LIGHTFOOT, JOSEPH BARBER English theologian and bishop of Durham, was born at Liverpool on April 13, 1828. He was educated at King Edward's school, Birming ham, and Trinity college, Cambridge. He graduated senior classic and 30th wrangler, and was elected a fellow of his college. From 1854 to 1859 he edited the Journal of Classical and Sacred Phil ology. He became tutor of his college (1857), Hulsean professor (1861), chaplain to the prince consort and honorary chaplain to the queen, Whitehall preacher (1866) and canon of St. Paul's (1871). In 1875 he became Lady Margaret professor of divin ity in succession to William Selwyn. He had previously written his commentaries on the epistles to the Galatians (1865), Philippians (1868) and Colossians (1875), which mark a new departure in New Testament exegesis in England. Lightfoot was a great gram marian and textual critic ; he endeavoured to make his author interpret himself, and by considering the general drift of his argu ment to discover his meaning where it appeared doubtful. Thus he
was able often to recover the meaning of a passage which had long been buried under a heap of contradictory glosses, and he founded a school in which sobriety and common sense were added to the industry and ingenuity of former commentators. In 1879 Light foot was consecrated bishop of Durham. He continued to work on his editions of the Apostolic Fathers, and in 1885 published an edition of the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp, collecting also much valuable material for a second edition of Clement of Rome, which was published after his death (1st ed., 1869). His de fence of the authenticity of the Epistles of Ignatius is an im portant contribution to that very difficult controversy. He died at Bournemouth on Dec. 21, 1889, and was succeeded in the episcopate by Westcott, his schoolfellow and lifelong friend who published a sketch of his Life (1894).