The translators of the Bible in Afrikaans (from left): Dr. J D du toit (Totius), Dr. E E van Rooyen, Ds. J D Kestell, Dr. H C M Fourie and Dr. B B Keet Photo: E Kress

B B Keet 1885 - 1974 Author of theological publications Professor of Doctrine and Ethics at the Stellenbosch University Seminary, 1920 to 1959

Barend Bartholomeus (Ben) Keet was born on 20 Jun 1885 in Alice (Eastern Cape).
He was the fifth of the 7 children of Barend Bartholomeus Keet and Jacoba Petronella Herholdt. In 1916 was married to Johanna Maria Van Aarde and they had a son, named after his father. Johanna Maria Van Aarde died in 1918.
He married Frances Jessie Reitz on 6 Dec 1931.
Ben Keet died on 21 Jun 1974, at Stellenbosch.
He was the first former Stellenbosch student who obtained his doctor's degree in dogmatics (at the Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam in 1913). He served as minister at the Graaff-Reinet DRC from 1916 to 1919 and joined the Stellenbosch seminary in 1920. He was actively involved in the activities of the Christian Students' Association for the greater part of his life and served as its national chairman for many years. This association would render him favourably inclined towards ecumenics.
Ben Keet participated in the translation of the Bible into Afrikaans in 1933.

Award: Honorary member of Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns

...apartheid, in the sense of a division of the country, could have been an option a hundred years ago, but it could only take place now with the greatest injustice to one side or the other.
B B Keet in Orde in die Kerk, 1963

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