This news from Jimmy Dunn, via Steve Walton
You will be saddened to hear that Kingsley Barrett, my predecessor, died last night (6.30 pm, 26.08.11) - aged 94. He was the greatest UK commentator on NT texts since J. B. Lightfoot, and much loved by a wide range of Methodist chapels to which he ministered for about 60 years. He will be much missed, but his commentaries will live on for many years, providing information and insight to future generations of students of the NT.
This is sad news. Barrett's commentary on John was one of the first books I bought on entering Bristol Baptist College in 1986 (see Jim's post here for a characteristically elegaic meditation on the importance of this work). I still remember carrying it back from the SPCK bookshop on Park Street along with a copy of Kümmel's NT Introduction.
Agreed Jim, although I think CKB gets John wrong at several crucial points. We are OK, but as you may have gathered are currently in Italy on study leave and waiting to hear about new visa applications. All is well, but we are longing for some good Aberdeen weather to come and cool us all down.
Posted by: Sean Winter | Monday, August 29, 2011 at 03:42 PM
Aye, Sean - they don't write commentaries like Barrett's John anymore. I know scholarship moves on, and ways of learning and researching change, but like Lightfoot's commentaries, Barrett on John and Cranfield on Romans remain wonderful works of godliness and good learning - and all of them associated with Durham. Hope you are well and flourishing in your antipodean mission context :)
Posted by: Jim Gordon | Monday, August 29, 2011 at 02:07 AM