Born in 1852 the son of H.M. Harris of Plymouth
School – Plymouth Grammar
Admitted to Clare College on 9 June 1870 as a pensioner
BA 3rd Wrangler 1874
MA 1877
Fellow 1875-88 and 1892-1904
Librarian from 1898-1902
Hon. Fellow 1909-41
Fellow British Academy 1927
Hon. LittD Dublin
Hon. LLD Haverford, USA
Hon. D.Theol. Leyden, Holland
Hon. LLD Birmingham
Hon. DD Glasgow
Professor of New Testament Greek: Sch: Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland, USA , 1882-86
Returned to Cambridge, 1893
University Lecturer in Palaeography, 1893-1903
Travelled extensively in the East in search of manuscripts and, as a result of his visits to Mount Sinai
Had two narrow escapes from drowning, his ship being torpedoed on both occasions, in the War of 1914-18
Moved to Manchester, 1918
Curator of Eastern, John Rylands Library 1918-25
Professor of Biblical Languages: Sch: Haverford College USA , 1886-92
Professor of Theology: at Sch: University of Leyden Leyden, Holland, 1903-04
Director of studies: Friends' Settlement for Social and Religious Study Woodbrooke, near Birmingham, 1903-18
Notice to marry, July 1880, at the Friends Meeting House in Plymouth, Helen Balkwill
Died in Selly Oak, Birmingham, on 1 March 1941
J Rendel Harris was one of the most prolific and influential New Testament scholars of his time and was responsible for bringing to light hitherto lost early Christian writings and gathered major collections of Syriac manuscripts and Greek papyri, especially the Syriac Bible. It was Dr Harris who provided Dr Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson (twin sisters in Cambridge with interest in ancient Syriac writings) with the contacts in Egypt that enabled them to visit the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mt. Sinai. This collaboration led to the discovery of the Sinaitic Palimpsest.
