(I knew Bro. Wilfred from long ago when I studied in Birmingham, and have met him occasionally since. His overwhelming knowledge of Hebrew and his deep appreciation for the Word left a deep impression. And which other Christadelphian has had his death recorded by a major obituary in the London Times? — The Editor).
Wilfred Lambert, a lifelong Christadelphian and internationally respected Assyriologist, was famed for his unrivaled mastery of the cuneiform literatures.As Professor of Assyriology at Birmingham University, England, he was the consummate scholar of Ancient Near East languages and cultures, especially ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform. Over a long lifetime as an academic and writer, he left a rich heritage of monumental contributions in many aspects of his chosen field.
His pioneering studies in these ancient languages encouraged and supported modern Old Testament scholars in understanding more fully the texts with which they worked, and undoubtedly helped to improve their translations considerably.
Christadelphian roots
Wilfred George Lambert lived in Birmingham, England, for most of his life. He was born in 1926 into a Christadelphian family, was baptized at Birmingham Central Christadelphian Ecclesia, and retained a strong Christadelphian faith all his life. He later wrote that he had gained much early intellectual stimulation from reading his Bible at home and in the local Christadelphian Sunday school where he had outstanding teachers.
In later years he confided that he knew exactly what had drawn him into Assyriology. His parents had taken him as a boy to hear Sir Leonard Woolley lecture in Birmingham on the excavations at Ur of the Chaldees. The young boy was captivated, and his life’s work unfolded before him.
Education and professional work
Wilfred attended Cambridge University, earning two degrees: Classics in 1943 1945, and Oriental languages — Hebrew and Aramaic, Rabbinic Hebrew, and Akkadian (ancient Babylonian and Assyrian) — in 1948-1950.
The interval in his university studies, between 1945 and 1948, was spent in national service at a horticultural nursery near Birmingham. In lieu of military service, he supervised prisoners of war who worked there. Graduating from Cambridge University in 1950, he spent the next four years teaching the classics. During this time he perfected his knowledge of Akkadian and Sumerian, reading and copying cuneiform inscriptions in the British Museum whenever he could.
He made extraordinary progress as a scholar and was appointed lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto, from 1955 to 1959, and then associate professor (and chairman) of the Oriental Seminary, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, from 1959 to 1964. Wherever he relocated, Bro. Lambert always transferred his membership to a local Christadelphian ecclesia, so he could be involved there.
During these years he completed what was to be his most important published work, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (1960, and reprinted). This milestone in Assyriological studies encompassed all that was characteristic in his work: extraordinary facility with cuneiform script, great command of Babylonian grammar and syntax, and wonderful insight for extracting meaning from fragments of the world’s most ancient literature. At the time the great modern dictionaries of Akkadian were in their infancy, and his translation of the most difficult literary compositions involved groundbreaking research. His work established new readings and meanings that were soon taken for granted.
Prof. Lambert’s standard publications, insights, and references fill practically every page of the 21-volume Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, begun in 1921 and completed 90 years later. Less apparent is what lay behind that work. During those decades he corrected draft pages of his colleagues’ and students’ work with notes in red such as “No! Please see me later!” His comments on others’ work, even when critical, were always invitations; in effect, ‘Let me show you what you missed.’
In 1969 he published, with A.R. Millard, Atra-hasis: the Babylonian Story of the Flood. This became a second classic which presented his work in an accessible and reliable form to non-Assyriologists, a readership he acknowledged in all his writings.
These works were followed by numerous articles and reviews. Bro. Wilfred wrote importantly on a wide spectrum of textual matters, spanning the languages and the three millennia of sources with tireless application and understanding. As with the dictionary, his knowledge laid the foundation for many publications by other authors, and his selfless correction of others’ work filled train journeys and leisure time throughout his life.
An extraordinary discovery
Bro. Lambert’s ability as a cuneiformist was, quite simply, unchallenged. The British Museum regularly turned to him for help with cataloguing clay tablets. His knowledge of the entire span of cuneiform literature often enabled him to identify the smallest fragment. His record of ‘joins’, that is, identifying fragments which belonged together — like ancient jigsaw puzzles — was without equal.
In recent years he worked with the British Museum on its Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals Project. Among other matters, he helped the museum shed light on the origins of the famous Cyrus Cylinder, which is often described as containing the world’s first ‘Declaration of Human Rights’. Among other matters, and according to some interpretations, the Cyrus Cylinder authorized the return of deported peoples to their homelands and implied that there should be freedom of religious expression throughout the empire.
This inscribed clay cylinder, broken into several fragments, had been discovered in an 1879 excavation in ancient Babylon, in what is now modern Iraq. The declaration was in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Cyrus the Great after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.
In 2009 Bro. Lambert examined two small clay fragments of another, apparently unrelated, cuneiform tablet from a second site near Babylon, which had been in the museum’s collection since 1881. For over 120 years the significance of these fragments was not recognized; they had been thought simply to be part of a building inscription. However, Bro. Lambert — working with Irving Finkel of the British Museum’s Middle East department — established that the pieces came from a tablet that had been inscribed with exactly the same text as the Cyrus Cylinder.
This remarkable discovery lends fresh support to suggestions that the “declaration” was probably an imperial decree that was distributed around Cyrus’s empire, and which the author of the Book of Ezra may have consulted when writing about the king (Ezra 1:1-4; cf 2 Chron 36:23).
Professor and teacher
During his lifetime, Bro. Wilfred undoubtedly read more cuneiform tablets than any other person since the script was deciphered. The ancient scribal mind was familiar to him. His students say that to read any text alongside him was simply inspiring. In 1964 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and during the many years before his retirement in 1993 he was promoted to senior lecturer and eventually Professor of Astrology. In his inaugural lecture, “Cuneiform Scholars Ancient and Modern”, he enlarged with memorable humor on perhaps his two favorite subjects at once. After 1993 he was Emeritus Professor but continued to teach until very recently.
Bro. Lambert was a model of clarity as teacher and lecturer, well aware of the importance of elocution for non-English listeners, and his style of delivery at many conferences and gatherings was quite effective. As a speaker, he never put people to sleep. He also lectured, taught classes, and wrote materials on Bible subjects for Christadelphian audiences in and around Birmingham, particularly on subjects involving his academic specialties.
Honors followed as his publications circulated and his reputation grew. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971. From 1977 to 1978 he was visiting instructor at the University of Paris, and in 1978 he was made Honorary Professor of that university. He was president of the Society of Old Testament Studies in 1984. For many years he had worked on major volumes on the Babylonian creation story and on the ancient lists of Sumerian and Babylonian gods. It is expected that both these works will be published in the near future. The whole of his working life was devoted to cuneiform studies and the world of antiquity, to an extent that is rarely possible in the modern world. He gave generously of his time and expertise to fellow Old Testament students, and was always happy to identify objects and inscriptions for collectors and private enthusiasts.
He never married, and certainly indicated that austere scholarly pursuits were the course to which any young Astrologist should commit himself. While maintaining an impersonal detachment from students and colleagues, he inspired respect and affection in his disciples. In 2000 students and close colleagues collaborated on Wisdom, Gods and Literature, a volume of papers in his honor. The three subjects in the title were carefully chosen and arranged in order so as to coincide with his initials, W.G.L.
A brother in Christ
Despite his scholarly detachment, Bro. Wilfred was a lively storyteller and an enjoyable conversationalist. He always had something interesting to contribute, whatever the topic, in a unique and instructive way. He was an excellent pianist and organist, well able to accompany a “Messiah” performance. He played his piano for relaxation to the exclusion of most other domestic comforts. For many years, he was permanent organist at the Birmingham Central Ecclesia.
In addition, Bro. Wilfred was for some time the Chairman of the Arranging Brothers in Birmingham Central. The last recording brother of Birmingham Central (which closed in 2008) writes: “His insights as a speaker were memorable, his clarity of thought and exposition being underpinned by a wealth of information relating to Biblical content that he had accumulated during his lifetime. His capabilities, clear thinking, and seemingly unerring insight for what is right and just will be sadly missed.”
The recording brother of Birmingham West Ecclesia, where Bro. Lambert was a member in his last years, writes: “Although he favored reform of some aspects of our community, our brother remained a faithful member of it for nearly 70 years. A week before he fell asleep in Christ, aware that his life was drawing to a close, he said, ‘I look forward to seeing you before long.’ ”
Bro. Wilfred was predeceased by his older sister Muriel and otherwise had no close natural family to mourn him. He is deeply lamented by his fellow Christmastides in Birmingham. For the world’s Astrologists, and his own circle of students, his loss is irreparable.
Professor Wilfred G. Lambert, Astrologist and our brother in Christ, was born on February 26, 1926. He died on November 9, 2011, aged 85. His funeral took place in the West Birmingham Christadelphian Hall.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One