Model Bishop: John Barber Lightfoot (1828-1889)

J.B. Lightfoot, one of the classical, scholarly, modest, highly accomplished, non-liberal and commendable commentators of the 19th century in the Church of England.  Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889) was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham, usually known as J.B. Lightfoot.

Trinity College, Cambridge man.

As was written of him in The Times after his death,

"...his personal character carried immense weight, but his great position depended still more on the universally recognized fact that his belief in Christian truth and his defense of it were supported by learning as solid and comprehensive as could be found anywhere in Europe, and by a temper not only of the utmost candor but of the highest scientific capacity. The days in which his university influence was asserted were a time of much shaking of old beliefs. The disintegrating speculations of an influential school of criticism in Germany were making their way among English men of culture just about the time, as is usually the case, when the tide was turning against them in their own country. The peculiar service which was rendered at this juncture by the 'Cambridge School' was that, instead of opposing a mere dogmatic opposition to the Tübingen critics, they met them frankly on their own ground; and instead of arguing that their conclusions ought not to be and could not be true, they simply proved that their facts and their premises were wrong. It was a characteristic of equal importance that Dr Lightfoot, like Dr Westcott, never discussed these subjects in the mere spirit of controversy. It was always patent that what he was chiefly concerned with was the substance and the life of Christian truth, and that his whole energies were employed in this inquiry because his whole heart was engaged in the truths and facts which were at stake. He was not diverted by controversy to side-issues; and his labor was devoted to the positive elucidation of the sacred documents in which the Christian truth is enshrined."

The corpus of Lightfoot's writings include essays on biblical and historical subject matter, commentaries on Pauline epistles, and studies on the Apostolic Fathers. His sermons were posthumously published in four official volumes, and additionally in the Contemporary Pulpit Library series.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1890). Apostolic Fathers. Part I. (two vols). London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1885-89). Apostolic Fathers. Part II. (three vols). London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1891). Apostolic Fathers Abridged. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1893). Biblical Essays. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1890). Cambridge Sermons. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1892). Dissertations on the Apostolic Age. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1889). Essays on Supernatural Religion. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1871). Fresh Revision of the English New Testament. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1895). Historical Essays. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1890). Leaders in the Northern Church. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1895). Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul from Unpublished Commentaries. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1890). Ordination Addresses. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1882). Primary Charge. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1869). St. Clement of Rome. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1865). Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1875). Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1868). Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1868). The Christian Ministry.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1891). Sermons preached in St. Paul's. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1891). Special Sermons. London: MacMillan and Co.

Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1892). The Contemporary Pulpit Library: Sermons by Bishop Lightfoot. London: Swan Sonnenschein.
  Also, this scholarly voice that "Presbyter," more or less, was the equivalent of "Bishop" in the early church. The old bishop of Durham gave this view in his stellar commentary on Philippians.

Looking at 1 Clement now, in English and Greek, compliments of the good bishop (genuinely a senior presbyter). 

A titanic, humble and real scholar of the first order. 

This old Church of England man was on an order of magnitude, in depth of scholarship and "dignity of spirit" with Princeton's lions, B.B. Warfield, W.H. Green, and Robert Dick Wilson (master of 15 languages). 

"Extremists," "enthusiasts" and "inappropriate zealots" these godly men were not.  As may be inferred, we've encountered some of these American zealots of late. 

Reading Lightfoot and Clement 1 is like a good shower.

Good role models for men of any age of any time or any place, both these men...Lightfoot and Clement.