John Sweet: Church Times Obituary

I am afraid that I missed this one when it came out at the end of July in the Church Times:

Obituary: Canon John Philip McMurdo Sweet
by The Rt Revd Robert Hardy

It's a nice piece, and includes a photograph of Canon Sweet in his study, apparently reading A Historical Introduction to the New Testament. I am guessing that this is the one by R. M. Grant. Anyone recognize it? There is a particular pleasure in seeing a man in his study given the following remarks (with which I agree):

In his latter years, he said that he felt dons were having to spend too much time showing others how to do their jobs, and not enough time actually doing them. He was equally clear that there were too many books in the world; and accordingly he himself wrote sparingly, and only when he had something to say. His SCM Pelican Commentary on Revelation was published in 1979, and was well-received. It remains an inviting introduction to one of the strangest books of the Bible.

See also previous posts on John Sweet.

John Sweet: The Independent Obituary and Selwyn College Condolence Book

The Times obituary of John Sweet mentions a book of condolences for John Sweet at the Selwyn College website. It is a remarkable testament to the man and it is often quite touching:

Condolence Book for Revd Canon Dr John Sweet 1927-2009

I have also just noticed The Independent obituary, which was published a week or so ago:

John Sweet: Biblical scholar and educator who taught a raft of Church leaders

This one is written by John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, hence the title, and it echoes the same comments about John Sweet's delightful character, but it has a nice paragraph on John Sweet's commentary on Revelation.

Academically, his commentary on the Book of Revelation was both wise and balanced, and played a very important role in helping ordinary readers make sense of this strangest and most puzzling part of the New Testament. He tried to see it as a whole, without the distortions of inherited assumptions. Drawing on the latest scholarship, Sweet explored the literary and theological dimensions of the text with great skill and lightness of touch, with the commentary serving as a reference point for students and scholars ever since its publication in 1979 by SCM Pelican Commentaries.

John Sweet: The Times Obituary

Today's Times has its obituary of John Sweet, with a very similar photograph to the one from the Telegraph obituary a couple of weeks ago, with Canon Sweet standing in front of Selwyn College:

Canon John Sweet: priest and scholar

John Sweet was a highly respected New Testament scholar who gave his life to teaching generations of students at Cambridge, among them three current Archbishops: Canterbury (Rowan Williams), York (John Sentamu) and Wales (Barry Morgan).

It is a delightful obituary and it catches something of his character:

He was totally without self-importance and to many seemed to epitomise the words from St John’s Gospel, “full of grace and truth”; 194 people attended his retirement dinner, including four diocesan bishops. For although Sweet was a distinguished scholar, at the centre of all he did, suffusing it with a special quality, was a sense that first of all he was a priest and a Christian disciple. His influence on all he taught was deep and long lasting.

John Sweet Obituary in the Telegraph

There is an obituary of John Sweet, with a picture, in today's Telegraph:

Canon John Sweet

Canon John Sweet, who died on July 2 aged 82, was for 36 years a greatly admired and much loved figure in the life of Cambridge University.

It's a fine obituary, and I am pleased to see that the warmth, generosity and kindness of John Sweet comes through so clearly. Like Graham Stanton, who has also recently died, John Sweet was a model of kindness and generosity in his interpersonal relations, and greatly loved by his colleagues, students and friends. I might well have mentioned him too in my recent piece On Scholarly Conduct over at Bible and Interpretation.

It looks like a copy editor has inserted an "s" in the book of "Revelations", which I hope someone will fix quickly.

John Sweet (1927-2009)

I am sorry to be sharing the news of the death of John Sweet on 2 July. I heard the sad news when in Cambridge earlier this week. Selwyn College makes the announcement here:

Revd Canon Dr John Sweet

They have a book of condolences. I will add references to obituaries as they appear, but I have not seen any yet.

I met John Sweet for the first time at the SNTS Strasbourg in 1996 where he showed me great kindness. It was my first ever conference and I felt like a little fish in a big pond. Many of the scholars there were stuffy and unfriendly, some were rude. But John was generous with his time, charming and delightful. He was a contemporary of Michael Goulder's at Eton, and they shared a life-long friendship and admired one another's scholarship. He was a fine scholar and a real gentleman and will be greatly missed.