Robinson, Joseph Armitage

Author

b Keynsham, Som 1858, d Upton Noble, Shepton Mallett, Som 1933. Christ’s Coll Cambridge (BA/MA); Fellow of the College 1881–1899; BD 1891, DD 1896. He was ordained (CofE) in 1881 and was briefly chaplain to Bp Lightfoot of Durham 1883–84; then Dean of Christ’s Coll 1884–90, overlapping with a period as Curate of Gt St Mary’s Cambridge 1888–92. In 1893 he was appointed Prof of Divinity, before moving to London in 1899. There he became Rector of St Margaret’s Westminster 1899–1900, then Dean of Westminster from 1902 to 1911 when he became Dean of Wells, Som. He was a NT scholar and patristic expert who originated and edited the first of the Cambridge Texts and Studies which began in 1891, and in 1903 wrote a landmark and conservative commentary on Ephesians, which he calls ‘the crown of St Paul’s writings’. On Eph 5:19 he suggests that ‘the implied contrast with the revelry of drunkenness makes it plain that in speaking of Christian psalmody the Apostle is not primarily referring to public worship, but to social gatherings in which a common meal was accompanied by sacred song’. Other writings among his 26 books included work on post-apostolic texts, a defence of the historicity of the Gospel according to John (1929) and historical studies on church leaders in Wells and Worcester. Like others in this catalogue, he is, says Julian, ‘only slightly associated with hymnology’; but see the Introduction to this volume. No.391.