B. H. Streeter

Burnett Hillman Streeter FBA[4] (1874–1937) was an English Anglican theologian, biblical scholar, and textual critic.

The Reverend B. H. Streeter FBA
Born	Burnett Hillman Streeter 17 November 1874 London, England
Died	10 September 1937 (aged 62) Near Waldenburg, Switzerland
Nationality	English
Title	Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford (1933–1937)
Spouse(s)	Irene Streeter ​ (m. 1910)​ [1]
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity (Anglican)
Church	Church of England
Ordained	1899
Academic background
Alma mater	The Queen's College, Oxford
Influences	William Sanday[2]
Academic work
Discipline	Biblical studies theology
Sub-discipline	New Testament studies
Institutions	Pembroke College, Oxford[3] The Queen's College, Oxford[3]
Main interests	Synoptic problem
Notable works	The Four Gospels (1924)
Notable ideas	Four-document hypothesis
Influenced	Aiyadurai Jesudasen Appasamy

Life

Grave at the cemetery Hörnli, Riehen, Basel

Streeter was born in Croydon, London, on 17 November 1874 and educated at The Queen's College, Oxford.[3] He was ordained in 1899 and was a member of the Archbishops' Commission on Doctrine in the Church of England (from 1922 to 1937).[5] In 1910, Streeter formed a group of Oxford dons known as The Group, which met weekly to discuss theological topics. He attended the 1935 Nuremberg Rally with Frank Buchman.[6] He wrote a dozen volumes in the fields of philosophy of religion, comparative religion, and New Testament textual studies.

He was Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1932 to 1933, when he became Provost of Queen's College.

The most important work of Streeter was The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (1924), in which he proposed a "four-document hypothesis" (instead of the "two-source hypothesis") as a new solution to the synoptic problem.[7] In this work, he also developed the theory of "local texts" in the manuscript transmission of the New Testament (pp. 27–50). Johann Leonhard Hug was his forerunner.[8]

Streeter found a new textual family: Caesarean text-type. He remarked a close textual relationship between Codex Sinaiticus and Vulgate of Jerome.

Streeter and his wife, Irene, were the only passengers on a Koolhoven FK.50, HB-AMO which crashed into Mount Kelleköpfli on a flight from Basel to Bern on 10 September 1937. The crew started the descent to Basel in low visibility due to foggy conditions. The plane hit Mount Kelleköpfli located near Waldenburg, 25 kilometers southeast from the Basel airport. The pilot Walter Eberschweiler and the Streeters were killed immediately, while the radio operator/navigator Hans Huggler survived the accident, but was severely injured.

Works

• Foundations: A Statement of Christian Belief in Terms of Modern Thought, (Macmillan and Co.: London 1912).
• Restatement and Reunion: A Study in First Principles (Macmillan and Co.: London 1914)
• War: This war (1914-1918) and the Sermon on the Mount (Oxford University Press: London 1915)
• Immortality: an Essay in Discovery Coordinating Scientific Psychical and Biblical Research (Macmillan Company: New York 1917)
• Woman and the Church (T. Fisher Unwin: London 1917)
• God and the Struggle for Existence (Association Press: New York 1919)
• The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh: A Study in Mysticism and Practical Religion, (Macmillan Company: New York 1921).
• The Spirit: the Relation of God and Man, Considered from the Standpoint of Recent Philosophy and Science (Macmillan Company: New York 1922).
• The Four Gospels, a Study of Origins treating of the Manuscript Tradition, Sources, Authorship, & Dates (1924), (4th Revised Edition, Macmillan and Co.: London 1930).
• Reality: A New Correlation of Science and Religion, (Macmillan and Co.: London 1926); reprinted subsequently.
• Primitive Church Studied with Special Reference to the Origins of the Christian Ministry, (Macmillan Company: New York 1929).
• The Chained Library, (Burt Franklin: New York 1931).
• The Buddha and the Christ, Bampton Lectures (1932).
• The God who speaks, (Macmillan Company: New York 1936).

See also

• Hereford Cathedral
• Moral Re-Armament

References

Footnotes

1. Boobbyer 2010, pp. 547, 550.
2. Neville 1994, p. 125.
3. Court 2006, p. 19.
4. Hardwick 1938, p. 251.
5. Court 2006, pp. 19, 21.
6. Belden 1976, p. 272; Lean 1985, p. 236.
7. Streeter 1924, pp. 223–270.
8. Metzger & Ehrman 2005, p. 215.

Bibliography

• Belden, David C. (1976). The Origins and Development of the Oxford Group (Moral Re-Armament) (DPhil thesis). Oxford: University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
• Boobbyer, Philip (2010). "B. H. Streeter and the Oxford Group". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 61 (3): 541–567. doi:10.1017/S0022046908005939. ISSN 1469-7637.
• Court, John M. (2006). "Burnett Hillman Streeter (17th November 1874 – 10th September 1937)". The Expository Times. 118 (1): 19–25. doi:10.1177/0014524606069719. ISSN 1745-5308. S2CID 145584485.
• Hardwick, J. C. (1938). "Burnett Hillman Streeter (1875–1937)". The Expository Times. 49 (6): 249–254. doi:10.1177/001452463804900603. ISSN 1745-5308. S2CID 170240359.
• Lean, Garth (1985). Frank Buchman: A Life. London: Constable & Co. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
• Metzger, Bruce M.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2005). The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516122-9.
• Neville, David J. (1994). Arguments from Order in Synoptic Source Criticism: A History and Critique. New Gospel Studies. 7. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-399-7.
• Streeter, Burnett Hillman (1924). The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins.

External links

• Klaus-Gunther Wesseling. "B. H. Streeter". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German).
• Encyclopædia Britannica
• Streeter, The Four Gospels
• Works by or about B. H. Streeter at Internet Archive
• Reality