Sir Edwyn Hoskyns and the Quote of the Day

1884-1937

Sir Edwyn Clement Hoskyns, 13th Baronet and priest of the Church of England, is perhaps known best for his classic commentary, The Fourth Gospel, which was subsequently completed by his student, Francis Noel Davey, due to Hoskyns untimely death. To give one a measure of Hoskyns as a scholar, the great Charles Kingsley Barrett considered him a main influence in his own scholarly career.

In reading the Introduction, "The Problem of the Fourth Gospel"(17-20), Hoskyns discusses the anonymity of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel and states:

"...the author has done his best, apparently with intention, to cover up his tracks. For his theme is not his own workshop, but the workshop of God, and to this we have no direct access! Where the author's personal ideas and reminiscences? Where is his personal experience? No doubt they are there; no doubt, indeed, there is nothing else there but what he thought and what he experienced, but he does not intend us to bury ourselves with him as though he himself were himself the goal of our inquiry. He has, in fact, so burnt himself out of his book that we cannot be certain that we have anywhere located him as a clear, intelligible figure in history. At the end of our inquiry he remains no more than a voice bearing witness to the glory of God. So anonymous is his book, so intentionally anonymous, that there is in it, apart from the shy little 'I suppose' of the last verse, no 'ego' except the 'Ego' of Jesus, the Son of God. The author of the book has effaced himself, or, rather, has been decreased and sacrificed, in order that the Truth may be made known and in order that the Eternal Life which is in God may be declared." (18-19).