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KENNICOTT, BENJAMIN (1718-r783)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 733 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KENNICOTT, See also:BENJAMIN (1718-r783) , See also:English divine and See also:Hebrew See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Totnes, See also:Devonshire, on the 4th of See also:April 1718. He succeeded his See also:father as See also:master of a charity school, but by the liberality of See also:friends he was enabled to go to Wadham See also:College, See also:Oxford, in 1744, where he distinguished him-self in Hebrew and divinity. While an undergraduate he published two See also:dissertations, On the See also:Tree of See also:Life in See also:Paradise, with some Observations on the Fall of See also:Man, and On the Oblations of See also:Cain and See also:Abel (2nd ed., 1747), which procured him the See also:honour of a See also:bachelor's degree before the statutory See also:time. In 1747 he was elected See also:fellow of See also:Exeter College, and in 1750 he took his degree of M.A. In 1764 he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1767 keeper of the See also:Radcliffe Library. He was also See also:canon of See also:Christ See also:Church (1770) and See also:rector of Culham (1753), in See also:Oxfordshire, and was subsequently presented to the living of Menheniot, See also:Cornwall, which he was unable to visit and resigned two years before his See also:death. He died at Oxford, on the 18th of See also:September 1783. His See also:chief See also:work is the Vetus Testamentum hebraicum cum variis lectionibus (2 vols. fol., Oxford, 1776-1780). Before this appeared he had written two dissertations entitled The See also:State of the Printed Hebrew See also:Text of the Old Testament considered, published respectively in 1753 and 1759, which were designed to combat the then current ideas as to the " See also:absolute integrity " of the received Hebrew text. The first contains " a comparison of 1 Chron. xi. with 2 Sam. v. and See also:xxiii. and observations on seventy See also:MSS., with an See also:extract of mistakes and various readings " ; the second defends the claims of the Samaritan See also:Pentateuch, assails the correctness of the printed copies of the See also:Chaldee See also:paraphrase, gives an See also:account of Hebrew MSS. of the See also:Bible known to be extant, and catalogues one See also:hundred MSS. preserved in the See also:British Museum and in the See also:libraries of Oxford and See also:Cambridge. In 176o he issued his proposals for collating all Hebrew MSS. of date See also:prior to the invention of See also:printing. Subscriptions to the amount of nearly £io,000 were obtained, and many learned men addressed themselves to the work of See also:collation, Bruns of Helmstadt making himself specially useful as regarded MSS. in See also:Germany, See also:Switzerland and See also:Italy.

Between 176o and 1769 ten " See also:

annual accounts " of the progress of the work were given; in its course 615 Hebrew MSS. and 52 printed See also:editions of the Bible were either wholly or partially collated, and use was also made (but often very perfunctorily) of the quotations in the See also:Talmud. The materials thus collected, when properly arranged and made ready for the See also:press, extended to 30 vols. fol. The text finally followed in printing was that of See also:Van der Hooght—unpointed however, the points having been disregarded in collation—and the various readings were printed at the See also:foot of the See also:page. The Samaritan Pentateuch stands alongside the Hebrew in parallel columns. The Dissertatio generalis, appended to the second See also:volume, contains an account of the MSS. and other authorities collated, and also a See also:review of the Hebrew text, divided into periods, and beginning with the formation of the Hebrew canon after the return of the See also:Jews from the See also:exile. Kennicott's See also:great work was in one sense a failure. It yielded no materials of value for tree emendation of the received text, and by disregarding the vowel points overlooked the one thing in which some result (grammatical if not See also:critical) might have been derived from collation of Massoretic MSS. But the negative result of the publication and of the Varue lectiones of De See also:Rossi, published some years later, was important. It showed that the Hebrew text can be emended only by the use of the versions aided by conjecture. Kennicott's work was perpetuated by his widow, who founded two university scholarships at Oxford for the study of Hebrew. The fund yields an income of £200 per annum.

End of Article: KENNICOTT, BENJAMIN (1718-r783)

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