{{Short description|Welsh theologian and biblical scholar (1716-1795)}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Portrait of Rev. Henry Owen, M.D (4671718) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Henry Owen]] '''Henry Owen''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (1716–1795) was a [[Wales|Welsh]] [[theologian]] and biblical scholar. In biblical scholarship he discussed the date of publication and the form and manner of the composition of the four canonical gospel accounts.
==Life== He was the son of William Owen, born at his father's home near [[Cadair Idris]], and educated at [[Ruthin School]]. He entered [[Jesus College, Oxford]], in 1736. There took his degrees in arts (B.A. 1739, M.A.1743), while also devoting himself to mathematical studies, before concentrating on medical studies (M.B. 1746, M.D. 1753).<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=21003|first=B. W.|last=Young|title=Owen, Henry}}</ref><ref>{{alox2|title=Owen, Henry (1)}}</ref>
Ordained to the [[Anglican Church]] in 1746, Owen practised medicine for three years while a curate in [[Gloucestershire]] to [[Theophilus Leigh]], at [[Broadwell, Cotswold|Broadwell]] with [[Adlestrop]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{CCEd |type=person |id=47384 |name=Owen, Henry |year1=1744 |year2=1795 |accessed=25 December 2019 }}</ref> Advancement came, through Ralph Thoresby (1698–1763), son of [[Ralph Thoresby]] the antiquarian and rector of [[Stoke Newington]], to whom he acted as curate,<ref>{{acad|id=THRY715R|name=Ralph Thoresby}}</ref> and [[Matthew Fetherstonhaugh]], who presented him in 1752 to the living of [[Terling]] in [[Essex]]. He gave up Terling in 1760, when presented to the London parish [[St Olave Hart Street]]. From 1775 he also held the living of [[Edmonton, Middlesex]], through [[Shute Barrington]], [[bishop of Llandaff]], whose chaplain he had become.<ref name="ODNB"/>
From 1769 to 1771 Owen was [[Boyle Lecturer]]. He died on 14 October 1795 and is buried at [[All Saints' Church, Edmonton]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuc.3465163_001&seq=214&q1=henry+owen The Monumental Inscriptions of Middlesex Vol III - Cansick 1875.]</ref>
==Works== Owen's major work was ''Observations on the Four Gospels, tending chiefly to ascertain the time of their Publication, and to illustrate the form and manner of their Composition'' (1764). The "[[Griesbach hypothesis]]" of [[Johann Jakob Griesbach]], a form of [[two-gospel hypothesis]], has been attributed to Owen.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Robert L. |title=Three Views on the Origins of the Synoptic Gospels |publisher=Kregel Academic |isbn=978-0-8254-9882-4 |page=77 note 7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlWveEVuGscC&pg=PA77 |language=en}}</ref>
Among Owen's other publications are:<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Owen, Henry (1716-1795)|volume=42}}</ref>
* ''Harmonia Trigonometrica'', or ''A short treatise on Trigonometry'' (1748); * ''The Intent and Propriety of the Scripture Miracles considered and explained'' (1755); * ''An Enquiry into the present State of the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament'' (1769); * ''Critica Sacra, or a short Introduction to Hebrew Criticism'' (1774); he replied, in a ''Supplement'' to this work, to comments on the ''Critic Sacra'' made by Raphael Baruch or Baruh in ''Critica Sacra Examined'' (1775).<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Horne |first1=Thomas Hartwell |title=An introduction to the critical study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures |date=1833 |publisher=Desilver jr. & Thomas |page=719 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7lUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA719 |language=en}}</ref> Baruh was a [[Sephardic]] immigrant in Britain from [[Livorno]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ruderman |first1=David B. |title=Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry's Construction of Modern Jewish Thought |date=2012 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15551-7 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ruo9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |language=en}}</ref> * ''Collatio codicis Cottoniani Geneseos cum editione Romana a Joanne Ernesto Grabe jam olim facta nunc demum summa cura edita ab Henrico Owen, M.D.'' (1778); * ''A brief Account, historical and critical, of the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, to which is added a Dissertation on the comparative Excellency of the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuch'' (1787); * ''The Modes of Quotation used by the Evangelical Writers, explained and vindicated'' (1789).
Owen also helped to complete a number of works by [[William Bowyer (printer)|William Bowyer]], who published works of Owen: the two were on close terms.<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="ODNB"/>
==Family== In 1760 Owen married Mary Butts, daughter of [[Robert Butts (bishop)|Robert Butts]], [[bishop of Norwich]]. They had a son, Henry Butts Owen, who took over from his father as vicar of [[St Olave Hart Street]] in 1794, and five daughters.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Henry}} [[Category:1716 births]] [[Category:1795 deaths]] [[Category:18th-century Welsh Anglican priests]] [[Category:18th-century Welsh mathematicians]] [[Category:18th-century Welsh theologians]] [[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford]] [[Category:Anglican biblical scholars]] [[Category:People from Gwynedd]] [[Category:Welsh biblical scholars]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:18th-century Christian biblical scholars]] [[Category:18th-century biblical scholars]]