David Daniell (author)

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David John Daniell (17 February 1929 – 1 June 2016) was an English literary scholar and editor of specialist books, mainly about William Tyndale and his translations of the Bible. He was formerly Professor of English at University College London and has published a number of studies of the plays of Shakespeare. He also founded the Tyndale Society. He coined the widely repeated phrase explaining the importance of the sixteenth-century English Bible translator to the greatest playwright in the English language: "No Tyndale, No Shakespeare."

Life[]

He was the son of the Rev'd Eric H. Daniell (later the minister at Grange Road Baptist Church, Darlington, 1941–1946)[1] and his wife Betty and he was the nephew of mathematician Percy John Daniell. He was educated at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Darlington. Later, he studied in Oxford (St Catherine's College) and graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1952; and Master of Arts in 1954, having studied English Language and Literature. In 1954 he gained a B.A. degree in Theology. He read English and later Theology at Oxford.[2] He studied 1954–55 at the University of Tübingen and there he received his postgraduate degree. In 1972 he received his PhD from the University of London, for his Shakespeare studies. In the year 1979, Daniell accompanied the Royal Shakespeare Company on a six-week tour of European cities.[2][3]

In 1980 and 1982 David Daniell published two volumes of The Best Short Stories of John Buchan;[4] in 1989, William Tyndale's New Testament, and in 1992 William Tyndale's Old Testament.[3]

In 1994 he published his biography of William Tyndale and the following year (January 1995) the Tyndale Society was founded at a meeting in the British Library. Daniell was the first chairman and his successor is Mary Clow.[5] Today, the Tyndale Society has about hundred members worldwide.[3]

1998 he published the Arden Third Series edition of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. His book about the history of the English Bible (The Bible in English: History and Influence) appeared in 2003.

Daniell was appointed a professor of English at University College London, where he became an emeritus professor when he retired in 1994.[6] Before he began to teach at UCL, he spent twelve years as a Sixth Form Master at Apsley Grammar School.[7]

He was an Honorary Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford and of St Catherine's College, Oxford. He was a visiting fellow and an honorary member of the Senior Common Room at Magdalen College, Oxford.[3]

He has had over 50 radio and TV broadcasts about his work.

Family[]

He married Dorothy Mary Wells in 1956 and they had two sons; his son Christopher has two sons too.[3][8] Dorothy died on 25 November 2010.[9]

Death[]

The Tyndale Society gives the date of his death as 1 June 2016.[10] A brief notice was also posted by Hertford College, Oxford.[11]

His known theses[]

In his writings about William Tyndale he supports some theses. These statements are often quoted by other authors.

  • Tyndale was independent of Luther's translation of the bible.[12]
  • However, Tyndale used what he found good in Luther.[13]
  • In the Matthew Bible was printed, from Joshua to 2 Chronicles, Tyndale's translation.[14] Though this thesis is not new, e.g. , the Bible cataloguer, says of the Matthew Bible: "this version, which welds together the best work of Tyndale and Coverdale, is generally considered to be the real primary version of our English Bible"[15] and Sir Frederic G. Kenyon (in 1909) was of a similar opinion to David Daniell.[16]
  • About 83 per cent of the New Testament and 76 per cent of the Old Testament in the King James Bible is Tyndale's translation. He takes over this thesis from Jon Nielson and Royal Skousen.[17][18][19][20]

Works and edited books (selection)[]

  • Daniell, David (1975), The Interpreter's House: A Critical Assessment of the Work of John Buchan, London: Nelson.
  • John Buchan (1980), Daniell, David (ed.), The Best Short Stories of John Buchan (with introduction and notes), I, London: Michael Joseph.
  • ——— (1982), Daniell, David (ed.), The Best Short Stories of John Buchan (with introduction and notes), II, London: Michael Joseph.
  • Daniell, David (1980), 'Coriolanus' in Europe, London: Athlone Press.
  • ——— (1989), The "Tempest" (Critics Debate), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • ——— (1994), William Tyndale: a biography, New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
  • ——— (2003), The Bible in English: History and Influence, New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
  • Daniell, David (interviewee); Noah, William H (producer/researcher/host) (c. 2004), William Tyndale: his life, his legacy (videorecording), Avalon.
  • ———; Boulter, Russell (2005), William Tyndale: Man with a Mission (PDF) (videorecording), Christian History Institute.
  • Ferrell, Lori Anne (lead researcher); Daniell, David (source author and interviewee) (April 2007), Secrets of the Dead: Battle for the Bible (videorecording), Educational Broadcasting Corporation and Pioneer Productions.
  • Shakespeare, William (1998), Daniell, David (ed.), Julius Caesar, The Arden Shakespeare, Walton-on-Thames: Thomas Nelson & Sons.
  • Tyndale, William (1989), Daniell, David (ed.), Tyndale's New Testament: Translated from the Greek by William Tyndale in 1534 (with an introduction) (modern spelling ed.), New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  • ——— (1992), Daniell, David (ed.), Tyndale's Old Testament: being the Pentateuch of 1530, Joshua to 2. Chronicles of 1537 and Jonah, translated by William Tyndale (with an introduction by David Daniell) (modern spelling ed.), New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  • ——— (2000), Daniell, David (ed.), The Obedience of a Christian Man (with an introduction and notes), London: Penguin Classics.
  • ——— (2003), Daniell, David (ed.), Selected Writings (with an introduction and notes), Manchester: Carcanet Press.

See also[]

References[]

Some references cited on the Internet Archive are no longer available.
  1. ^ Ministers – Grange Road Baptist Church
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Tyndale 1992, cover.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e David Daniell (Website), UK, archived from the original on 3 December 2010.
  4. ^ The Interpreter’s House (1975) was his first book on John Buchan, some of whose hundred books he has edited.[1]
  5. ^ Tyndale Society Officers and Contacts
  6. ^ Faculty, UK: UCL.
  7. ^ Professor David Daniell (Gresham College)
  8. ^ Daniell 2003, p. xii.
  9. ^ The Gazette - Official Public Record
  10. ^ A Brief History of the Society
  11. ^ Professor David Daniell, 1929-2016
  12. ^ Daniell 1994, pp. 112–3.
  13. ^ Daniell 1994, p. 114, line 33.
  14. ^ Tyndale 1992, pp. xxiv ff.
  15. ^ Herbert, A. S. (1968) Historical Catalogue of Printed Bibles 1525–1961. London: British and Foreign Bible Society; New York: American Bible Society ISBN 0-564-00130-9; p. 18.
  16. ^ Kenyon, Sir Frederic G. (1909), "Matthew's", Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (article) (online ed.), Bible researcher.
  17. ^ The Powerhouse of Creative Thought – David Daniell's study of the Bible in English..., Belief net, September 2003, p. 2.
  18. ^ Tyndale 2000, p. xix; footnote 8.
  19. ^ Daniell 2003, pp. 136, footnote 13; 448.
  20. ^ Nielson, John [sic]; Skousen, Royal (1998), "How Much of the King James Bible is William Tyndale's", Reformation (abstract), 3: 49–74, doi:10.1179/ref_1998_3_1_004, archived from the original on 1 May 2010.

External links[]

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