Joseph Lightfoot

The Right Reverend
Joseph Lightfoot
Bishop of Durham

Photograph of Lightfoot.
Diocese Diocese of Durham
Elected 15 March 1879
In office 10 April 1879 (conf.)–1889 (died)
Predecessor Charles Baring
Successor Brooke Foss Westcott
Other posts Hulsean Professor of Divinity (1861–1875)
Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity (1875–1879)
Deputy Clerk of the Closet (1875–?)
Personal details
Born (1828-04-13)13 April 1828
Liverpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Died 21 December 1889(1889-12-21) (aged 61)
Bournemouth, Hampshire, UK
Buried Auckland Castle chapel
Nationality British
Denomination Anglican
Residence Auckland Castle (as Bishop of Durham)
Parents John Lightfoot & Ann Lightfoot (née Barber)
Spouse never married
Profession academic; biblical scholar; bible translator; theologian; tutor
Education King Edward's School, Birmingham
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), also known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham.

Life

Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His mother, Ann Matilda Barber was from a family of Birmingham artists. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, under James Prince Lee. His contemporaries included Brooke Foss Westcott and Edward White Benson. In 1847 Lightfoot went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and read for his degree along with Westcott. He graduated senior classic and 30th wrangler, and was elected a fellow of his college.[1] From 1854 to 1859 he edited the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology. In 1857 he became tutor and his fame as a scholar grew. He was made Hulsean professor in 1861, and shortly afterwards chaplain to the Prince Consort and honorary chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria.

In 1866 he was Whitehall preacher, and in 1871 he became canon of St Paul's Cathedral. The Times wrote after his death that

It was always patent that what he was chiefly concerned with was the substance and the life of Christian truth, and that his whole energies were employed in this inquiry because his whole heart was engaged in the truths and facts which were at stake.

In 1875 Lightfoot became Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity in succession to William Selwyn. In 1879 he was consecrated bishop of Durham in succession to Charles Baring; he was enthroned at Durham Cathedral on 15 May. He soon surrounded himself with a band of scholarly young men.

Lightfoot was never married. He died at Bournemouth and was succeeded in the episcopate by Westcott, his schoolfellow and lifelong friend. He served as President of the first day of the 1880 Co-operative Congress.[2]

Publications

Lightfoot wrote commentaries on the Epistle to the Galatians (1865), Epistle to Philippians (1868) and Epistle to the Colossians (1875). In 1874, the anonymous publication of Supernatural Religion, a work speculated by some to be authored by Walter Richard Cassels, attracted attention. In a series of papers in the Contemporary Review, between December 1874 and May 1877, Lightfoot undertook the defense of the New Testament canon. The articles were published in collected form in 1889. About the same time he was engaged in contributions to William Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Dictionary of the Bible, and he also joined the committee for revising the translation of the New Testament.

The corpus of Lightfoot's writings include essays on biblical and historical subject matter, commentaries on Pauline epistles, and studies on the Apostolic Fathers. His sermons were posthumously published in four official volumes, and additionally in the Contemporary Pulpit Library series. At Durham he continued to work at his editions of the Apostolic Fathers, and in 1885 published an edition of the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp, collecting also materials for a second edition of Clement of Rome, which was published after his death (1st ed., 1869). He defended the authenticity of the Epistles of Ignatius.

In 2014, it was announced that InterVarsity Press had agreed to publish about 1500 pages of previously unpublished biblical commentaries and essays by Lightfoot found in Durham Cathedral.[3] The first of the three volume set covers the Acts of the Apostles,[4] the second is a commentary on the Gospel of John[5] and the third is on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and the First Epistle of Peter.[6]

Family

Lightfoot was the nephew of the artists Joseph Vincent Barber and Charles Vincent Barber and grandson of the artist and founding member of the Birmingham School of Art, Joseph Barber and great grandson of the founder of Newcastle's first library, Joseph Barber whose tomb is in Newcastle Cathedral.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Lightfoot, Joseph Barber (LTFT847JB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ↑ "Congress Presidents 1869-2002" (PDF). February 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
  3. ↑ Ben Witherington III, "Text Archaeology: The Finding of Lightfoot's Lost Manuscripts," Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 40, No. 2 (March/April 2014), pp. 28, 71.
  4. ↑ Lightfoot, J. B. (2014). The Acts of the Apostles: A Newly Discovered Commentary. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-9673-8.
  5. ↑ Lightfoot, J. B. (2015). The Gospel of St. John: A Newly Discovered Commentary. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-2945-3
  6. ↑ Lightfoot, J. B. (2016). The Epistles of 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter: A Newly Discovered Commentary. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-2946-0
  7. ↑ Chrystal & Laundon 2015, p. 120.

Sources

Church of England titles
Preceded by
Charles Baring		 Bishop of Durham
1879–1889 		Succeeded by
Brooke Foss Westcott
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