Henry Craik

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Henry Craik

Henry Craik (born August 8, 1805 in Prestonpans , East Lothian , Scotland , † January 22, 1866 in Bristol , England ) was a Scottish Hebrew and free church preacher .

Life

Craik was the third son of the clergyman and teacher William Craik († 1830) and his wife Paterson Lillie († 1848). He grew up in the village of Kennoway (County Fife ) and attended the Parochial School there , where his father taught. From 1820 to 1825 he studied philosophy at the University of St Andrews (among others with Thomas Chalmers ); In 1826 he spent another semester at Edinburgh University . That same year he underwent a through the influence of his fellow students John Urquhart conversion .

1826-28 Craik worked as a tutor in the family of dentist Anthony Norris Groves in Exeter ; 1828-31 he held the same position with John Synge in Teignmouth . In July 1829 he met the prospective missionary Georg Müller , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

In his spare time Craik preached often in free-church chapels, as well as in the Baptist church in Shaldon ( Devon Shire ) that him in April 1831 Pastor summoned. A year later, in May 1832, Craik and Müller accepted a call to the Gideon Chapel in Bristol , albeit at their own request not as permanent pastors, but as free "servants of the word" on a donation basis. In July they also took over the vacant Bethesda Chapel in central Bristol. In the meantime they had come into contact with the ideas of the young brothers' movement , which they largely followed; on August 13, 1832, the first Brethren-style gathering was held at Bethesda Chapel . In the same year the congregation was visited by John Nelson Darby , who found it too "narrow" - probably because of their Baptist understanding of baptism.

After Craik's first wife Mary Anderson, whom he married in the summer of 1831, died on February 1, 1832, he was married to Sarah Howland on October 30, 1832. They had at least eight children, four of whom died in infancy. Craik himself was in poor health all his life; In 1835 he became so ill that he had to take several months' vacation outside of Bristol. During this time he wrote a. a. eleven “ Pastoral Letters ” to his congregation, which later appeared in book form.

In 1839 Craik, Müller, and a few others were officially installed as elders of the Bristol ward (a practice contrary to Darby's conception). In April 1840 the Gideon Chapel was abandoned; At the end of 1842, the Salem Chapel was added as a new daughter church .

In 1848, Darby and his followers separated from the Bristol Congregation because the latter refused to examine and condemn certain teachings of Benjamin Will Newton on the sufferings of Christ . Craik himself was accused in October 1848 by George Vicesimus Wigram, one of Darby's most contentious friends, of teaching errors similar to Newton's (namely that Jesus was mortal) in his Pastoral Letters . Darby does not seem to have supported Wigram's advance.

In 1849 Craik was offered an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews for his theological and Hebrew publications , but he declined. The same process was repeated a few years later.

In the summer of 1865 Craik fell ill with stomach cancer . He made another trip to his old home, Scotland , but soon had to return to Bristol, where he died at the age of 60 after being bedridden for two months. On his deathbed he received a friendly letter from Darby, in which Darby wished him God's blessing, "although he was churchly separated from him". At his death, the combined wards of Bethesda and Salem had about 1,000 members.

Fonts

  • Principia Hebraica; or, an Easy Introduction to the Hebrew Language (1831, ²1864)
  • Improved Renderings of those Passages in the English Version of the New Testament which are capable of being more correctly translated (1835, ²1866)
  • Pastoral Letters (1837, ²1848, ³1863)
  • An Amended Translation of the Epistle to the Hebrews (1847)
  • The Popery of Protestantism (1852)
  • The Hebrew Language. Its History and Characteristics, including improved renderings of select passages in our Authorized translation of the Old Testament (1860)
  • On the Revision of the English Bible (1860)
  • The Distinguishing Characteristics and Essential Relationships of the leading Languages ​​of Asia and Europe (1860)
  • New Testament Church Order. Five Lectures (1863)
  • The Authority of Scripture Considered in Relation to Christian Union. A Lecture (1863)
  • Brief Reply to certain misrepresentations contained in “Essays and Reviews” (n.d.)
  • Biblical Expositions, Lectures, Sketches of Sermons, & c. (posthumously edited by William Elfe Tayler, 1867)

literature

  • W [illiam] Elfe Tayler (Ed.): Passages from the Diary and Letters of Henry Craik, of Bristol. Shaw, London 1866 ( online at Google Books).
  • Henry Pickering (Ed.): Chief Men among the Brethren. Pickering & Inglis, London 2 1931. pp. 32-35 (also online ).

Individual evidence

  1. “We preached in both chapels. The Lord is doing a remarkable work there, in which, I hope, our dear brothers M [üller] and C [raik] may be abundantly blessed, but I wish a little more the principle of expanse of fellowship. I fear tightness of heart for the Church of Christ more than anything else, especially now ”(Darby, Letters , vol. 1, p. 8, translated by Andreas Steinmeister: ... but you are all brothers. A historical account of the“ brother movement " , Lychen 2004, p. 51).
  2. Cf. William Blair Neatby. A History of the Plymouth Brethren , London ²1902, p.171.
  3. Ibid., P. 172.