William Cureton (180817 June 1864) was an English
Orientalist.
Life
He was born in
Westbury, Shropshire
Westbury is a village and parish in Shropshire, England. It includes the settlements of Caus Forest, Lake, Marche, Newtown, Stoney Stretton, Vennington, Wallop, Westbury, Whitton, Winsley and Yockleton. It lies west of the town of Shrewsbur ...
. After being educated at the
Adams' Grammar School
Haberdashers' Adams is a grammar school for boys aged 11–18 and girls aged 16–18, located in Newport, Shropshire, offering day and boarding education. Current (2021) boarding fees are £12,144 per year and £13,644 per year for overseas stu ...
in
Newport, Shropshire
Newport is a constituent market town in Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies north of Telford, west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 census recorded 10,814 people living in the town's paris ...
and at
Christ Church, Oxford, he took orders in 1832, became chaplain of Christ Church, sublibrarian of the
Bodleian
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...
, and, in 1837, assistant keeper of manuscripts in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. He was afterwards appointed select preacher to the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, chaplain in ordinary to the queen, rector of
St Margaret's, Westminster
The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...
, and canon of
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
. He was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
and a trustee of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, and was also honored by several continental societies.
For a time Cureton also served as curate of
St Andrew's, Oddington, Oxfordshire.
Works
Cureton's most remarkable work was the edition with notes and an English translation of the
Epistles of Ignatius to
Polycarp
Polycarp (; el, Πολύκαρπος, ''Polýkarpos''; la, Polycarpus; AD 69 155) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the '' Martyrdom of Polycarp'', he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed ...
, the
Ephesians
The Epistle to the Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament. Its authorship has traditionally been attributed to Paul the Apostle but starting in 1792, this has been challenged as Deutero-Pauline, that is, pseudepigrapha written in Pau ...
and the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, from a
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
manuscript that had been found in the
monastery of St. Mary Deipara
The Monastery of Saint Mary El-Sourian is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It is located about 500 meters northwest of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy.
The monastery is de ...
, in the desert of
Nitria, near
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
. He held that the manuscript he used gave the truest text, that all other texts were inaccurate, and that the epistles contained in the manuscript were the only genuine epistles of Ignatius that we possess, a view which received the support of
Ferdinand Christian Baur
Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...
,
Bunsen, and many other eminent scholars, but which was opposed by
Charles Wordsworth
Charles Wordsworth (22 August 1806 – 5 December 1892) was Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane in Scotland. He was a classical scholar, and taught at public schools in England and Scotland. He was a rower, cricketer and athlete and he ...
and by several German scholars, and is now generally abandoned. Cureton supported his view by his ''Vindiciae Ignatianae'' and his ''Corpus Ignatianum, a Complete Collection of the Ignatian Epistles, genuine, interpolated and spurious''.
He also edited:
* a partial Syriac text of the ''Festal Letters of St
Athanasius
Athanasius I of Alexandria, ; cop, ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲡⲓⲁⲡⲟⲥⲧⲟⲗⲓⲕⲟⲥ or Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲑⲁⲛⲁⲥⲓⲟⲩ ⲁ̅; (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, ...
'', which was translated into English by
Henry Burgess (1854), and published in the ''
Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church'';
*''Remains of a very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac, hitherto unknown in Europe''; This came to be known as the
Curetonian Gospels after Cureton.
*''Spicilegium Syriacum, containing Remains of
Bardesan,
Meliton,
Ambrose,
Mara Bar Serapion
Mara bar Serapion ( syc, ܡܪܐ ܒܪ ܣܪܦܝܘܢ) was a Syriac Stoic philosopher in the Roman province of Syria. He is only known from a letter he wrote in Syriac to his son, who was named Serapion,''The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Int ...
'';
*''The third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus'', which was translated by
Robert Payne Smith
Robert Payne Smith (7 November 1818 – 31 March 1895) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church from 1865 until 1870, when he was appointed Dean of Canterbury by Queen Victoria on the advice of Wil ...
;
*''Fragments of the
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") 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 '' Odys ...
of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
from a Syriac Palimpsest'';
*an Arabic work known as the Thirty-first Chapter of the Book entitled ''The Lamp that guides to Salvation'', written by a Christian of
Tekrit;
*''The Book of Religious and Philosophical Sects'', by
Mohammed al Sharastani;
*a ''Commentary on the
Book of Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ( he, אֵיכָה, , from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings") as one of the Five Megill ...
, by
Rabbi Tanchum'';
*the ''Pillar of the Creed of the
Sunnites''.
Cureton also published several sermons, among which was one entitled ''The Doctrine of the Trinity not Speculative but Practical''. After his death
William Wright edited with a preface the ''Ancient Syriac Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity in
Edessa and the neighboring Countries, from the Year of our Lords Ascension to the beginning of the Fourth Century; discovered, edited and annotated by the late W. Cureton''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cureton, William
1808 births
1864 deaths
Clergy from Shropshire
Newport, Shropshire
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
English orientalists
Syriacists
19th-century English Anglican priests
Fellows of the Royal Society
Christian Hebraists
Canons of Westminster
People educated at Adams' Grammar School
Writers from Shropshire
19th-century Anglican theologians