Samuel Lee (1783-1853): Father of Syriac Studies in Britian

by Rev. Fr. Dale A. Johnson

Introduction

I purchased my first Syriac book when I was 23 years of age at Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon. It was the Syriac New Trestament of Samuel Lee. Having studied Latin for a few years previously, I read with delight the Latin introduction of Samuel Lee. It was a masterpiece of scientific and philological scholarship. He cited from Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Syriac, Persian, and other sources to support his theories about the Syriac Language and the text we had before us. It not only overwhelmed me but inspired me as a westerner to learn the “Language of our Lord.”

Little did I know at the time that Samuel Lee came from humble beginnings. Handicapped by poverty, a sixth grade education, and his obligations as a young husband and father, he overcame these obstacles and rose to conduct a brilliant and successful life as a scholar/priest.

Early Life

SAMUEL LEE was born May 14th, 1783, He was the youngest of a family of six brothers and five sisters living at Longnor, about eight miles from Shrewsbury, England. Of these, he and a brother and sister were the children of a second marriage, and much younger than the rest

Samuel Lee attended school until the age of 12 when he was made a carpenter’s apprentice shortly after his father died. His mother needed his small income to help provide for her. After five years he was employed as a handyman and carpenter in the Roman Catholic chapel of Sir Edward Smith. There he was exposed to books with Latin quotes. It inspired him to learn Latin. The priests who came to the chapel were not helpful knowing this boy to be a Protestant. 

For seven years he labored during the day and studied alone by night. After mastering Latin he conquered Greek and then Hebrew. He reports the following:

I read the Latin Bible, "Florus," some of "Cicero's Orations," "Caesar's Commentaries," "Justin," "Sallust," "Virgil," "Horace's Odes" and "Ovid's Epistles." It may be asked how I obtained these books? I never had all at once, but generally read one and sold it, the price of which, with a little added to it, enabled me to buy another, and this being read, was sold to procure the next. I was now out of my apprenticeship, and determined to learn the Greek. I bought, therefore, a "Westminster Greek Grammar," and soon afterwards procured a Testament, which I found not very difficult with the assistance of "Schrevelius's Lexicon." I bought next "Hunford's Greek Exercises," which I wrote throughout, and then, in pursuance of the advice laid down in the Exercises, read "Xenophon's Cyropoedia," and soon after "Plato's Dialogues," some part of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" of Homer, "Pythagoras's Golden Verse," with the "Commentary of Hierocles," "Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead," and some of the "Poetae Minores," with the "Antigone of Sophocles." I now thought I might attempt the Hebrew, and accordingly procured "Bythner's Grammar," with his "Lyra Prophetica," and soon after obtained a Psalter, which I read by the help of the "Lyra." I next purchased "Buxtorf's Grammar and Lexicon," with a Hebrew Bible, and now I seemed drawing fast to the summit of my wishes, but was far from being uninterrupted in those pursuits. A frequent inflammation in my eyes, with every possible discouragement from those about me, were certainly powerful opponents; but habit and a fixed determination to proceed had now made study my greatest happiness, 

Transformation

Finally at age 25 he went to work as a carpenter for his brother. He married and for a short time gave up his secret life of study. Then one day a fire broke out in the house he was repairing and all his tools were burned up. He fell into the ashes of despair and began to think about what to do with his life. He began to investigate using his mind instead of his hands. He sought out a former school master who helped him improve his math and English skills. Finally, the Reverend Archdeacon Corbett hearing of his circumstances became his benefactor and over the next year Samuel Lee learned Persian, Arabic, and Urdu.

'I thought that of a country schoolmaster would be the most likely to answer my purpose. I therefore applied myself to the study of "Murray's English Exercises" and improved myself in arithmetic. There was, however, one grand objection to this--I had no money to begin, and did not know any friend who would be inclined to lend. In the meantime, the Revd. Archdeacon Corbett had heard of my attachment to study, and having been informed of my being in Longnor, sent for me in order to inform himself of particulars. To him I communicated my circumstances, and it is to his goodness I am indebted for the situation I now hold, and several other very valuable benefits, which he thought proper, generously, to confer. My circumstances since that time are too well known to you to need any further elucidation. It is through your kind assistance I made myself thus far acquainted with the Arabic, Persian and Hindoostanee languages, of my progress in which you, sir, are undoubtedly the best judge.’ 

Syriac was the seventh language for Samuel Lee. He learned it through a project he did for the British and Foreign Bible Society . He was commissioned to produce a Syriac New Testament for the Malabar Syriac Archbishop and his diocese. It was published in 1816 when Lee was 33 years of age. It was the beginning a great scholarly career. He produced twenty three major publications. Three of these works were specific contributions to Syriac studies: the Syriac New Testament, the Syriac Old Testament, and Eusebius’ Theophania.

In the October term of 1817 Samuel Lee took the degree of B.A., and was soon afterwards admitted to Holy Orders as curate of Chesterton, near Cambridge. He remained a priest in the church of England for the rest of his life. During all this time he combined scholarship with the pedestrian duties of a faithful priest, visiting the sick, preaching on Sundays, and attending to the cares and worries of his congregations.

The publication of the 'Syriac New Testament' raised the reputation of Samuel Lee abroad as well as at home. The University of Halle, in Saxony, accordingly presented him with the degree of D.D., through the hands of Dr Gesenius, the Hebrew professor of that University. The Syriac Old Testament was not completed till the year 1823, when four thousand copies in quarto were issued. 

Samuel Lee went on to learn Ethiopic, Abbyssinian, and Malay. The latter he learned in two months during Christmas break. Lee was asked why it was so easy for him to learn languages. 

Mr Lee made the remark that the acquisition of languages was to him as easy and certain a process as the study of Newton's "Principia" appeared to be to his fellow-student; that in all languages there were certain links and dependencies which, when once understood, fixed the language in the mind ; and that afterwards the copia verborum might be acquired at your leisure.

Professorship

The commencement of the next year, 1818, introduces a new era of his life. The Arabic professorship at Cambridge became vacant by the resignation of Mr Palmer. His friends proposed that he should become a candidate; but as it was necessary that he should have an M.A. degree, the first step was to procure a royal mandate for conferring that degree upon him before the mandatory time had been completed. For this purpose, the consent of a majority of heads of houses, and a vote of the Senate, were required. Samuel Lee's modesty and retired habits had made him little known in the University. He was opposed also by a gentleman already of the degree of M. A., who had been many years in India, and was an accomplished Oriental scholar. Under these circumstances, a paper was printed and circulated among the members of the Senate, simply giving a list of the various Oriental works which he had edited, and a few testimonials from well-known Oriental scholars. Amongst them was the testimony of four native Persian gentlemen at that time residing in London, who testified to his thorough knowledge with the idiom and pronunciation, as well as with the grammar of that language, in the following emphatic terms :-- 'Upon the whole, this being the entire persuasion of your servant, and in like manner the belief of all his companions, who have spoken with the above-mentioned Mr Lee, both in Persic and Arabic, that, whether as regards pronunciation, or reading, or writing, he is learned and perfect.' The claims of Mr Lee upon the vacant chair, and his pre-eminent learning, were recognized by all parties and he was voted to the chair by a vcount of 9 to 4.

Later in his academic life Lee became Regius Professor of Hebrew.

The following is a list of his major publications.

1816. -- The Syriac New Testament. 
1817-18. -- Edited the Malay Scriptures, Arabic and Coptic Psalter and Gospels, translated Genesis into Persian, superintended the Hindustani Prayer-Book, and Morning and Evening Prayers in Persic. 
1820. -- A New Zealand Grammar. 
1821. -- A Letter to Mr J. Bellamy on his new Translation of the Bible, with some Strictures on a Tract, entitled 'Remarks,' etc., Oxford, 1820. 
1821 -22-- A Vindication of Certain Strictures on a Pamphlet entitled 'Remarks,' etc., Oxford, 1820, in answer to 'A Reply,' etc., Oxford, 1821. 
1823. -- The Syriac Old Testament. 
1824. -- Controversial Tracts on Christianity and Mahommedanism, by Henry Martyn, and some of the most Eminent Writers of Persia, translated and explained, to which is appended an additional Tract on the same question ; and in a Preface, Some Account of a Former Controversy on this Subject, with Extracts from it. 
1827;--A Grammar of the Hebrew Language. 
1828.--A Grammar of the Persian Language, by Sir W. Jones, Revised, with considerable additions. 
1829.--Prolegomena in Biblia Polyglotta Bagsteriana. 1829.--The Travels of Ibn Batuta, translated from the abridged Arabic MS. copies, with Notes. 
1830.--Six Sermons on the Study of the Holy Scriptures, preached before the University of Cambridge, 1827-8, to which are annexed Two Dissertations, the first on the Reasonableness of the Orthodox View of Christianity, as opposed to the Rationalism of Germany ; the second, on the Interpretation of Prophecy generally, with an Original Exposition of the Book of Revelation. 
1832.--Grammar of the Hebrew Language, second edition. 
1837.--A Translation of the Book of Job, with an Introduction and Commentary. 
1840.--A Lexicon, Hebrew, Chaldee and English. 
1841.--Grammar of the Hebrew Language, third edition. 
1842.--A Syriac Version of the 'Theophania,' by Eusebius. 
1842-3.--The Prayer-Book, translated into Arabic. 1843.--A Translation of the 'Theophania,' by Eusebius. 
1843.--Tracts on Tithes. 
1849.--An Inquiry into the Nature, Progress and End of Prophecy. 
1849.--A Letter to G. S. Faber, B.D., containing an Interpretation of 2 Peter iii. 
1849.--A Letter to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Glo'ster and Bristol. 
1849-51.--The New Testament translated into Arabic, and the Old as far as Numbers. 
1851.--The Events and Times of the Visions of Daniel and St John investigated. 

He died on the 16th December 1852, and was buried in a vault in Barley Church. 

Notes: Primary source for this article is from the daughter of Samuel Lee, Anna Mary Lee, in her book, A Scholar of a Past Generation, 1896, Seely and Co. It is a compilation of letters and journal entries. Its major contribution is a list of all of Dr. Lee published works. An online version is found at http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/lee_scholar/lee_scholar.htm.