| Description | Letters and postcards to James Rendel Harris from Isaac Hall. Hall's letters are mainly concerned with his work on the Syriac New Testament, and also with his work as a curator in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York where he was involved with acquisitions of collections of Greek and Phoenician inscriptions and manuscripts. He wrote frequently up until a few months before his death in 1896. He values Rendel Harris's scholarly opinions on New Testament texts, and the correspondence deals with a number of theological issues such as the date of Easter and the Eucharist. His letters also demonstrate his desire to acquire Syriac manuscripts and texts for the Metropolitan Museum. His letters show frequent frustration with the work of younger scholars, with the time he spent working in the museum as opposed to on his academic research. The letters also include passing references to family commitments
/1 makes scholarly comments on the Syriac language of the manuscript, Two Ways, 18 November 1887; /2-12 refer to his building up of a collection of rare New Testaments in the Metropolitan Museum and discuss the significance of a number of different versions and translations of the New Testament, 1888; /14 writes about the Metropolitan Museum moving into a new building, and says that gifts to the museum during the past year amounted to over a million dollars, 17 January 1889; /15 asks Rendel Harris's opinion about the attribution of a manuscript of Jacob of Sarug, 29 January 1889; /34 refers to Henry Barclay Swete's work on the Septuagint 'which is good & fairish, but not altogether masterly', 1 July 1890; /35 wants Rendel Harris to get him a copy of the Greek New Testament of 1670 printed by Elzevir, 5 July 1890; /47 gives his views on the dating of Easter, 1 February 1891; /50 gives his views on the Eucharist, 28 June 1891; /51 hopes to go and see the Codex Bezae, 17 August 1891; /52 gives his views on the translation of the word 'trial' in the Lord's Prayer, 8 September 1891; /54 refers to Frederic Henry Chase as a 'liturgical crank', 1 October 1891; /58 criticises the scholar, George Percy Badger as 'not a very wide spreading tree', 23 November 1891; /61 refers to the present era of biblical scholarship as a 'trough in the swelling sea', 14 March 1892; /65 is critical of the scholar, George Henry Gwilliam whose work 'is so elementary and is so eager for display - a display he will regret if he ever learns anything', 7 September 1893; /66 is critical of James Murdock's translations 'He was not much of a Syriac expert, and frequently mistook the force of expressions', 8 September 1893; /67 refers to Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge's work 'History of the Governors', 2 October 1867; /68 comments on the Greek text of Acts 4, 5 October 1893; /69 refers to Francis Crawford Burkitt's review of the work of Frederic Henry Chase, 3 November 1893; /75 writes that he has just received Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener's 'Adversaria critica sacra', 22 April 1894; /76 is very critical of Lewis's translation of the Syriac gospels, 11 January 1895; /77 writes concerning arrangements about speaking arrangements for Rendel Harris in the States including possible invitation to deliver a Morgan lecture and a preaching commitment at Cornell, 12 January 1895; /80 comments on Burkitt's edition of the Syriac gospels which he believes will be superseded and is only a temporary version, 26 January 1895; /92 is critical of younger biblical scholars whom he describes as 'young fellows ..writing soap bubble essays', 15 July 1895 |