Frederick Field (1801–1885) was an English theologian and biblical scholar.

Life

He was born in London, the son of Henry Field, and educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 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 ...

, where he obtained a fellowship in 1824. He was ordained in 1828, and began a close study of

patristic Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics em ...

theology. Eventually he published an emended and annotated text of

Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and po ...

's ''Homiliae in Matthaeum'' (Cambridge, 1839), and some years later he contributed to

Edward Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement, with interest ...

's ''Bibliotheca Patrum'' (Oxford, 1838–1870), a similarly treated text of Chrysostom's

homilies A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered e ...

Paul's epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest exta ...

. In 1839 he had accepted the living of Great Saxham, in

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, and in 1842 he was presented by his college to the rectory of Reepham in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. He resigned in 1863, and settled at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, in order to devote his whole time to study. Twelve years later he completed the ''Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt'' (Oxford, 1867–1875), now well known as ''Field's

Hexapla ''Hexapla'' (), also called ''Origenis Hexaplorum'', is a Textual criticism, critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in six versions, four of them translated into Ancient Greek, Greek, preserved only in fragments. It was an immense and complex wor ...

'', a text reconstructed from the extant fragments of

Origen Origen of Alexandria (), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, Asceticism#Christianity, ascetic, and Christian theology, theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Early cent ...

's work of that name, together with materials drawn from the '' Syro-hexaplar version'' and the ''

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

'' of Robert Holmes and James Parsons (Oxford, 1798–1827). Field was appointed a member of the Old Testament revision company in 1870. In 1881, when the Revision of the New Testament was printed, Field published ''Notes on select passages of the Greek Testament : chiefly with reference to recent English versions'', in which he criticized many of the changes in the New Testament revision (the Old Testament was not published till 1885). Many he saw as incorrect grammatically, stylistically or textually and Field referred to "needless and finical changes" This book was reprinted posthumously in 1899 with additions by the author, under the title ''Notes on the translation of the New Testament''. Included in the expanded edition was an 1882 defense of the Received Text reading of 1 Timothy 3:16.

John William Burgon John William Burgon (21 August 1813 – 4 August 1888) was an English Anglican divine who became the Dean of Chichester Cathedral in 1876. He was known during his lifetime for his poetry and his defense of the historicity and Mosaic authorshi ...

referred to the 1881 edition as a "masterly contribution to Sacred Criticism".''Quarterly Review''
New Testament Revision, The New English Version, 1882, p.37.

References

Attribution: * *

External links

Notes on the translation of the New Testament
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Frederick 1801 births 1885 deaths British biblical scholars People educated at Christ's Hospital Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge People from Reepham, Norfolk