Sir Frederic George Kenyon GBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
KCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
TDThe Territorial Decoration was a medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army...
FBAThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars...
FSAThe Society of Antiquaries of London is the world’s premier Learned Society for heritage. It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London in the United Kingdom, along with the Royal Academy and four other leading Learned Societies; the Linnean Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the...
(15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was a British paleographer,
biblicalBiblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were...
and
classicalClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity...
scholar. He was the director of the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
. He was also the president of the
British AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars...
from 1917 to 1921, and from 1918 to 1952 he was
Gentleman Usher of the Purple RodThe Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod is the Usher to the Order of the British Empire, established in 1917 and effective since 1918.-Office Holders from 1918:*1918 – 23 August 1952: Sir Frederic Kenyon*30 September 1952 – 2 December 1960: Sir Ernest Gowers...
.
Kenyon was born in London, the son of
John Robert KenyonJohn Robert Kenyon was an British lawyer and academic.He was born the third son of Hon. Thomas Kenyon of Pradoe in Shropshire, gentleman. He attended Charterhouse School and then matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 24 January 1825, aged 18...
,
Vinerian Professor of English LawThe Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, to establish a Professorship of the Common Law...
at
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
. Educated at
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million....
, he joined the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
in 1889 and rose to be its Director and Head Librarian by 1909.
Sir Frederic George Kenyon GBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
KCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
TDThe Territorial Decoration was a medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army...
FBAThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars...
FSAThe Society of Antiquaries of London is the world’s premier Learned Society for heritage. It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London in the United Kingdom, along with the Royal Academy and four other leading Learned Societies; the Linnean Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the...
(15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was a British paleographer,
biblicalBiblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were...
and
classicalClassics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity...
scholar. He was the director of the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
. He was also the president of the
British AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars...
from 1917 to 1921, and from 1918 to 1952 he was
Gentleman Usher of the Purple RodThe Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod is the Usher to the Order of the British Empire, established in 1917 and effective since 1918.-Office Holders from 1918:*1918 – 23 August 1952: Sir Frederic Kenyon*30 September 1952 – 2 December 1960: Sir Ernest Gowers...
.
Kenyon was born in London, the son of
John Robert KenyonJohn Robert Kenyon was an British lawyer and academic.He was born the third son of Hon. Thomas Kenyon of Pradoe in Shropshire, gentleman. He attended Charterhouse School and then matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 24 January 1825, aged 18...
,
Vinerian Professor of English LawThe Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, to establish a Professorship of the Common Law...
at
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
. Educated at
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million....
, he joined the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
in 1889 and rose to be its Director and Head Librarian by 1909. He was knighted for his services in 1912.
In 1891, Kenyon edited the
editio princepsIn classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which were therefore circulated only after being copied by hand.For example, the editio princeps of Homer is that of Demetrius...
of the Aristotelian Constitution of Athens. In 1920, he was appointed president of the British School of Archaeology in
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
. He spent most of his retirement researching and publishing ancient papyri. He died on 23 August 1952.
Kenyon was a noted scholar of ancient languages, and made a life-long study of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
, especially the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
as an historical text. His book
Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts (1895) alleges to show how Egyptian papyri and other evidence from archeology can corroborate the narrative of historical events in the Gospel. He was convinced of the historical reality of the events described in the New Testament - and is often quoted by those who share this view (viz. The Alpha Course) - most commonly with these words:
“the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.”
Kenyon's eldest daughter was the British archaeologist
Dame Kathleen KenyonDame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958.-Biography:...
.
Works
- Recent Developments in the Textual Criticism of the Greek Bible (Schweich Lectures for 1932)