00:00:08.040 - 00:00:29.680

Mhm. Thank you, President Wardlaw for your kind introduction, students, trustees, faculty and staff colleagues and guests. It is my honor to be here today. This is a very special event and I

00:00:29.680 - 00:00:51.090

am grateful for the opportunity to deliver this year's complication address. Despite the early 19th century discoveries in antiquities , the history of the Bible's textual development continued to encounter critical scrutiny in Victorian England In February 1860,

00:00:51.090 - 00:01:06.380

the controversial publication of essays and reviews through into crisis traditional views of biblical truth. Throughout the seven essays , there is an appeal to the reader to seize upon the advances made in science and criticism for the

00:01:06.380 - 00:01:23.070

study of religion and scripture as reverend Frederick Temple States in his lead as a quote. If geology proves to us that we must not interpret the first chapters of genesis literally. If historical investigations shall show us

00:01:23.080 - 00:01:40.010

that inspiration. However, it may protect the doctrine yet was not empowered to protect the narrative of the inspired writers from occasional inaccuracy. If criticism shall prove that there have been occasionally interpolations and forgeries in that

00:01:40.010 - 00:01:55.250

book, as in many others, the results should still be welcomed. End quote at issue. Here is a positive ist mode of criticism that approach the bible as any other classical text and hence deserving of

00:01:55.250 - 00:02:12.800

the same rigorous historical interrogation. Rather than consenting to traditional claims about the received text, the formula for ascertaining the true text required a submission of modern human reason to the guidance of textual evidence. As Benjamin

00:02:12.800 - 00:02:30.770

Joanette deposits in his contribution to essays and reviews doctrine and tradition, encumbered the meaning of scripture to interpret what scripture means, Joanette urges the modern reader, quote, to confine himself to the plain meaning of

00:02:30.770 - 00:02:46.500

words and the study of their context. End quote , insistent on the importance of the bible's original text . He contends that, quote, no other science of Hermeneutics is possible, but an inductive one that

00:02:46.500 - 00:02:58.630

is to say, one based on the language and thoughts and narrations of the sacred writers. End quote , by attending solely to the text. Original language Joey tells the reader that, quote, the young

00:02:58.630 - 00:03:10.250

student has almost all the real materials which are possessed by the greatest biblical scholar in the book itself. End, quote. In this regard, the modern editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts of the bible

00:03:10.280 - 00:03:27.330

proved adequate enough to proceed to the interpretation and translation of the text from joe. It's modern vantage point . The earlier printed greek testaments of Caldas, man , lucious and robert stephens were inaccurate given that they

00:03:27.330 - 00:03:42.160

were quote, gathered from the imperfect or miss written copies which fell in the way of the editors. End, quote. In contrast, modern printed versions of the greek new testament such as those of Lonmin

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Tyson, Dorf and struggles were based on quote older and better manuscripts, which only recently had come to light for Joannette modern european biblical critics had greatly improved in their quote power of using and estimating the value

00:04:00.260 - 00:04:16.290

of manuscripts. End quote to such an extent that he had full confidence in the accuracy of 19th century critical editions of the bible plotting a counter response to the provocative stance advanced in essays and reviews, was

00:04:16.300 - 00:04:32.340

Brooke Foss Westcott, who at the time was teaching classics at Herald School near London. A proponent of textual criticism. Westcott and Cambridge. Friend Fenton john Anthony Hort had already begun the research phase for their

00:04:32.340 - 00:04:46.330

new edition of the Greek New testament. Published the same year as essays and reviews, was Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, in which he describes the exige ethical process, quote. But

00:04:46.330 - 00:05:02.550

when the interpreter of scripture has availed himself of every help which historical criticism can furnish for the elucidation of the text, when by the exact investigation of every word the most diligent attention to every variation of tents

00:05:02.560 - 00:05:18.200

and even of order. The clearest recollection of the associations of every phrase has been obtained, or he has obtained a sense of the whole perfect in its finer shades and local coloring, no less than in

00:05:18.200 - 00:05:34.470

its general outline and effect. His work is as yet only half done. End quote. Westcott thus reveals that underlying the original text was the existence of an abiding spiritual sense. As he explains, quote

00:05:34.480 - 00:05:50.940

, it will be found that the simple record appears to be instinct with divine life. End quote In Westcott estimate the bible's divine message is inextricably linked with the writers, humanity, although external circumstances and mental

00:05:50.950 - 00:06:14.940

characteristics limited the biblical writer from full apprehension and expression of the truth. Human fallibility is part of his divine message, making it essential to the usefulness and universality of the bible loyal to the Church of England

00:06:14.950 - 00:06:29.890

. Westcott advocated for a reverential criticism over against the strictly scientific approach, reflected in german biblical scholarship, which constrained the spiritual meaning of the bible. And formulating a rebuttal to essays and reviews. Westcott was

00:06:29.900 - 00:06:46.350

intent upon having Port and joseph Lightfoot, also a Cambridge graduate, join him in fostering a milder anglican position. Westcott had the idea to include a series of preliminary essays to their current commentary project on the

00:06:46.350 - 00:07:00.460

new testament for the London based publisher Macmillan and Company , August 6 1860, he wrote a letter to heart that central to these essays, would be quote to show that there is a mean between essays and

00:07:00.460 - 00:07:15.720

reviews and traditionalism. End, quote court replied later that month with these words quote, I could not consent to join in any volume of essays, which could be plausibly regarded as simply an Orthodox protest against

00:07:15.730 - 00:07:30.560

the essays and reviews. End, quote, hearts , liberal leanings aligned him more with the truth claims proffered in the controversial volume than those made by its Orthodox opponents. His only contention with essays and reviews

00:07:30.560 - 00:07:46.130

was over the principles of biblical interpretation, which, in his view Westcott had already given a sufficient response in his introduction to the Study of the Gospels. Although Westcott disagreed with the discursive Tener in essays and

00:07:46.130 - 00:08:01.650

reviews, he did not deny the need for exact criticism, especially in settling the quote pure and quote original text of the bible. In his 18 63 article in the new testament for dictionary of the bible

00:08:01.660 - 00:08:20.030

, Westcott describes the Biblical Critics task as follows, quote, No exhibition of general principles can supersede the necessity of a careful examination of the characteristics of separate witnesses and of groups of witnesses. The text of

00:08:20.030 - 00:08:35.230

Holy scripture, like the text of all other books , depends on evidence. Rules may classify the evidence and facilitate the decision, but the final appeal must be to the evidence itself. End quote. Certainly

00:08:35.240 - 00:08:48.540

Westcott emphasis on evidence differs little from joe its view of the Biblical Critics task, which as he has argued, quote when interpreted like any other book by the same rules of evidence and the same canons of

00:08:48.540 - 00:09:05.050

criticism, the bible will still remain unlike any other book. It's Beauty will be freshly seen as of a picture which is restored after many ages to its original state. End quote for both Westcott and Joey

00:09:05.050 - 00:09:20.550

let the noble ng mission for the Biblical critic was to decipher from the evidence, the original biblical text of which they thought the modern period propitious for such an endeavor as Westcott has stressed modern european. Biblical

00:09:20.550 - 00:09:35.380

criticism came to achieve an unprecedented degree of accuracy in settling the original text in his article for the Dictionary of the bible, he vouches that quote, the textual critic was reserved for a time when he could

00:09:35.380 - 00:09:52.750

command trustworthy and complete coalitions. End quote. Registering here as a key element in the rise of the modern Textual Biblical critic had everything to do with advancements in collecting practices throughout europe. In his article,

00:09:52.760 - 00:10:07.780

Westcott explains the first principle of biblical criticism, stating that quote, the text must throughout be determined by the evidence without allowing any prescriptive right to printed editions . End quote in other words, Biblical critics,

00:10:07.790 - 00:10:26.850

endeavoring to reconstruct the original text, could legitimately do so only by first collating manuscripts. This activity involved reading through ancient biblical manuscripts, tediously selecting readings that varied from the received text and methodically transcribing them in

00:10:26.850 - 00:10:41.940

a notebook. By the mid 19th century, printed editions of the Greek New Testament were products of incessant collecting activity in Europe, spanning across decades of the male critics, scholarly career careers. Yet it is

00:10:41.940 - 00:10:58.700

important to note that the particular charities of this collecting activity, specifically its role in the construction of power and prestige fall out of you. In Westcott assessment here, the possessive instincts and modes of self fashioning

00:10:58.820 - 00:11:15.920

that lie behind collecting in modern europe were rendered immune to contextual interrogation, primarily because the quest for the bible's original text served as a valid and moral alibi . In West Coast view, BRian Walton's 16 57

00:11:15.920 - 00:11:30.440

poly block, particularly the 5th and 6th volumes, and john Mills, 17 7. Greek new testament marked a significant turning point in the biblical critics, bigger for collecting variant readings, sub tending their printed

00:11:30.440 - 00:11:45.570

editions of the greek. New testament was a broader apparatus of evidential materials, which not only included ancient greek and latin manuscripts, but also Semitic versions and Petrus tick quotations. Yet, for Westcott, the

00:11:45.570 - 00:12:03.470

move from a manuscript, miscellany of various readings or variant readings toward a textual critical collection really began with Richard Bentley, who in his words was quote, the greatest of english scholars. End quote qualifying Bentley

00:12:03.470 - 00:12:18.520

as such, was directly linked to his collecting and collating activities rather than the usual editorial masterpiece for a biblical critic, a printed edition of the bible's original text, as Wescott describes in his dictionary article quote

00:12:18.530 - 00:12:35.450

, he announced in 17 16 his intention of publishing in addition of the greek testament on the authority of the oldest greek and latin manuscripts, correlations were shortly afterwards undertaken, both at paris and Rome and Bentley

00:12:35.450 - 00:12:52.350

himself spared neither labour nor money end quote parallel with waistcoats treatment of Bentley is the notion that his greatness as a biblical critic was proportionate to the time and money he put into his collecting activity. In other

00:12:52.350 - 00:13:05.610

words, what he insists as central to Bentley scholarly legacy, had less to do with his principles for revising the common greek tax and more with his collecting habits, which, as he indicates, had as

00:13:05.610 - 00:13:20.320

their primary goal, quote, all the various readings of the first five centuries end quote. Within the grandeur of Bentley scholarly mission, we are able to see how the biblical critic was constituted through and represented

00:13:20.320 - 00:13:37.850

by a collection of sacred textual artifacts essential to his activities as a collector, was the methodical mining of ancient biblical manuscripts for variant readings And re contextualizing them within one monumental printed book of the Bible. It

00:13:37.850 - 00:13:54.450

is important to note, however, that by the early modern period, collecting was a pervasive social practice throughout europe and rooted in networks of social, cultural and economic hierarchies. As marjorie Swan has observed with

00:13:54.450 - 00:14:09.780

the humanist subject. The link between a collection of variant readings and the sacred would have doubly enhanced the cultural capital of the biblical critic. In considering the only as a collector, particularly in the context of

00:14:09.780 - 00:14:24.840

his proposed printed edition of the Greek testament, His position as keeper of the Royal Library served as a critical point of departure. Entering on this office in 16 93 Bentley, a burgeoning Biblical critics had exclusive

00:14:24.850 - 00:14:43.750

access to England's Bebeto pia of libraries. His title of keeper bespoke the purview of his office, which involved preserving and mastering the arcana of the royal family's rare books and manuscript collections for his proposed greek testament

00:14:43.760 - 00:15:00.950

. Bentley took textual possession of the royal Libraries alexandria in manuscript by collating it a new with what he described as quote, a more careful and precise examination . End quote. Once it's superior textual textual witness

00:15:00.960 - 00:15:16.530

was established, Bentley proceeded to collect variant readings which as he stated, quote represented in the most ancient and venerable manuscripts in greek and roman capital letters. The old version, Syriac, coptic, Gothic and

00:15:16.540 - 00:15:31.240

ethiad pick and of all the fathers, Greeks and Latins within the first five centuries end, quote the scope of Bentley's collection of variant readings called for a substantial amount of funding, not to mention the cooperation

00:15:31.250 - 00:15:52.190

of booksellers, major european, ecclesiastical and university libraries , private collectors and personal research assistance in constructing a Biblical critics collecting network. Bentley also relied upon his high social capital which he had accumulated as chaplain to

00:15:52.190 - 00:16:08.990

Queen mary keeper, librarian of the Royal Library, Archdeacon of Ellie and Master of trinity college Surrounding the textual artifacts that Bentley aimed to collect was their abiding cultural iconic status in 18th century Britain. Hence,

00:16:10.000 - 00:16:26.060

it is no surprise that his textual project was both a locus of religious controversy and intellectual prestige. In a letter to Bentley, in 1716, Thomas Librarian of the Dean and Chapter Library at Durham, lauded

00:16:26.060 - 00:16:40.800

his efforts as a collector, quote, I shall be very ready so far as I am able to be in any measure subservient to the great work you have undertaken. Men of excellent parts are seldom willing

00:16:40.810 - 00:16:56.610

to give themselves so much trouble as must be undergone in collecting and collating so many manuscripts. End quote as he wrote in a letter to Archbishop Wake in 17 6 16, Bentley envisioned possessing a complete collection

00:16:56.620 - 00:17:11.710

of variant readings to such a degree that it would result in quote an addition of the greek testament exactly as it was in the best exemplars at the time of the Council of Nice End, quote Ben,

00:17:11.710 - 00:17:29.810

these religious convictions were inextricable from european modes and strategies of power that informed and shaped them. His collecting enterprise operated through a european mode of collecting, thereby endowing his collecting habits with a competitive impulse that was

00:17:29.820 - 00:17:48.230

object driven and self fashioning characteristic of a modern european collecting rationale was not only the respectability associated with private collections, especially rare and antiquarian objects, but also the sense of mastery over the objects possessed. For

00:17:48.230 - 00:18:03.120

Bentley collecting variant readings was not simply an object of religious conviction. Rather, he engrossed himself in this activity with the aim of dominating the biblical text. In a second letter to Archbishop Wake 17 16,

00:18:03.130 - 00:18:15.980

been li expressed that his greek testament project had engulfed his inner drive, stating that quote, It was the very view that possessed me with his thought which has now so engaged me and in a manner enslaved

00:18:15.980 - 00:18:30.430

me, that vie mickey, unless I do it nothing but sickness, by the blessing of God, shall hinder me from prosecuting it to the end. End quote. Even though Bentley failed to publish his

00:18:30.430 - 00:18:51.580

edition of the Greek testament, his research activity re ified. The continuity is between the biblical critic and certain collecting habits by linking bit lease worth as a biblical critic with the european practice of collecting. Westcott

00:18:51.580 - 00:19:07.260

thus anticipates his own professional career path. Indeed, he viewed collecting as a professional norm in the modern scientific pursuit of the bible's original text, drawing on scholarship and collecting studies, the social practice of collecting

00:19:07.290 - 00:19:23.700

. That Westcott champion is consistent with jean Bedel yards theory of collecting as a game of possession and collections as embodied projections of the self revealed within the practice of collecting is an important index of subjectivity here.

00:19:23.700 - 00:19:40.850

The biblical manuscript material was defined by its new context in the collection. Therefore, there, by subsuming these manuscripts to what Susan Stewart identifies as quote, a scenario of the personal. For Bentley and Westcott

00:19:40.860 - 00:19:55.330

, a perfectly collated collection of variant readings did more to confirm their own identities as professional englishman than the original form of the biblical text as ball drill yard has put it, quote. The collection offers us

00:19:55.340 - 00:20:12.560

a paradigm of perfection, for this is where the passionate enterprise of possession can achieve its ambitions within a space where the everyday prose of the object world modulates into poetry, to institute an unconscious and triumphant discourse

00:20:12.590 - 00:20:29.310

end, quote, as Westcott suggests in his new testament article for the Dictionary of the bible, achieving expert status as a biblical critic, meant becoming a diligent collector of collated textual artifacts. It was precisely

00:20:29.310 - 00:20:44.200

this mode of collecting that Westcott dedicated most of his professional career, which, unlike Bentley culminated in the monumental achievement of a printed edition of the Greek Testament , which was edited in collaboration with heart. The

00:20:44.200 - 00:21:02.590

collecting activity associated with the Westcott and Hort Greek testament spanned nearly three decades from 1853 to 1881. Indeed , what was distinctive about Westcott collecting process was how he relied heavily upon the principles of analysis intrinsic to

00:21:02.600 - 00:21:21.390

natural history. In a letter to heart, on March 29, Westcott expressed concern over textual matters, in particular, the authenticity of parallelism between the synoptic gospels found in later manuscripts. Especially striking here was

00:21:21.390 - 00:21:37.360

the manner in which Westcott hinted at his underlying collecting rationale, stating, quote, I wish that there were time to examine a sufficient amount of passages and show the natural history of progressive corruption. End,

00:21:37.360 - 00:21:55.020

quote. Mhm. Permeating this statement is not only the philosophical influence of ago's comment, specifically, his theory of the natural progress of human society, but also a system of knowledge constituted by the modern science

00:21:55.030 - 00:22:12.470

of natural history. As Michel Foucault reminds us, the modern scientists val arised vision as the master sense for constructing encyclopedic taxonomy of the natural world in west Coast view. This approach to natural objects was also

00:22:12.480 - 00:22:30.400

applicable to the analysis of ancient biblical manuscripts or specimens , as he sometimes called them. In his dictionary article, he provided several instructions to assist the biblical critic on how to detect textual corruptions. Among them

00:22:30.410 - 00:22:47.380

include the following quote. It is enough to insist on the truth that the varieties of our documents are the result of slow and natural growth and not violent change. They are due to the action of intelligible

00:22:47.380 - 00:23:03.620

laws, and rarely, if ever, to the caprice are imperfect judgment of individuals. They contain in themselves their history and their explanation. End quote. Working in tandem with the methodical examination of manuscripts,

00:23:03.630 - 00:23:21.720

was the conviction that they were conceived within a natural system of changing variables, all of whose values could be plotted linearly and categorized systematically. Hence natural history . Not only took precedence in West Coast search for

00:23:21.720 - 00:23:36.630

the original text, but rather it was ultimately re ified in his collection of various manuscript readings of the greek testament from an early age, Westcott was exposed to the modern science of natural history, primarily through

00:23:36.630 - 00:23:53.420

his father, Frederic Brooke Westcott, who was an established geologist and botanical specialist. Among his father's scientific achievements was his co editing of Flora Cabinet, a magazine that provided illustrations of botanical novelties found in public

00:23:53.430 - 00:24:10.840

and private collections, along with their descriptions under the Linnean classification system. Like his father, Young Westcott derived immense satisfaction from collecting natural history specimens because this was an activity that continued well into his adult hood

00:24:10.840 - 00:24:30.230

. Years. Westcott collecting habits require much more explanation than the benign portrayal that he was simply sustaining a healthy childhood hobby as bald Railyard argues the persistent recourse to the possessed object is never superficial, in large

00:24:30.230 - 00:24:45.980

part because an object world requires varying degrees of social withdrawal. In his son's book, Life and letters of Brooke false Westcott author Westcott indicates that quote in his early boyhood, the young Westcott led a somewhat

00:24:45.980 - 00:25:00.340

lonely life end quote. He attributed this to his father's lack of male siblings and other childhood companions. As B. F. Westcott himself later recounted while studying at Cambridge. Quote, I had no elder

00:25:00.340 - 00:25:15.070

brother to obey, no younger brother to please. I had no companions, no friends. End, quote, Perhaps second to this was his intermittent relationship with his father, Frederic Westcott, as his uncle

00:25:15.080 - 00:25:27.500

, reverend, T. M. Middle more wintered , observed young Westcott rarely saw his father due to his quote, studious and engrossing devotion to scientific pursuits . End quote. Hence, one way Westcott sought

00:25:27.510 - 00:25:42.660

his father's attention was by collecting natural history objects. As his uncle recalled, quote, Brooke delighted in the discovery of fresh habitats of special plants and mosses and ferns which he knew his father prized End,

00:25:42.660 - 00:25:59.680

quote. The question arises as to what extent Westcott boyhood desire for fatherly approval permeated his adult natural history collecting habits. There is apparent certainty, however, that the uncle viewed West Coast taste for collecting as

00:25:59.680 - 00:26:14.990

inseparable from his deficient peer relationships, stating, quote , in those early days, I cannot recollect that he had any school companions. He used his leisure chiefly in sketching and arranging his collections of ferns and

00:26:14.990 - 00:26:32.260

butterflies and moths, and in reading books of natural history or poetry among the most abiding characteristics of Westcott that reached well into his adulthood, where his disenchantment of common social settings and proclivity to natural history collecting

00:26:33.240 - 00:26:48.140

in baldwin yards, words quote, This is why withdrawal into an all encompassing object system is synonymous with loneliness. It is impervious to communication from others, and it lacks communiqu ability. End quote in a

00:26:48.140 - 00:27:03.260

letter on May 18 18 48 to his future wife , Sarah Louisa mary Woodard. Westcott gave these telling statements about his sense of loneliness. Quote, I am but to conscious myself of the overpowering loneliness which

00:27:03.260 - 00:27:18.420

seems then chiefly to weigh one down when amid a crowd, you only seem to have no interest in their affections and no part in their business end quote . Rather than pursue what Westcott called careless frivolity,

00:27:18.430 - 00:27:33.290

he found isolation a more worthwhile social context. As he explained, quote, isolation may give the firmness which we need. Solitary nous may encourage thoughtfulness, than which no treasure is more precious. End,

00:27:33.290 - 00:27:48.900

quote. The discussion quickly shifts in the letter, with Westcott returning to his opening statements about collecting mosses , he asked, MS wintered, quote, If you find any in fruit, I would get specimens

00:27:49.050 - 00:28:03.020

and enclose me some. If you can end, quote, We are left to wonder if turning to the subject of his collection of her beria was a move symptomatic of Westcott notions of isolation and sense of

00:28:03.020 - 00:28:17.490

loneliness. By his early 30s, Westcott, who by this time was married and teaching at Harrow School , revealed in his diary and letters, an increased passion for natural history collecting during his visit to South

00:28:17.490 - 00:28:32.550

France in 18 54. His diary entry for 18 august eight reads as follows, quote, I started for Chicago via the road lies along the high highway for five or six miles and the heaps of stones

00:28:32.640 - 00:28:49.080

open to me minds of geological treasures. End quote . Unlike museum collections of natural history in victorian, England, Westcott objects were intimately personal and primarily selected for his gaze alone at work in the possession of

00:28:49.080 - 00:29:07.710

these natural treasures were complex figuration of desire that enabled the reciprocal integration of object with Westcott personhood, as his preference for solitude seems to suggest his natural history collecting was less about scientific pursuits than a self constructed

00:29:07.710 - 00:29:23.480

world imbued with complex intention and interaction. In a letter to his wife in April 1856, he offers us a glimpse of this, of the symbolic playfulness in his world of natural history. At the outset

00:29:23.480 - 00:29:37.700

he expressed, did you ever see an enthusiastic geologist , my dearest mary? I went out and in sunshine and rain and above all mud. I collected a few interesting fossils to my other fossils. I

00:29:37.700 - 00:29:52.740

added a few bones and teeth, which are interesting end. Quote, the fossils collected Westcott collected spoke more to the significance of their owner in nature than to themselves in nature. Despite his use of contemporary

00:29:52.750 - 00:30:11.460

scientific principles to collect fossils. Their private possession meant that Westcott controlled their overall meaning, detached from their natural contacts. Westcott repurposed his finds to create a private universe in which their serial relationships were not strictly

00:30:11.460 - 00:30:26.590

to prove a scientific point. As Susan Pierce argues . Once natural history specimens are collected, they turn into man made products, and hence become part of the relationships which the collector constructs for them. Signs

00:30:26.600 - 00:30:41.060

of this were more apparent further on in the letter , when Wescott related his affection for his wife to a prized fossil specimen. As he described, quote , the geological fever is at its height. My

00:30:41.060 - 00:31:00.310

saturday by saturday, I expect. I shall call you a kitchen door pra or my dear Sephaka. Or call you an admirable cabinet specimen. End quote . Underpinning his playful language of endearment was a troubling

00:31:00.310 - 00:31:14.340

propensity to imagine his spousal relationship within his world of natural history collecting, as he described to his wife , quote, take care you are not put into a dish of muriatic acid to bring out your good

00:31:14.340 - 00:31:32.250

features. End quote, mm hmm. Here West Coast fossil collecting demonstrated a metaphorical adaptive itty whereby his wife ceased to be a woman, and instead turned into a treasured piece among other cabinet specimens, objectified

00:31:32.250 - 00:31:48.590

as such a test to the limitless substitution at work in West Coates world of natural history here. Spousal intimacy shifted from the human realm to a controlled imaginary that largely served to confirm Westcott personhood. Indeed,

00:31:48.590 - 00:32:07.380

what appears to be playful chatter was a complex discursive code switching under the guise of natural history. Yet embodying his collection of natural history specimens was not only the purpose for which Westcott took up this uh was

00:32:07.390 - 00:32:22.050

not the only purpose for which Westcott took up this scientific mode of collecting 19th Century Victorian England. The natural sciences were taken seriously as a noble intellectual pursuit , primarily because they perform meticulous exercises of observation,

00:32:22.060 - 00:32:39.620

followed by systematic descriptions of the natural world. As pierce describes, quote systematics is a term drawn from biology, botany and geology, where it means the practice of taxonomy, end quote governing. This entire

00:32:39.620 - 00:32:54.550

process were two key human abilities, vision and reason with these at the four. The task then was to collect, compare contrast, and classify natural history specimens with the view of mapping out the natural world

00:32:55.340 - 00:33:10.030

. This scientific worldview not only registered in West Coast private life, but also in his public teachings. During his years at Harrow School, Westcott devoted additional time and effort to teaching his impressionable young pupils about

00:33:10.030 - 00:33:24.010

native flora through the modern science of natural history. For several of his former students, a shared memory of Westcott as a schoolmaster was the botanical walks he often took with him as T. J. Cooper

00:33:24.010 - 00:33:37.290

recalled, quote as a new boy. I well remember that he invited me to take a botanical walk with him because he had heard from one of his pupils that I was fond of collecting flowers. I

00:33:37.290 - 00:33:52.360

have not forgotten the suggestions which he made concerning the collection of wild flowers. On that sunday afternoon end quote troopers. Nature walk with his admired schoolmaster was not remembered for its educational amusement, but rather for

00:33:52.360 - 00:34:06.210

what he learned about collecting wildflowers along similar lines. W. H. B. Folks Bart, also a former student, recounted that quote. He would take us out for walks and show us every flower

00:34:06.210 - 00:34:16.560

and fern that grew in the neighborhood of hair. Oh! I owe him a great depth for such knowledge of natural history and other subjects of general knowledge as I acquired from him. End, quote,

00:34:17.040 - 00:34:31.190

what West Coast teaching legacy confirms is the idea that his private passion in natural history collecting also informed his teaching activity. As his former student Rupert tellingly revealed , quote. If any pupil of his failed to

00:34:31.190 - 00:34:45.500

learn how to collect, compare contrast, and classify facts with the view of arriving at general principles. It was the fault of the scholar and not the Master End quote. His commitment to natural history as

00:34:45.500 - 00:35:00.560

a teacher was not only evidence in student testimony, but ultimately, in stan she hated in his contributions to the school's curriculum. With Westcott recognized as Pharaoh's natural science specialists. The headmaster commissioned him in 1865

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to lead the way in devising an official system of examination in natural science. As the headmaster explained in a letter to Westcott quote, the arrangement is designed to cover a period of three years, in the

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course of which time it is hoped that a boy may have an opportunity of bringing out successfully any special taste which he possesses for any branch of natural natural science. End quote. In response, Westcott proposed

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to teach his subject specialty, which he identified as , quote, the classification and distribution of plants, including outlines of the fossil flora, End quote. As a result, West was required to compose a

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course syllabus that was substantive enough to support a thorough examination of his proposed subject. Although West Coast formal studies were in classical literature, his self acquired knowledge of natural history had risen beyond an amateur status,

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literally. He was a master of the subject and its associated activity of systematic collecting conclusion. Westcott never abandoned his natural history collecting habits. In the end , they were given new purpose in his textual critical

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work on the greek new testament. As a biblical critic, Westcott s reliance on the modern science of natural history was justified in large part by the prestige this model of thought held in 19th century victorian England

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Natural history was not merely the discovery of new objects of curiosity, according to quote. It covers a series of complex operations that introduced the possibility of a constant order into a totality of representations. End quote

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transferred over to modern biblical criticism. The noble ng task of classifying the natural world was applied to the biblical text. This meant treating the bible as a product of natural processes of development, which in turn

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subjected it to the same systematic analysis performed in the natural sciences. Religious duty, combined with a scientific intrigue of deciphering the bible's original text, rendered unseen the object world that various biblical manuscripts were forced to

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occupy here. The work of the biblical critic depended on the ability to compare and contrast collected manuscripts and systematically placed them in their correct place in the web of the natural scrabble world. In West Coates,

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words, quote. The text of Holy scripture, like the text of all other books, depends on