Short biography of John William Burgon - Dean Burgon

Free Ebook - Free Download - Click on Book Cover

BURGON, JOHN WILLIAM (1813-1888), English divine, was born at Smymna in August 1813, the son of a Turkey merchant, who was a skilled numismatist and afterwards became an assistant in the antiquities department of the British Museum.

 His mother was a Greek. After a few years of business life, Burgon went to Worcester College, Oxford, in 1841, gained the Newdigate prize, took his degree in 1845, and won an Oriel fellowship in 1846. He was much influenced by his brother-inlaw, the scholar and theologian Henry John Rose (1800-1873). Burgon made Oxford his headquarters, while holding a living at some distance. In 1863 he was made vicar of St Mary’s, having attracted attention by his vehement sermons against Essays and Reviews.

 In 1867 he was appointed Gresham professor of divinity at Oxford. In. 1871 he published a defence of the genuineness of the twelve last verses of St Mark’s Gospel, based on textual analysis and manuscript evidence. He now began an attack on the proposal for a new lectionary for the Church of England, based largely upon his objections to the false principles for determining the authority of MS. readings adopted by Westcott and Hort, which he assailed in a memorable article in the Quarterly Review for 1881. 

This, with his other articles, was reprinted in 1884 with great documentation - under the title of The Revision Revised. His biographical essays on H. L. Mansel and others were also collected, and published under the title of Twelve Good Men (1888). Protests against the inclusion of Dr Vance Smith - a unitarian (Denier of the Trinity) - among the revisers of the Westcott/Hort version of 1881 (which is the RV), against the nomination of Dean Stanley to be select preacher in the university of Oxford, and against the address in favour of [pro-catholic church ] toleration in the matter of ritual, followed in succession. In 1876 Burgon was made dean of Chichester.

He produced many articles and books dealing with textual issues of the New Testament, and dealing with New Testament manuscripts and New Testament Greek. Many people do not realize that he was among those who personally examined Codex Vaticanus, and then wrote a critique of it.

While some have tried to maintain that Burgon was opposed to the traditional received text, the facts tell a different story. Burgon tried to be intellectually honest in his work and books, and was open in his discussion of potential difficulties involving the Received Text (in Greek). However, Burgon was among the first to be in open resistance against the text of Westcott and Hort, since Burgon realized that this was a New Text, based on the collation of Westcott and Hort and that this text did not exist prior to Westcott and Hort. Burgon was able to demonstrate that the Westcott-Hort text was based on corrupted Alexandrian Texts of the New Testament that were rejected by the early church. 

Some modern version advocates (MVAs) have tried to minimize the conclusions of Burgon, but this becomes very difficult to do, for those who have the courage to read his 500 page work the REVISION REVISED, which we currently offer for Free (in PDF format).

He died on the 4th of August 1888.

We offer some books on Textual Criticism and what has happened with New Testament Manuscripts. You may want to check these out:

ALL THESE ARE FREE - CLICK ON COVERS TO BE TAKEN TO FREE DOWNLOAD PAGE

Support the Ministry  

Monthly Support of XOFC for $ 5.00 (USD)

Please Note: We do try to be accurate. If you see anything which you believe

Is not correct on our website, please do bring it to our attention.

Thank you

(XOFC Staff)

Look Inside (Burgon)