Robert Henry (R. H.) Charles, (

Cookstown Cookstown (, ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the fourth-largest town in the county and had a population of 12,546 in the 2021 census. It, along with Magherafelt and Dungannon, is one of the main towns in the Mid-Ulster ...

, 6 August 1855 –

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, 1931) was an Irish Anglican theologian,

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

, and

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He is known particularly for his English translations of numerous

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

and pseudepigraphal Ancient Hebrew writings, including the ''

Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of Ethiopian Jewish ...

'' (1895), the '' Apocalypse of Baruch'' (1896), the ''

Ascension of Isaiah The ''Ascension of Isaiah'' is a pseudepigraphical Judeo-Christian text. Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. Scholarly estimates regarding the date of the Ascension of Isaiah range from 70 AD to 175 AD.Hurt ...

'' (1900), the ''

Book of Enoch The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch; Hebrew language, Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, ''Sēfer Ḥănōḵ''; , ) is an Second Temple Judaism, ancient Jewish Apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the Patriar ...

'' (1906), and the ''

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a constituent of the apocryphal scriptures connected with the Bible. It is believed to be a pseudepigraphical work of the dying commands of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is part of the Oskan Armenian Or ...

'' (1908), which have been widely used. He wrote the articles in the eleventh edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (1911) attributed to the initials "R. H. C." He was born in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Its county town is Omagh. Adjoined to the south-west shore of Lough Neagh, the cou ...

, on 6 August 1855 and educated at the Belfast Academy,

Queen's College, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, and

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, with periods in

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. He gained a D.D. and became Professor of

Biblical Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic ...

at the Trinity College. In 1906, he was elected Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

and four years later he was appointed Fellow of the

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

. He also became Archdeacon of Westminster in 1919, serving until his death in 1931. He is buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

Select bibliography

* ''The Book of Enoch'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1893, reprinted in 1895. Republished by Boston, MA: Samuel Weiser; 2003. * ''The Ethiopic Version of the Hebrew Book of Jubilees'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1895. * ''The Apocalypse of Baruch'', London: Black, 1896. * and W. R. Morfill, ''The Book of the Secrets of Enoch'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1896. Republished by Filiquarian Publishing, 2006. * ''The Assumption of Moses'', London: Black, 1897. * ''A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life'', London: Black, 1899
1999 reprint of 2nd edition
* ''Ascension of Isaiah'', London: Black, 1900. * ''The Book of Jubilees or the Little Genesis'', London: Black, 1902. * ''Encyclopaedia Biblica'' (contributor), 1903 * ''The Ethiopic Version of Book of Enoch'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1906. * ''The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. * trans. ''The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs''), London: Adam and Charles Black, 1908. * ''The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch: Translated from the Editor's Ethiopic Text'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1912. * ''Fragments of a Zadokite Work. Translated from the Cambridge Hebrew Text and edited with Introduction, Notes, and Indexes'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912. * ''Studies in the Apocalypse'', Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1913. * ''Eschatology: The Doctrine of a Future Life in Israel, Judaism and Christianity'', London: Black, 1913 (rpt. New York: Schocken 1963 with an introduction by G. W. Buchanan). * ed. ''The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament'', 2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1913. Republished in 1976. * '' Religious Development Between the Old and the New Testaments'', William and Norgate, 1914. Republished in 1925. * * ''Lectures on the Apocalypse'', Schweich Lecture for 1919. * ''A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John'', 2 vols., Edinburgh: Clark, 1920. * ''The Teaching of the New Testament on Divorce'', London: Williams & Norgate, 1921 * ''A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1929.

References

* T. W. Manson, "Charles, Robert Henry," in The

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, 1931–40, ed. L. G. Wickham Legg, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949, pp. 169–70. * "Concise Dictionary of National Biography"

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Robert Henry 1855 births 1931 deaths 19th-century British writers British biblical scholars 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century English theologians 20th-century Irish non-fiction writers Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Anglican biblical scholars Anglican priests from Northern Ireland Archdeacons of Westminster Bible commentators Burials at Westminster Abbey Canons of Westminster English Anglican theologians Fellows of the British Academy Ge'ez language Greek–English translators Irish Anglican theologians Irish biblical scholars People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy People from Cookstown Translators of the Bible into English Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Christian clergy from County Tyrone Writers from County Tyrone