Recently we received news that a memorial service for Professor John A. Emerton is to be held at St John’s College, Cambridge on Saturday, 27 February 2016.

Professor Emerton was a leading Old Testament scholar, and a frequent visitor to St George’s College where he served repeated terms as an esteemed Scholar-in-Residence. He was made a canon of the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr, Jerusalem in 1984.

John Adney Emerton was born on 5 June 1928 and died on 12 September 2015. He is survived by hjs wife, Dr Noma Emerton, and their three children.

He was Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1995, and played a leading role in Old Testament studies for several decades. St George’s College was enriched by his scholarship and his gracious manner.

Former Dean of the College, Canon John Peterson, has reflected on the contributions that Professor Emerton made to St George’s College:

When Dean Greg Jenks wrote and told me that John Emerton had died, wonderful memories came flooding into my mind as I recalled the important role that John played in the life of St. George’s College between 1983-1994.  If I am remembering correctly, during those 12 years when I was Dean, John was in residence at St. George’s each of those years and one year, he took his sabbatical at St. George’s, when he participated in the life of both the Cathedral and the College.

John was a gifted academician. His knowledge of the Hebrew language was surpassed by no one. Although John was an academic, he was also passionate about being a pilgrim. John helped me and the College staff to understand how the academic life and the life of a pilgrim mutually supported each other. John insisted on this point and his fingerprints touched every course member of the College during those 12 years.

During the Deanship of Ted Todd, John wrote his famous lecture, “The Languages of Jesus”. Every time John was in Jerusalem he would deliver that lecture in the College, although I must quickly add that he delivered many other lectures as well. After a careful analysis of all the languages Jesus could have spoken (Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic) John concluded that Jesus’ mother tongue was Aramaic because Jesus cried in agony from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani” (Matthew 27:46). John’s argument was that in pain and agony, one goes to the language in which one was raised.

St. George’s College was blessed by John Emerton. John’s imprint will continue for generations to come by all those who were touched by this humble and brilliant man. John truly loved every time he could come to Jerusalem to be on a course at St. George’s College.

We remember his faithful ministry as a Priest and scholar, and we especially give thanks for his many contributions to St George’s College in Jerusalem.

May he rest in peace, and rise in glory. Amen.