Sir Frederic George Kenyon (15 January 1863 – 23 August 1952) was an English

palaeographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...

and

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

from 1917 to 1921. From 1918 to 1952 he was

Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod The usher of the Purple Rod, formally known as the Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod or Lady Usher of the Purple Rod, is the Usher to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, established in 1917 and effective since 1918. The Gentleman Ush ...

Early life

Kenyon was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the son of

John Robert Kenyon John Robert Kenyon QC (13 January 1807 – 17 April 1880) was a British lawyer and academic. A Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from 1828, he served as Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford from 1844 until his death. ...

, the

Vinerian Professor of English Law The 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 ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, and was thus great-grandson of

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon, (5 October 1732 – 4 April 1802), was a British politician and barrister, who served as Attorney General, Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice. Born to a country gentleman, he was initially educated i ...

. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

. Sabben-Clare, James. ''Winchester College''. Cave, 1981. p. 187 He graduated BA from

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, where he was later a fellow.

Career

Kenyon joined the

in 1889 and rose to be its Director and Principal Librarian by 1909. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

for his services in 1912 and remained at his post until 1931. He was elected an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1937. He was a trustee of the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

from 1920 to 1946. In 1891, Kenyon edited the

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

of Aristotle's '' Constitution of Athens''. In 1920, he was appointed president of the

British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem The Kenyon Institute, previously known as the British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem (BSAJ), is a British research institute supporting humanities and social science studies in Israel and Palestine. It is part of the Council for British Resear ...

. He spent most of his retirement researching and publishing ancient

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

. He died on 23 August 1952. Kenyon was a noted scholar of ancient languages, and made a lifelong study of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, especially the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

as an historical text. His book ''Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts'' (1895) shows one way that Egyptian papyri and other evidence from

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

can corroborate the narrative of historical events in the Gospels. He was convinced of the historical reality of the events described in the New Testament: “the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.” At the start of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Kenyon served with the British Expeditionary Force in France to September 1914, then on home service with his regiment the Inns of Court O.T.C. He was promoted major in 1916 and lieutenant-colonel in 1917, retiring in 1921. He was awarded the

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer O ...

in 1918.''Who Was Who, 1951-1960'', p.612. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he served in the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

from 1940 to 1942. He was an advisor to the

Imperial War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

from 1917 to 1948.

Personal life

Kenyon married Amy, third daughter of Rowland Hunt of Boreatton Hall,

Baschurch Baschurch is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies in the north of Shropshire. The village had a population of 2,503 as of the 2011 census. Shrewsbury is to the south-east, Oswestry is to the north-west, and Wem is to the n ...

, Shropshire, by whom he had two daughters. She died in 1938.''Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1951'', p.1195. Kenyon's elder daughter was the British archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon. From 1899 to 1901 Frederic was Commanding Officer of the Roxeth & Harrow Company of the London Diocesan

Church Lads' Brigade The Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade is an Anglican youth organisation with branches in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Bermuda, Kenya, South Africa, Barbados, Newfoundland and St Helena. Its origins lie in the formation in 1891 of the Chur ...

Works

* 1891: Ἀριστοτέλους Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία. ''Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens''; edited by F. G. Kenyon. London: Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum * 1891: ''Classical Texts from Papyri in the British Museum: Including the Newly Discovered Poems of Herodas, with Autotype Facsimiles of MSS''; edited by F. G. Kenyon. London: British Museum. * 1895
''Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts''
Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1896 * 1897: ''The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning''; edited with biographical additions by Frederic G. Kenyon. 2 vol. London: John Murray
Gutenberg fulltext
* 1899
The Palaeography of Greek papyri: With Twenty Facsimiles and a Table of Alphabets
* 1900: ''Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Museum Printed by Order of the Trustees''. London. * 1901
''Handbook to the textual criticism of the New Testament''
(1st ed.) * 1912
''Handbook to the textual criticism of the New Testament''
(2nd ed.) * 1914: Aristotle, ''The Athenian Constitution''; translated by Frederic G. Kenyon. London: G. Bel
Gutenberg fulltext
Wikisource fulltext * 1915: * 1927: ''Ancient Books and Modern Discoveries.'' Chicago: The Caxton Club. * 1932: ''Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. (2nd ed. 1951) * 1933: ''Recent Developments in the Textual Criticism of the Greek Bible'' (

Schweich Lectures The ''Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology'' are a series of lectures delivered and published under the auspices of the British Academy. The Leopold Schweich Trust Fund, set up in 1907, was a gift from Miss Constance Schweich in memory of her ...

for 1932) London: Oxford University Press * 1933–41: ''The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri: Descriptions and Texts of Twelve Manuscripts on Papyrus of the Greek Bible''. London: Emery Walker. (See

Chester Beatty Papyri The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri or simply the Chester Beatty Papyri are a group of early papyrus manuscripts of biblical texts. The manuscripts are in Greek and are of Christian origin. There are eleven manuscripts in the group, seven con ...

) * 1936: ''The Story of the Bible: A Popular Account of How It Came to Us'' London: J. Murray * 1940: ''The Bible and Archaeology''. London: G. Harrap / New York: Harper & Row * 1948: ''The Bible and Modern Scholarship'' (Ethel M. Wood Lecture) London: J. Murray.

References

External links

* * * *
''The Master's Seminary Journal'' 1:10 (Spring 1999), 42
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyon, Fredric G. Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford 1863 births 1952 deaths Writers from London Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British biblical scholars Directors of the British Museum Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire New Testament scholars Presidents of the British Academy People educated at Winchester College Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Presidents of the Society of Antiquaries of London Honorary Fellows of the British Academy Presidents of the Classical Association International members of the American Philosophical Society Presidents of the Bibliographical Society Territorial Force officers