facsimile
Facsimile
A 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. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
the New Testament along with the Epistle of Barnabas
Epistle of Barnabas
The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek epistle containing twenty-one chapters, preserved complete in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament...
and the Shepherd of Hermas (1911) and the Old Testament (1922), following another visit to the library in 1913. These volumes were furnished with valuable introductions and were a marked improvement from the earlier editions of Tischendorf
Constantin von Tischendorf
Lobegott Friedrich Constantin Tischendorf was a noted German Biblical scholar. He deciphered the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, a 5th century Greek manuscript of the New Testament, in the 1840s, and rediscovered the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th century New Testament manuscript, in 1859.Tischendorf...
. In 1913 Lake was a favored candidate for lecturer in theology at 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...
, but word of his unorthodox views reached the Master of Trinity, Henry Montagu Butler
Henry Montagu Butler
Henry Montagu Butler was an English academic.He was the son of a previous Headmaster of Harrow School, George Butler and his wife Sarah Maria née Gray. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he married Georgina Elliot in 1861...
, and the choice in consequence fell on the other candidate Frederick Tennant. Again, in early 1914 some of his friends sought to secure his appointment to a canonry in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, but the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
, having read Lake's Historical Evidence, decided that he could not nominate him. As his friend H. D. A. Major explained, Lake "would gladly have remained in England. But his intellectual originality combined with the fearlessness of his utterances—he was neither a 'safe man' nor a 'yes man'—proved detrimental to his promotion both in academic and ecclesiastical circles."
Harvard years
In the fall of 1913 Lake traveled to the United States to lecture for a year at the Episcopal Theological SchoolEpiscopal Divinity School
The Episcopal Divinity School is a seminary of the Episcopal Church based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Known throughout the Anglican Communion for prophetic teaching and action on issues of civil rights and social justice, its faculty and students have been directly involved in many of the social...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
and to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Just before he was to leave for Europe he was offered a position at Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
, which he accepted. In the announcement of his hiring it was reported: "He comes when there is no definite gap to be filled, but merely because his eminent scholarship could add to the teaching strength of Harvard." From 1914 until 1919 he was professor of early Christian literature. Then in 1919, following the retirement of Ephraim Emerton
Ephraim Emerton
Ephraim Emerton, Ph. D. was an American educator, author, translator, and historian prominent in his field of European medieval history.-Life and career:...
, he was appointed to a Harvard chair becoming the Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, which he held until 1932. From 1915 to 1919 he was also a lecturer in New Testament at Union Theological Seminary
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
in New York City.
While at Harvard Lake labored to bring forth the monumental five volume work The Beginnings of Christianity. Beginnings was a project that had been conceived during conversations with F. J. Foakes-Jackson
F. J. Foakes-Jackson
Frederick John Foakes Jackson was a Church historian. For thirty-four years he taught at Jesus College, Cambridge, serving as dean from 1895 to 1916. Then, at the age of 61, he became the Briggs Professor of Christian Institutions at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, finally becoming...
while Lake was still at the Leiden University
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, sometime before 1912 (vol. v, p. vii). It sought to investigate the view "that Christianity in the first century achieved a synthesis between the Greco-Oriental and the Jewish religions in the Roman Empire. The preaching of repentance, and of the Kingdom of God begun by Jesus passed into the sacramental cult of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the details are complex and obscure. What were the exact elements in this synthesis? How was it effected?" (vol. i, p. vii). The undertaking began at Cambridge University in the form of a seminar, presided over by F. C. Burkitt. It "was largely attended by scholars of the most varied interests in the University, not only theological, but historical, classical, mathematical, and Oriental ... Lake paid frequent visits from Leiden" and "the United States and Canada were not unrepresented" (vol. v, p. vii). The project was to be a grand endeavor. The five volumes that were ultimately published only comprise "Part I". As they explain: "Before, however, attempting to reconstruct this history we believed it necessary to study Acts in the light of the results of modern criticism. ... Later on we hope to return to the subject and reconsider the narrative of the life of Jesus, and the influence on the Church of his own teaching and of the teaching of others about him" (vol. ii, p. v). As it turned out they were never able to "return to the subject" and complete the project. "In sum," writes Baird, "The Beginnings of Christianity is a monumental work—the most extensive investigation of a NT book by English-speaking scholarship" (cf. vol. v, p. ix).
In 1932 Lake's personal affairs produced quite a scandal. On 18 August 1932, Lake obtained a Reno divorce from his first wife Helen, whom he had been separated from for five years. Then, on 16 December 1932, he married his former student and collaborator Silva Tipple New (18 March 1898 – 30 April 1983). She was 26 years his junior, married, with four children. They had one child John Anthony Kirsopp (b. 13 June 1928). At the time Silva was a professor of classics at Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
, and an accomplished scholar in her own right. She would continue to collaborate with Lake for the rest of his life. The divorce caused such a stir that Lake was forced to resign the Winn chair on 28 September 1932 and became professor of history in Harvard College, a position he held until his retirement in 1938. Perhaps their most significant project was a magnificent series of ten large albums of facsimiles entitled Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts to the Year 1200 (1934-39). These portfolios of reproductions were organized by location and contained photographic specimens of some 400 manuscripts. These were important publications, for they encouraged scholars to look beyond the more well known manuscripts and realize the worth of encompassing a wide range of textual variants in any editing of the Greek text. Together they also founded in 1934 a series of monographs entitled Studies and Documents and contributed a valuable study in 1941 on Family 13
Family 13
Family 13, also known Ferrar Group , is a group of Greek Gospel manuscripts, varying in date from the 11th to the 15th century, which display a distinctive pattern of variant readings — especially in placing the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in the Gospel of Luke, rather than in...
(The Ferrar Group) another New Testament manuscript group.
During his 23 years at Harvard, Lake continuously taught one very popular course, the Bible in English, familiarly known as "English 35". When he taught the course for the first time in 1914, the course had less than 40 students, whereas his final year there were over 250—a "625 per cent increase," as the Harvard Crimson touted when announcing his final lecture would be 16 December 1937. His book An Introduction to the New Testament (1937) is a "skeleton of the course." However, "it does not give the flesh put on that skeleton by the lecturer" (p. ix). It was of course that "flesh" which made the course so interesting, due to Lake's lively imagination and engaging wit. As he himself explains: "The most important thing in a teacher's life is not to impart the knowledge of facts—which can be found much better in books—but to encourage another generation to look steadfastly at the vision which it sees, and to face its own problems in the light of that vision, controlled and guided by an understanding of what the past has done or not done" (Paul, His Heritage and Legacy, 1934, p. xii). He seems to have been effective, for James Luther Adams
James Luther Adams
James Luther Adams , an American professor at Harvard Divinity School, Andover Newton Theological School, and Meadville Lombard Theological School, and a Unitarian parish minister, was the most influential theologian among American Unitarian Universalists in the 20th century.Adams was born in...
, one of his students during 1924-27, recalls: "It was his characteristic interest to make historical figures come alive, so that we might see their significance today and not merely study them as so many items from a dead past." "Something we all recognized in Kirsopp Lake," writes Adams, "was that he had the imagination of a Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. He took an almost childlike interest in digging out alternative answers to historical questions ... Students who thought themselves completely secularized and immune to any 'religious nonsense' attended his lectures and heard him publicly burrow down into the biblical concepts, taking as his point of departure something highly imaginative in one of the parables, and then rise up to fly with it. The students used to call his courses 'Kirsopp's Fables.'"
In later years, Lake became increasingly involved in archeological expeditions. He had remarkable abilities as an organizer and an uncanny skill in finding the necessary money to fund his various undertakings. In the spring of 1927, with Robert P. Blake, he traveled to Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
in order to study biblical manuscripts. While passing through Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
they met the Egyptologist Alan H. Gardiner who suggested that on their return they might stop by Serabit el-Khadim
Serabit el-Khadim
Serabit el-Khadim is a locality in the south-west Sinai Peninsula where turquoise was mined extensively in antiquity, mainly by the ancient Egyptians...
, which was in the neighborhood of the monastery, and attempt to locate a number of previously noticed inscriptions in a Proto-Sinaitic script. As Lake remarked in his account of the adventure: "It should be noted that 'in the neighborhood' is a relative matter, for, stated in terms of time instead of space, the monastery was about as far from Serabit as New york is from San Francisco" (HTR 21 (1928): 3-4). After a week's journey on camels they were able to locate the site and the inscriptions, as well as identify two additional inscriptions not previously known. The results were published in 1928. Lake would return to further investigate the site, as well as the adjacent temple of Hathor
Hathor
Hathor , is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
in 1930, this time accompanied by Silva (his future second wife), at the time a Guggenheim fellow, who would handle the photography. The results were published in 1932. A final trip was made in 1935, unfortunately this time Lake was injured during the trip. He received internal injuries when bumped by a camel, but continued the journey, and was carried by litter to the top of the mountain. After supervising the start of the excavation, his condition worsened and he was rushed to Jerusalem with his wife to receive medical attention. In 1929, Lake approached John W. Crowfoot of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem
British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem
The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem was established in 1919. The London-based Palestine Exploration Fund was instrumental in its foundation. The first Director was British archaeologist John Garstang, and among its earliest students was architect-archaeologist George Horsfield, later...
(BSAJ) about a joint excavation with some other institutions of Samaria
Samaria (ancient city)
Samaria was an ancient city in the Land of Israel. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC and 8th century BC. The ruins of the city are located in the Samaria mountains and are under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority....
, to complete the earlier work of Harvard's George A. Reisner. The dig began in 1931 and Lake was there for four seasons (1931-34), accompanied again by Silva and Blake. The joint team also had Eleazar Sukenik from Hebrew University and Kathleen Kenyon
Kathleen Kenyon
Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958.-Early life:...
from the BSAJ. The excavation would yield many important results. As for accommodations in the camp, Kenyon reports that "although they had a hotel-trained Egyptian cook and Palestinian servants to do the washing, the expedition staff lived in tents, sleeping on camp beds" and "the social life of the dig consisted of having cocktails at the end of the day, playing bridge after dinner, and in 1933, listening to jazz records." In 1938-39, Lake along with Silva and Robert P. Casey from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
were allowed to conduct a small excavation of Van Fortress
Van Fortress
The Fortress of Van is a massive stone fortification built by the ancient kingdom of Urartu during the 9th to 7th centuries BC, and is the largest example of its kind. It overlooks the ruins of Tushpa the ancient Urartian capital during the 9th c. which was centered upon the steep-sided bluff...
in Turkish Armenia. For 15 years he had been seeking permission from the Turkish government to make the expedition. He told the press that until 1937, "the savage tribes of Turkish Armenia, the Kurds, have not been sufficiently pacified for the government to recommend the trip." Details of the expedition were published in 1939.
In addition to the Lowell Lectures which he delivered at the Lowell Institute
Lowell Institute
The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...
and King's Chapel
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is "an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association" that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century...
in Boston in 1913, Lake was the Haskell Lecturer at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1919; the Ingersoll Lecturer for 1922 at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
; Ichabod Spencer Lecturer at Union College
Union College
Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...
, Schenectady in 1923; and Flexner Lecturer at Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
in 1932. Lake served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature
Society of Biblical Literature
The Society of Biblical Literature, founded 1880, is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies , with the stated mission to "Foster Biblical Scholarship"...
for two terms, 1941-42. He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, a corresponding member of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Prussian Academy of Sciences
The Prussian Academy of Sciences was an academy established in Berlin on 11 July 1700, four years after the Akademie der Künste or "Arts Academy", to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer.-Origins:...
, and in 1941 honorary fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
. He received the honorary degrees of D.D. from the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
(1911), Th.D. from Leiden University
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
(1922), Litt.D. from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
(1926), and Ph.D. from Heidelberg University (1936). Also in 1936 he was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies from the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
. Lake was a mason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and one of the driving forces in establishing The Harvard Lodge A.F. & A.M., the first academic Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
in the country, on 18 May 1922 and served as chaplain. His recreations were golf, chess, and croquet. Lake died of arteriosclerotic heart failure at his home in South Pasadena, California
South Pasadena, California
South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in in the West San Gabriel Valley...
on 10 November 1946. He was buried at Glen Haven Memorial Park, San Fernando, California.
Lake's daughter Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels
Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels
Agnes Kirsopp Lake Michels known as "Nan" to her friends, was a leading twentieth century scholar of Roman religion and daily life and a daughter of the Biblical scholar Kirsopp Lake ....
was a noted classical scholar. In later years she reflected on the impact he had on her life: "my general interests should be attributed mainly to the influence of my father who was a New testament scholar with a classical education and a passionate love of beauty. He told me the stories of the classics and, long before I could understand them, read to me a strange assortment of Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
and the Bible; Swinburne
Swinburne
Swinburne may refer to:* A place:**Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia**Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus in Kuching, Malaysia**Swinburne Senior Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia...
, Tennyson
Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the first Baron Tennyson, was an English poet.Tennyson may also refer to:-People:* Baron Tennyson, the barony itself** Alfred, Lord Tennyson , poet...
, and Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
. His attitude to his own work made me think of scholarship as the opening to a world of adventure, not as a retirement from reality." His grandson Anthony Lake
Anthony Lake
William Anthony Kirsopp Lake, best known as Tony Lake, is the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund , author, academic, and former American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and political advisor. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S...
is a diplomat.
Published works
- "Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament." Classical Review 10 (1896): 263-65.
- "The Text of the Gospels." Classical Review 10 (1896): 395-97. [review of Burgon & Miller, The Traditional Text of the Gospels]
- "Note on Didache 1, 2, and Acts 15, 20. 29." Classical Review 11 (1897): 147-48.
- The Text of the New Testament, Oxford Church Text Books. London: Rivingtons, 1900.
- 2nd ed., 1902; 4th ed., 1908; 6th ed. 1928, rev. Silva New.
- "Some New Members of the 'Ferrar Group' of MSS of the Gospels." Journal of Theological Studies 1 (1900): 117-20.
- "The Text of Codex Ψ in St. Mark." Journal of Theological Studies 1 (1900): 290-92.
- "On the Italian Origin of Codex Bezae." Journal of Theological Studies 1 (1900): 441-45.
- "The Text of the Gospels in Alexandria." American Journal of Theology 6 (1902): 79-89.
- "The Practical Value of Textual Variation illustrated from the Book of Acts." The Biblical World 19 (1902): 361-69.
- "Chronicle of New Testament Textual Criticism." Journal of Theological Studies 3 (1902): 295-304.
- Codex 1 of the Gospels and Its Allies. Text and Studies 7. Cambridge: University Press, 1902.
- Review of Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. The Biblical World 21 (1903): 229-31.
- Texts from Mount Athos. Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica 5. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.
- "Dr. Weiss's Text of the Gospels: The Thoughts of a Textual Critic on the Text of an Exegete." American Journal of Theology 7 (1903): 249-58.
- "The Greek Monasteries in South Italy, I, II." Journal of Theological Studies 4 (1903): 345-68, 517-42.
- "The Greek Monasteries in South Italy, III, IV." Journal of Theological Studies 5 (1904): 22-41, 189-202.
- "Some Further Notes on the MSS of the Writings of St. Athanasius." Journal of Theological Studies 5 (1904): 108-14.
- The Influence of Textual Criticism on the Exegesis of the New Testament: an Inaugural Lecture delivered before the University of Leiden, on January 27, 1904. Oxford: Parker and Sons, 1904.
- "The New Sayings of Jesus and the Synoptic Problem." Hibbert Journal 3 (1904-5): 332-41.
- "The Curetonian Version of the Gospels." Hibbert Journal 3 (1904-5): 843-46. [review of Burkitt, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe]
- Review of Resch, Das Aposteldecret nach seiner Ausserkanonischen Textgestalt. Review of Theology and Philosophy 1 (1905): 385-92.
- Review of Meyer,Die Auferstehung Christi. Review of Theology and Philosophy 1 (1905): 631-35.
- "Didache." in Oxford Society of Historical Theology, eds., The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, pp. 24-36. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.
- Facsimiles of the Athos Fragments of Codex H of the Pauline Epistles, photographed and deciphered by Kirsopp Lake. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.
- "Further Notes on the MSS of Isidore of Pelusium." Journal of Theological Studies 6 (1905): 270-73.
- "Tatian's Diatessaron and the Martyrdom of Abo." http://books.google.com/books?id=aJ7NAAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AgSEKoLKQfdQC&pg=PA286#v=onepage&q&f=falseExpository TimesExpository TimesThe Expository Times is a long-established academic journal of Biblical studies, theology, and ministry established in 1889 by the Scottish theologian James Hastings...
17 (1905-6): 286.] - "The 'Ammonian' Harmony and the Text of B." of Theological Studies 7 (1906): 292-95.
- "Galatians II. 3-5." The Expositor, 7th ser., 1 (1906): 236-45.
- "Did Paul Use the Logia?" American Journal of Theology 10 (1906): 104-11.
- Facsimiles of the Athos Fragments of the Shepherd of Hermas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907).
- The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. London: Williams & Norgate, 1907.
- Review of Harnack, Sprüche und Reden Jesu. Review of Theology and Philosophy 3 (1907-8): 480-87.
- Professor H. Von Soden's Treatment of the Text of the Gospels (Edinburgh, 1908). Reprinted from Review of Theology and Philosophy 4 (1908-9): 201-17, 277-95.
- The Early Days of Monasticism on Mount Athos. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.
- "The Date of Q." The Expositor, 7th ser. 7 (1909): 494-507.
- "The Text of the Gospels." The Expositor 7th ser. 9 (1910): 457-71.
- "The Early Christian Treatment of Sin After Baptism." The Expositor, 7th ser. 10 (1910): 63-80.
- "The Earliest Christian Teaching on Divorce." The Expositor, 7th ser. 10 (1910): 416-27.
- "The Shorter Form of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans." The Expositor, 7th ser. 10 (1910): 504-25.
- "2 Thessalonians and Professor Harnack." Expository Times 22 (1910): 131-33.
- "Baptism (Early Christian)" in J. Hastings, ed., Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 2, 379-90. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1910. [also articles on Christmas and Epiphany]
- "Bible. 2. New Testament. 2.2 Text and Versions, 2.3 Textual Criticism." in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh EditionThe Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...
, vol. 3, pp. 878-886. Cambridge: University Press, 1910. [also article "Peter, St"] - "The Shepherd of Hermas and Christian Life in Rome in the Second Century." Harvard Theological Review 4 (1911): 25-46.
- The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin. London: Rivingtons, 1911.
- "The Debt of the Clergy and Theologians to William James." Theologisch Tijdschrift 44 (1911): 526-30.
- "The Judaistic Controversy, and the Apostolic Council." Church Quarterly Review 71 (1911): 345-70.
- Codex Sinaiticvs Petropolitanvs: The New Testament, the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas preserved in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, now reproduced in facsimile from photographs by Helen and Kirsopp Lake, with a description and introduction to the history of the Codex by Kirsopp Lake. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911.
- "The Date of Herod's Marriage with Herodias and the Chronology of the Gospels." The Expositor, 8th ser., 4 (1912): 462-77.
- The Apostolic Fathers, ed. and trans. Kirsopp Lake, 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library. London: Heinemann, 1912-13.
- "The End of Paul's Trial in Rome." Theologisch Tijdschrift 47 (1913): 356-65.
- "Critical Problems of the Epistle to the Philippians." The Expositor, 8th ser., 7 (1914): 481-93.
- Review of Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions. Harvard Theological Review 7 (1914): 428-31.
- The Stewardship of Faith: Our Heritage from Early Christianity. Lowell Lectures 1913-14. New York: Putnam, 1915.
- "The Theology of the Acts of the Apostles." American Journal of Theology 19 (1915): 489-508.
- "Acts of the Apostles; Acts (Apocryphal); Luke." in James Hastings et al., eds., Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. 1, pp. 15-29, 29-39, 718-22. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1916. [art. "Theophilus" in vol. 2]
- Review of Montefiore, Judaism and St. Paul. Harvard Theological Review 9 (1916): 242-45.
- "Simon Zelotes." http://books.google.com/books?id=G3XX2my9azgC&dq=editions%3AHARVARD32044105203392&lr&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=falseHarvard Theological ReviewHarvard Theological ReviewHarvard Theological Review is a journal of theology, published by Harvard Divinity School. It was founded in 1908.-External links:* * * * at the Internet Archive...
10 (1917): 57-63.] - "American, English, and Dutch Theological Education." Harvard Theological Review 10 (1917): 336-51.
- "The Sinaitic and Vatican Manuscripts and the Copies sent by Eusebius to Constantine." Harvard Theological Review 11 (1918): 32-35.
- "The Epistola Apostolorum." Harvard Theological Review 14 (1920): 15-29.
- "Simon, Cephas, Peter." Harvard Theological Review 14 (1920): 95-97.
- Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity. London: Macmillan, 1920. American ed. 1922, different pagination.
- Review of Lietzmann, Petrus und Paulus in Rom. American Historical Review 25 (1920): 483-84.
- The Beginnings of Christianity, Part I: The Acts of the Apostles, ed. F. J. Foakes-Jackson and Kirsopp LakeKirsopp LakeKirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...
, 5 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1920-33).- Vol I. Prolegomena I: The Jewish, Gentile and Christian backgrounds (1920).
- Vol. II. Prolegomena II: Criticism (1922).
- Vol. III. The text of Acts (1926), by J. H. RopesJames Hardy RopesJames Hardy Ropes was an American theologian. He occupied the Hollis Chair at Harvard Divinity School starting in 1910....
. - Vol. IV. English translation and commentary (1933), by Kirsopp LakeKirsopp LakeKirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...
and H. J. CadburyHenry CadburyHenry Joel Cadbury was a biblical scholar, Quaker historian, writer, and non-profit administrator. A graduate of Haverford College, he was a Quaker throughout his life, though essentially an agnostic...
. - Vol. V. Additional notes to the commentary (1933), edited by Kirsopp LakeKirsopp LakeKirsopp Lake was a New Testament scholar and Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. He had an uncommon breadth of interests, publishing definitive monographs in New Testament textual criticism, Greek palaeography, theology, and archaeology...
and H. J. CadburyHenry CadburyHenry Joel Cadbury was a biblical scholar, Quaker historian, writer, and non-profit administrator. A graduate of Haverford College, he was a Quaker throughout his life, though essentially an agnostic...
.
- "The Problem of Christian Origins." Harvard Theological Review 15 (1921): 97-114.
- "The Text of the Gospels and the Koridethi Codex." [with Robert P. Blake] Harvard Theological Review 16 (1922): 269-86.
- Immortality and the Modern Mind. Ingersoll Lecture 1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922.
- Codex Sinaiticvs Petropolitanvs et Friderico-Avgvstanvs lipsiensis: The Old Testament preserved in the public library of Petrograd, in the library of the Society of ancient literature in Petrograd, and in the library of the University of Leipzig, now reproduced in facsimile from photographs by Helen and Kirsopp Lake, with a description and introduction to the history of the Codex by Kirsopp Lake. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922.
- "A Lost Manuscript of Eusebius's Demonstratio Evangelica Found." Harvard Theological Review 16 (1923): 396-97.
- "The Date of the Slavonic Enoch." Harvard Theological Review 16 (1923): 397-98.
- "The Apostles' Creed." Harvard Theological Review 17 (1924): 173-83.
- "Jesus." Hibbert Journal 23 (1924-5): 5-19.
- The Religion of Yesterday and To-morrow. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925.
- Review of Merrill, Essays in Early Christian History. American Historical Review 30 (1925): 340-41.
- "The Shepherd of Hermas." Harvard Theological Review 18 (1925): 279-80.
- "The Text of the De Virginitate of Athanasius." [with Robert P. Casey] Harvard Theological Review 19 (1926): 173-90.
- "The Text of the De Incarnatione of Athanasius." [with Robert P. Casey] Harvard Theological Review 19 (1926): 259-70.
- Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, trans. Kirsopp Lake, Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library. London: Heinemann, 1926.
- "The Serabit Inscriptions. I. The Rediscovery of the Inscriptions." [with Robert P. Blake] Harvard Theological Review 21 (1928): 1-8.
- "The Caesarean text of the Gospel of Mark," [with Robert P. Blake and Silva New] Harvard Theological Review 21 (1928): 207-404.
- "The Text of the Gospels." in Shirley Jackson Case, ed., Studies in Early Christianity, pp. 21-47. New York: The Century Co., 1928.
- Six Collations of New Testament Manuscripts [with Silva New] Harvard Theological Studies 17. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932.
- "The Serabit Expedition of 1930. I. Introduction." Harvard Theological Review 25 (1932): 95-100.
- "The Text of Mark in Some Dated Lectionaries." [with Silva Lake] in H. G. Wood, ed., Amicitiæ corolla: a volume of essays presented to James Rendel Harris, D.Litt., on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, pp. 147-83. London: University of London Press, 1933.
- Paul: His Heritage and Legacy. The Mary Flexner Lectures on the Humanities 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 1934.
- "The Acts of the Apostles." [with Silva Lake] Journal of Biblical Literature 53 (1934): 34-45. [review of Albert C. Clark's ed. of Acts]
- Dated Greek Minuscule Manuscripts to the Year 1200 [edited with Silva Lake], 10 vols. Monumenta palaeographica vetera. 1st ser. Boston: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1934-45. [v. 1. Manuscripts at Jerusalem, Patmos and Athens -- v. 2. Manuscripts in Venice, Oxford and London -- v. 3. Manuscripts in the monasteries of Mount Athos and in Milan -- v. 4. Manuscripts in Paris. Pt. 1 -- v. 5. Manuscripts in Paris. Pt. 2, Oxford, Berlin, Vienna and Jerusalem -- v. 6. Manuscripts in Moscow and Leningrad -- v. 7. Manuscripts in Rome. Part 1. -- v. 8. Manuscripts in Rome. Pt. 2 -- v. 9. Manuscripts in Rome. Pt. 3, in Messina, in Naples, and in London -- v. 10. Manuscripts in Florence, Athens, Grottaferrata and the Meteora -- v.[11]. Indices, volumes 1-10.]
- "Some Recent Discoveries." [with Silva Lake] Religion in Life 5 (1936): 89-102.
- Review of Goodenough, By Light, Light: The Mystic Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism. Journal of Biblical LiteratureJournal of Biblical LiteratureThe Journal of Biblical Literature is one of three theological journals published by the Society of Biblical Literature .First published in 1881, JBL is the flagship journal of the field...
55 (1936): 90-93. - An Introduction to the New Testament. [with Silva Lake] New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.
- Review of Harrison, Polycarp's Two Epistles to the Philippians. Journal of Biblical Literature 56 (1937): 72-75.
- Review of Colwell & Willoughby, The Four Gospels of Karahissar. Journal of Biblical Literature 56 (1937): 272-73.
- "The Citadel of Van." [with Silva Lake] Asia: Journal of the American Asiatic Association 39 (1939): 75-80.
- "The Byzantine Text of the Gospels." [with Silva Lake] in Mémorial Lagrange (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1940), pp. 251-258.
- Review of Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts. Journal of Biblical Literature 60 (1941): 329-31.
- Family 13 (The Ferrar Group): The text according to Mark with a collation of Codex 28 of the Gospels. [with Silva Lake] Studies and Documents 11. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941.
- Review of Milne & Skeat, Scribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus. Classical Philology 37 (1942): 91-96.
- "The Scribe Ephraim." [with Silva Lake] Journal of Biblical Literature 62 (1943): 263-68.
- "Albert Schweitzer's influence in Holland and England." In A. A. Roback et al., eds., The Albert Schweitzer Jubilee Book (Cambridge, MA: Sci-Art, 1945), pp. 427-439.
External links
- Works of Lake at the Internet Archive Search
- There are papers of Lake [bMS 13001] in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library Archives.
- There are papers from Kirsopp and Silva Lake, including a scrapbook Samaria Excavations, Spring, 1931 [bMS 00714] in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library Archives.
- There are papers from Lake's expedition to Lake Van, Turkey (1938-9) [MS 1037] in the Penn Museum Archives.