J. Rendel Harris

Memoranda Sacra (Dodo Press) J. Rendel Harris

James Rendel Harris (1852-1941) was an English biblical scholar and curator of manuscripts, who was instrumental in bringing back to light many Syriac Scriptures and other early documents. He spent as much time in the Near East as he could. During the same time, he served as professor of New Testament Greek at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA (1882-85) and at Haverford College (1882-92). In 1889 and 1890, while on leave from Haverford, he purchased 47 rolls and codices written in Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Ethiopic. He said that these texts, which discussed biblical and linguistic topics and some of which were as old as the 13th century, were "all acquired by the lawful, though sometimes tedious, processes of Oriental commerce". He taught theology at Leiden University (1903-04). After this, he was appointed director of studies at the Society of Friends' Woodbrooke College, near Birmingham. Included among the topics on which he wrote are: the Apology of Aristides, Didache, Philo, Diatessaron, the Christian Apologists, the Acts of Perpetua, the Odes and Psalms of Solomon, the Gospel of Peter, and other Western and Syriac texts, and numerous works on biblical manuscripts.