A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 7 Number 19 - Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian Laity
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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An Abbotsford man has inherited Canada's largest collection of primary biblical research that focuses on the Greek New Testament. Interested historians would previously have had to jump on a plane to see such a vast collection - with the option of travelling to the Vatican in Italy, the British museum in London or Munster in Germany. However, Kent Clarke - who has received countless documents and other artifacts from New Testament scholar Reuben Swanson - is now donating his newly acquired collection to Langley's Trinity Western University, making it available to students and the general public. Clarke is the current professor of religious studies at the university. "Swanson's level of scholarship is truly amazing," Clarke said. "After spending hours poring over his work, one can only conclude that Swanson's ability to read these ancient manuscripts and his underlying methodology has produced a critical edition of the New Testament considerably more accurate than anything we have to date." Swanson is a Yale graduate and the professor emeritus at Western Carolina University. It is there that he compares different biblical manuscripts, with the ultimate goal of producing a text as close as possible to what was originally written by the Bible's authors. According to Clarke, he was approached by a representative of Swanson's in 2003, asking him to co-edit Swanson's version of the Greek New Testament. "Reuben is in his 80s and has had some health issues," Clarke explained. "He's looking for someone to carry on his work; someone who can see what he does while he's still alive." Clarke agreed, and spent time with Swanson and his wife last summer in Ohio. "Reuben taught me not only about discipline, but about hospitality and Christian fellowship . . . Reuben has pretty much become a mentor," Clarke said. As a result of their relationship, Clarke inherited 100 different manuscripts on microfilm that contain all the books of the New Testament as well as some from the Old Testament. "It's pretty hard for any of us to fly to the Vatican library- though some of us do that - to evaluate ancient manuscripts, so textual critics have pretty much relied on microfilm," Clarke said. "Throughout Swanson's 50 years of research, he spent significant time and money slowly gathering this collection. There is nothing comparable to this in Canada." Clarke said that up until a year ago, the material was intended for a large U.S. university. "I still wake up in the morning and shake my head and think 'Why me? Why did he pick me?' I think it must be in part the grandfather-grandson relationship that formed," Clarke concluded. Reprinted from The Abbotsford News.
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