Henry Alford (7 October 181012 January 1871) was an English churchman, theologian,

textual critic Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

, scholar, poet, hymnodist, and writer.

Life

Alford was born in London, of a

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the

Anglican church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

. Alford's early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of Steeple Ashton in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. He was a precocious boy, and before he was ten had written several

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

odes, a history of the

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s and a series of

homiletic In religious studies, homiletics ( grc, ὁμιλητικός ''homilētikós'', from ''homilos'', "assembled crowd, throng") is the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific art of public preaching. One who practices o ...

outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, in 1827 as a scholar. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made fellow of Trinity.

Service

He had already taken orders, and in 1835 began his eighteen-year tenure of the vicarage of

Wymeswold Wymeswold () is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. It is in the north of Leicestershire, and north-east of Loughborough. The village has a population of about 1,000, measured at 1,296 in the 2011 ...

in Leicestershire, from which seclusion the twice-repeated offer of a colonial

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

failed to draw him. He was

Hulsean lecturer The Hulsean Lectures were established from an endowment made by John Hulse to the University of Cambridge in 1790. At present, they consist of a series of four to eight lectures given by a university graduate on some branch of Christian theology. ...

at Cambridge in 1841–1842, and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher, which might have been greater if not for his excursions into minor poetry and magazine editing. In 1844, he joined the

Cambridge Camden Society The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society,Histor ...

(CCS) which published a list of do's and don'ts for church layout which they promoted as a science. He commissioned

A.W.N. Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

to restore St Mary's church. He also was a member of the

Metaphysical Society The Metaphysical Society was a famous British debating society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles, who acted as Secretary. Membership was by invitation only, and was exclusively male. Many of its members were prominent clergymen, philosophers, and ...

, founded in 1869 by James Knowles. In September 1853 Alford moved to Quebec Street Chapel,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...

, London, where he had a large congregation. In March 1857

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

advanced him to the deanery of Canterbury, where, until his death, he lived the same energetic and diverse way as ever. He had been the friend of most of his eminent contemporaries, and was much beloved for his amiable character. The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is ''Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis'' ("the lodging place of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem"). Alfords Greek testament

Published works

Alford was a talented artist, as his picture-book, ''The Riviera'' (1870), shows, and he had abundant musical and mechanical talent. Besides editing the works of John Donne, he published several volumes of his own verse, ''The School of the Heart'' (1835), ''The Abbot of Muchelnaye'' (1841), ''The Greek Testament. The Four Gospels'' (1849), and a number of

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

, the best-known of which are "Forward! be our watchword," "

Come, ye thankful people, come "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" is an English Christian harvest festival hymn written in 1844 by Henry Alford. It is most often sung to the tune ''St. George's Windsor'' by George Job Elvey. History Alford wrote "Come, Ye Thankful People, Com ...

", and "Ten thousand times ten thousand." He translated the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'', wrote a well-known manual of idiom, ''A Plea for the Queen's English'' (1863), and was the first editor of the ''Contemporary Review'' (1866–1870). His chief fame rests on his monumental edition of the ''New Testament in Greek'' (8 vols.), which occupied him from 1841 to 1861. In this work he first produced a careful collation of the readings of the chief manuscripts and the researches of the ripest continental scholarship of his day.

Philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as t ...

rather than

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

in character, it marked an epochal change from the old homiletic commentary, and though more recent research, patristic and papyral, has largely changed the method of

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

, Alford's work is still a quarry where the student can dig with a good deal of profit. See Alford's Law for an example. Alford subsequently published the ''New Testament for English Readers'' (4 vols., Rivingtons, 1868). His ''Life'', written by his widow, appeared in 1873 (Rivingtons).

References

Attribution

Bibliography

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External links

Article on one of Alford's Hymns

at the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1902) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alford, Henry 1810 births 1871 deaths 19th-century English theologians Linguists of English English male poets 19th-century English Anglican priests Anglican hymnwriters Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge English hymnwriters Deans of Canterbury Musicians from Kent English male non-fiction writers 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British male writers People from Wymeswold Translators of Homer