Hort, was an Irish-born theologian and editor, with Brooke Foss Westcott of a critical edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek.

Mayor and Lightfoot, he established the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, and plunged eagerly into theological and patristic study.

He had been brought up in the strictest principles of the evangelical movement, but at Rugby, under the influence of Thomas Arnold and Archibald Campbell Tait, and through his acquaintance with F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley, he finally moved towards liberalism.

[4] In 1857 he was married, and accepted the college living of St Ippolyts, near Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, where he remained for fifteen years.

During his time there he took part in discussions on university reform, continued his studies, and wrote essays for various periodicals.

Its appearance created a sensation among scholars, and it was attacked in many quarters, but on the whole, it was received as being much the nearest approximation yet made to the original text of the New Testament.