KENNIKOTT, BENJAMIN. — English critic of the Hebrew biblical text, born at Totnes (Devonshire) on 4 April 1718, died at Oxford on 18 September 1783. Pastor at Culham (Oxfordshire) in 1753, doctor of theology at Oxford in 1761, and there professor of Hebrew at Exeter College; from 1770, canon of Christchurch; from 1767, librarian of the Radcliffe Library.
His dissertations The state of the Hebrew text of the Old Test, considered (Oxford 1753) and The state of the printed Hebrew text of the Old Test, considered (ibid. 1753–59) gave rise to a decade-long controversy, in which F. Connings (1753) and J. Bate (1754) took part.
The work to which K. owes his fame is Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum variis lectionibus (Oxford 1776–1780), in two volumes, the second of which begins with a Dissertatio generalis in Vetus Testamentum (on Hebrew manuscripts), reprinted separately at Brunswick in 1783 by P. F. Bruns. K. preceded G. B. De Rossi (v.) in demonstrating the scant importance of the variants in the Masoretic text. The work cost him 20 years of uninterrupted study; he collated 615 codices and 52 editions. In 1784 G. B. De Rossi would add supplements and corrections to K.’s works.
BIB., F. Ph. Kaulen, s. V. in Kirchenlex., VII, cols. 375–78; E. Michels, s. V. in DB. III, cols. 1887–89.
Emmanuele da San Marco