Richard Laurence
Oxford Hebraist and archbishop; first English translator of 1 Enoch
- Born
- 1760, Bath, England
- Died
- 1838, Dublin
- Positions
- Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1814); Archbishop of Cashel (1822–38)
- Known for
- The Book of Enoch the Prophet (1821), first English translation of 1 Enoch
- Source manuscript
- James Bruce's Ethiopic copy in the Bodleian Library
The Oxford professor of Hebrew who published the first English translation of the Book of Enoch in 1821, from James Bruce's Ethiopic manuscript.
What is Richard Laurence known for?
Richard Laurence (1760–1838) was an English clergyman and scholar of Hebrew and Ethiopic. He became Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford in 1814 and in 1822 was appointed Archbishop of Cashel in the Church of Ireland.
Working from the Ethiopic manuscript of 1 Enoch that James Bruce had brought back from Ethiopia and deposited in the Bodleian Library, Laurence published The Book of Enoch the Prophet in 1821. It was the first English translation of the book, which had been largely lost to Western readers for over a thousand years.
His translation was revised in several editions and widely reprinted. It was superseded for scholars by R. H. Charles's translation of 1912, which used many more manuscripts, but Laurence's version introduced the Watchers and the Nephilim of 1 Enoch to English readers.
He made the first English translation of 1 Enoch, in 1821.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit hole1 Enoch
- PersonJames Bruce
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Richard Laurence'Reference
- The Book of Enoch, trans. R. H. Charles (1917), sacred-texts.com (the later standard translation)Primary text
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.