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Chapter 9, “John Brown of Haddington or Learning
Greek Without a Teacher”

from A. T. Robertson, The Minister and His Greek New Testament
(1923; text taken from a 1977 reprint by Baker; no original publication
information given; it is now out of print and out of copyright).

{103} There are few stories more thrilling than the
simple narrative of John Brown of Haddington, as he came to be called.
The facts are all given in the fascinating biography by Robert Mackenzie,
published in 1918. The list of his important works cover three pages (347-9)
and include A Dictionary of the Holy Bible, republished as late as 1868.
The dates of his books run from 1758 to 1785. The Self-interpreting Bible was
reissued in America
in 1919 with 26 editions in all. “Brown’s Bible” came
to be a treasure to ministers. For twenty years at Haddington, Scotland,
in connection with his pastorate, he acted as professor of theology to about
thirty students each year, who came to sit at his feet. He sided with the
Erskines and the United Presbyterian Church, which later in 1900 was united
with the Free Church of Scotland as the United Free Church. But our interest in
John Brown, who became the greatest preacher and scholar of his people during
this period, lies in the marvellous zeal exhibited by him for acquiring
knowledge. He was born in 1722 in Carpow near Abernethy in Perthshire. His
father was in winter a weaver of flax on the little {104} farm and a
fisher of salmon in the summer. He had taught himself to read and had current
religious literature in his little home. Thus the son formed a taste for good
reading. It was the law that a schoolmaster should be appointed for every
parish, but in the strife between Prelacy and Presbytery little regard was paid
to the law. When a school was held, it might be a cowshed, a stable, a family
vault, or a hovel. John Brown had a few months in a school like this, but the
fire was kindled in his mind and soul that was to become a great light. He read
what catechisms he could get. “My parents’ circumstances did not
allow them to afford me any more, but a very few quarters at school, for
reading, writing, and arithmetic, one month of which, without their allowance,
I bestowed on Latin.” So he tells the pathetic story.

But where did the Greek come in? “My father
dying about the eleventh year of my age and my mother soon after, I was left a
poor orphan, who had almost nothing to depend on, but the providence of God.”
That and his own pluck and courage. He found shelter in a religious family, but
had fever four times during the year and seemed a mere wisp of a boy. In his
twelfth year he was converted. He became the herd-boy for John Ogilvie for
several years on the sheep farm of Mieckle Bein. Ogilvie was an elder of the
church at Abernethy, who had never learned to read. He was fond of having the
shepherd boy read to him. He built a shelter on Colzie Hill for that purpose,
where they could watch the sheep and have spiritual communings. {105} Young
John Brown borrowed what Latin books he could and used them so well that he
mastered the language. He had two hours at noon each day for rest. But he used this time to go to his
minister at Abernethy, Rev. Alexander Moncrieff, or to Rev. J. Johnstone, a
minister at Arngask, several miles away. These set him tasks in Latin, which he
finished with dispatch.

Latin led to Greek, but in a curious way. He hesitated
to ask help about the Greek, as it was not so commonly known as Latin. So he
took an old Latin grammar, his copy of Ovid, and went to work to find out the
Greek alphabet by the use of the proper names in the genealogies of Christ in
Matthew and Luke. This was the key to unlock the door between Latin and Greek.
He had borrowed a copy of the Greek New Testament and kept on his comparative
study till he learned the sounds of the Greek letters. He learned the meanings
of the words by comparing short ones with the English translation. He made
comparisons of the endings with the Latin and thus made a rough grammar for
himself. Now and then he would ask questions of a Mr. Reid in the neighborhood.

He became anxious to get for himself a copy of the
Greek New Testament. It was twenty-four miles to St.
Andrews, where there was a copy to be had. He got his friend,
Henry Ferney, to look after his flock, and set out one evening for St. Andrews and arrived there next morning. This was in
1738, and he was only sixteen. He was footsore and weary and found the book
store of Alexander McCulloch. {106} Let us follow Mackenzie (pp. 26 f.): “Going
in, he startled the shopman by asking for a Greek New Testament. He was a very
raw-looking lad at the time, his clothes were rough, homespun, and ragged, and
his feet were bare. ‘What would YOU do wi’ that book? You’ll
no can read it,’ said the bookseller. ‘I’ll try to read it,’
was the humble answer of the would-be purchaser. Meanwhile some of the
professors had come into the shop, and, nearing the table, and surveying the
youth, questioned him closely as to what he was, where he came from, and who
had taught him. Then one of them, not unlikely Francis Pringle, then Professor
of Greek, asked the bookseller to bring a Greek New Testament, and throwing it
down on the counter, said: ‘Boy, if you can read that book, you shall
have it for nothing.’ He took it up eagerly, read a passage to the
astonishment of those in the shop, and marched out with the gift, so worthily
won in triumph. By the afternoon, he was back at duty on the hills of
Abernethy, studying his New Testament the while, in the midst of his flock.”
This simple narrative is eloquent in its portrayal of the determination of the
poor shepherd boy of Abernethy to know the Greek New Testament. This very copy
of the Greek New Testament, a precious heirloom, has been handed down to the
fifth John Brown in lineal descent of Greenhill
Place, Edinburgh.

But there is a tragic sequel before the final triumph
of young John Brown. There were some young men in Abernethy studying for the
ministry who became jealous of the shepherd lad who had {107} forged ahead of
them in his knowledge of the Greek New Testament. One of them, William
Moncrieff, son of the minister at Abernethy, said to him one day: “I’m
sure the de’il has taught you some words.” This seemed to John
Brown a jest, but it was an expression of jealousy that led to serious
consequences. John Brown added Hebrew to his Latin and Greek, and the suspicion
of witchcraft grew apace. Even John Wesley in his Journal for May 25, 1768,
expressed sorrow that the English had given up belief in witchcraft, for “the
giving up of witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible.” In 1743 the
ministers of the Secession in Scotland
deplored the repeal by Parliament of the law against witchcraft for the
punishment of witches.

Unfortunately his pastor, Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of
Abernethy, gave heed to the charge of witchcraft as the explanation of John
Brown’s knowledge of Greek. This slander followed young Brown for five
years. On June 16, 1746,
the elders and session of the church at Abernethy by unanimous vote gave John
Brown a clear certificate of full membership in the church; but even so Rev.
Alexander Moncrieff, the pastor, refused to sign it and left it to the clerk of
the session. The narrow preacher continued to throw difficulties in the way of
the brilliant young scholar, who was struggling towards the light. Later in
1752, some members of the church at Abernethy were brought by Moncrieff before
the session for going to hear John Brown, “a pretended minister.”
But the young man fought his way on as peddler, soldier, schoolmaster, divinity
student, {108} and finally pastor at Haddington, theological professor and
great scholar and author.

It is a romantic story that puts to rout all the
flimsy excuses of preachers to-day who excuse themselves for ignorance of the
Greek New Testament or for indifference and neglect after learning how to read
it. Any man to-day can learn to read the Greek New Testament if he wants to do
it. There are schools in plenty within easy reach of all. But if circumstances
close one’s path to the school, there are books in plenty and cheap
enough for all. No one to-day has to make his own grammar and lexicon of the
Greek New Testament or go without a teacher. One can start with Davis’s
Beginner’s Grammar and Bagster’s Analytical Lexicon and go on to
the mastery of the noblest of all languages and the greatest of all books.
Indeed, to-day one actually hears of young ministers who rebel against having
to study books that help them learn the Greek New Testament, and who regard
their teachers as task-masters instead of helpers. The example of John Brown of
Haddington ought to bring the blush of shame to every minister who lets his
Greek New Testament lie unopened on his desk or who is too careless to consult
the lexicon and the grammar that he may enrich his mind and refresh his soul
with the rich stores in the Greek that no translation can open to him.
Difficulties reveal heroes and cowards. Every war does precisely that. The
Greek New Testament is a standing challenge to every preacher in the world.

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