Herbert Danby(20 January 1889 – 29 March 1953)[1]was anAnglicanpriest and writer who played a central role in the change of attitudes towardJudaism[2]in the first half of the twentieth century.[3]
Education
editDanby was educated at Church Middle Class School,Leeds[4]andKeble College, Oxford.He was a Holroyd Musical Scholar, and became a Fellow of theRoyal College of Organistsin 1907. He retained a lifelong passionate interest in music, and also in golf.
Danby had a distinguished career at Oxford, winning the JuniorSeptuagintPrize, the Pusey and Ellerton Scholarship, the HoughtonSyriacPrize and a SeniorKennicottScholarship. He achieved a first class degree in Oriental Languages, and was awarded an MA in 1914. His studies continued after he started work, and he was made a Doctor of Divinity in 1923, partly for his translationTractate Sanhedrin,MishnaandTosefta,published in 1919.
Early career
editDanby became aDeaconin 1913, and worked asCurateof the Parish ofWaddesdon,Buckinghamshire. Ordained as a priest in 1914, he became Subwarden of St Deiniol's Library,Hawarden,Flintshire, 1914-9.[5]
Jerusalem
editIn 1919, Danby moved toJerusalemto become Librarian ofSt. George's Cathedral.He wasResidentiary Canonthere, 1921–36. From 1923, he was Dean of thePalestineBoard of Higher Studies andThe TimesCorrespondent for Palestine andTransjordan.From 1928, he wasExamining Chaplainto the Bishop of Jerusalem.
He was editor of the Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society from 1920, and President of that Society in 1934. He engaged in the study ofJewish literature,and published his English translation of theMishnahin 1933, the first ever complete translation of the Mishnah into English. He also translated a remarkable work byJoseph KlausnerentitledJesus of Nazareth.
Oxford
editIn 1936, he returned to Oxford asRegius Professor of Hebrewand Canon ofChrist Church.He wasGrinfield Lectureron the Septuagint, 1939–43, Examining Chaplain to theBishop of Monmouth,1939–41 and Treasurer of Christ Church Cathedral from 1943.
He assisted in theYaleTranslation of theMishneh TorahofMaimonides.
His contributions to the decline ofantisemitismin intellectual circles in the twentieth century was very significant. He was at work revising his translation of Maimonides' Book of Cleanness when he finally succumbed to his fatal illness. Among his close friends were ProfessorGodfrey Rolles DriverofOxford Universityand Rabbi Dr.Isidore EpsteinofJews' College,London.
Publications
edit- The Jew and Christianity, 1927
- English and Modern Hebrew Dictionary, 1939
Translations from the Hebrew
edit- Joseph Klausner'sJesus of Nazareth,1925
- Joseph Klausner's "History of Modern Hebrew Literature",1932[6]
- The Sixty-three Tractates of the Mishnah, translated with Introduction, etc., published in December, 1933 (ISBN0-19-815402-X)
- H. N. Bialik's, And it Came to Pass, Biblical Legends, 1938.[7]
- The Book of Offerings, Moses Maimonides, Julian Obermann, in December 1950;ISBN0-300-00398-6
- The Book of Cleanness, Moses Maimonides, Julian Obermann, was published in December 1954,ISBN0-300-00397-8
Notes
edit- ^Dr. Herbert Danby.The Times(London, England), Monday, 30 March 1953; pg. 8; Issue 52583
- ^Shalom Goldman
- ^'DANBY, Rev. Dr Herbert', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014accessed 6 April 2015
- ^Leodis
- ^Crockford's Clerical Directory1929/30 p308: London,OUP,1929
- ^A history of modern Hebrew literature (1785-1930)
at theInternet Archive,Edited byLeon Simon
- ^British Libraryweb site accessed 08:57GMTWednesday 8 April 2015