Herbert Danby (20 January 1889 – 29 March 1953)[1] was anAnglican priest and writer who played a central role in the change of attitudes towardJudaism[2] in the first half of the twentieth century.[3]
Danby was educated at Church Middle Class School,Leeds[4] andKeble College, Oxford. He was a Holroyd Musical Scholar, and became a Fellow of theRoyal College of Organists in 1907. He retained a lifelong passionate interest in music, and also in golf.
Danby had a distinguished career at Oxford, winning the JuniorSeptuagint Prize, the Pusey and Ellerton Scholarship, the HoughtonSyriac Prize and a SeniorKennicott Scholarship. He achieved a first class degree in Oriental Languages, and was awarded an MA in 1914. His studies continued after he started work, and he was made a Doctor of Divinity in 1923, partly for his translationTractate Sanhedrin,Mishna andTosefta, published in 1919.
Danby became aDeacon in 1913, and worked asCurate of the Parish ofWaddesdon, Buckinghamshire. Ordained as a priest in 1914, he became Subwarden of St Deiniol's Library,Hawarden, Flintshire, 1914-9.[5]
In 1919, Danby moved toJerusalem to become Librarian ofSt. George's Cathedral. He wasResidentiary Canon there, 1921–36. From 1923, he was Dean of thePalestine Board of Higher Studies andThe Times Correspondent for Palestine andTransjordan. From 1928, he wasExamining Chaplain to the Bishop of Jerusalem.
He was editor of the Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society from 1920, and President of that Society in 1934. He engaged in the study ofJewish literature, and published his English translation of theMishnah in 1933, the first ever complete translation of the Mishnah into English. He also translated a remarkable work byJoseph Klausner entitledJesus of Nazareth.
In 1936, he returned to Oxford asRegius Professor of Hebrew and Canon ofChrist Church. He wasGrinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint, 1939–43, Examining Chaplain to theBishop of Monmouth, 1939–41 and Treasurer of Christ Church Cathedral from 1943.
He assisted in theYale Translation of theMishneh Torah ofMaimonides.
His contributions to the decline ofantisemitism in intellectual circles in the twentieth century was very significant. He was at work revising his translation of Maimonides' Book of Cleanness when he finally succumbed to his fatal illness. Among his close friends were ProfessorGodfrey Rolles Driver ofOxford University and Rabbi Dr.Isidore Epstein ofJews' College, London.
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