Hi,
Was Cromwell able to read Hebrew ? I know Calvinists and other Protestant denominations studied Hebrew but I’m not sure if Cromwell (a member of the Independent Church) ever did.
I’m referring to Oliver Cromwell.
It’s difficult to prove a negative, but I would say it’s highly unlikely.
Cromwell was a member of the wealthy landowning gentry, and attended Sidney College, Cambridge, but he left at age 18 without a degree.
He wouldn’t have studied Hebrew at school or at Cambridge, since it was an advanced subject and mostly connected with theological studies.
He was a country gentleman, then a Member of Parliament, then a military officer. He wasn’t an intellectual or a clergyman. I’d be surprised if he ever studied Hebrew.
I don’t know what you mean by this.
If you had asked Cromwell, he would have told you he was a member of the Church of England (Anglican), but he didn’t think that reforms had gone far enough, and wanted bishops and the church hierarchy to be abolished. Puritans were basically Calvinists.
Oliver Cromwell was highly sympathetic to the Jewish people, corresponded regularly with Menashe Ben Israel (one of the great Jewish leaders of his day, and founder of the world’s first Hebrew printing press), and was ultimately the driving force behind the restoration of the Jewish community in the UK. He’s a very positive figure in Jewish history. If he read Hebrew, I’d know it.
Thank GreenWyvern. I have read quite a few statements like this from britannica.com:
" As the Civil War progressed, Oliver Cromwell, an Independent (Congregationalist), and his army, not Parliament, became supreme in England. So perhaps you can explain to me if there is any discrepancy between his being baptized Anglican and belonging to the Congregationalists.
In Cromwell’s time, these were not separate churches. These were different factions within the Church of England. They had different opinions about how the existing, established church should be run.
They were not setting up a separate church. They wanted one, single official state church, but they wanted it run differently.
Congregationalists wanted the Church of England to be run by each congregation separately.
Presbyterians wanted the Church of England to be run by councils of elders.
Episcopalians wanted the Church of England to be run by a hierarchy of bishops.
At different times and places in history these became separate break-away churches, but in England in Cromwell’s time they were different parties within the same church.
Thanks GreenWyvern for clearing that up.
He would have needed Latin to attend Cambridge, and probably Greek, but likely not Hebrew unless he was studying theology.
There is good secondhand evidence that even his Latin wasn’t very good. Gilbert Burnet had this to say about his handling of foreign affairs.
…Cromwell was oft at a loss, and having no foreign language, but the little Latin that stuck to him from his education, which he spoke very viciously and scantily, had not the necessary means of informing himself.
It is true that Burnet was too young to have known Cromwell personally. But, as the rest of that paragraph explains, he had known several people who had known him.
It should also be said writing Latin when he was Lord Protector wasn’t a huge problem for Cromwell. That was literally why he had Milton on his payroll.