Charles Fox Burney (4 November 1868 – 15 April 1925) was biblical scholar at

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Early life

Charles was the son of Charles Burney, Paymaster Chief Royal Navy, and his wife Eleanor Norton, daughter of the Rev. W. A. Norton, rector of Alderton and

Eye, Suffolk Eye () is a market town and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk, about south of Diss, Norfolk, Diss, north of Ipswich and south-west of Norwich. The population in the 2011 Census of 2,154 was estimated to be 2,361 in 2 ...

. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and St John's College, Oxford.

Career

In 1893 Burney was elected Senior Scholar of St John's and lecturer in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. He became a Fellow of St John's in 1899 and Vice President in 1900, 1906, 1910 and 1911. In June 1914, Dr Burney became the

Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture The Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture (until 1991 the Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture) is a chair in theology, particular Old Testament studies, at the University of Oxford. Oriel College, ...

, and was additionally elected a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1919. Burney published several works on biblical history. In ''Israel's settlement in Canaan'', he brought much new or newly applied material, especially from Babylonian sources, to explain Israel's early residence in Canaan. A major contribution was the theory that

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he poss ...

(Jehovah) was at an early period an

Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...

deity. In ''The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel'' he attempted to prove that St John's Gospel was a literal Greek translation of a Gospel written in

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

by a Jewish disciple, and this at least led to an accepted view that the author thought in Aramaic, and strengthened the probability that it was the work of an eyewitness.

Family

In 1913 at the age of 45 he married Ethel Wordsworth Madan (1891–1984), the elder daughter of

Falconer Madan Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. Early life and education Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at ...

and his wife Frances Hayter. In 1929 Ethel Burney started work for

Rosalind Moss Rosalind Louisa Beaufort Moss, FSA (21 September 1890 – 22 April 1990) was a British Egyptologist and bibliographer, noted for her work on ''The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings''. Biogr ...

at the

Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient N ...

at Oxford. Together Moss and Burney continued the work that had been started by

Bertha Porter Bertha Porter (1852-1941) was an English biographer and bibliographer known for her editorial role in the compilation of the ''Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings''. Early life Bertha Porter wa ...

(with Moss as her assistant) in the early 1920s on the ''Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings''. 'The Two Ladies' as they were known travelled throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world until the late 1960s visiting digs, museums and collections, and gathering data for the many volumes of the ''Topographical Bibliography'' that they produced together with a small team of collaborators. Charles and Ethel's daughter,

Venetia Phair Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney (married name Phair, 11 July 1918 – 30 April 2009) was an English accountant and teacher. She is remembered as the first person to suggest the name Pluto for the dwarf planet discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 193 ...

, is famed for proposing the name

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

for the erstwhile planet, at the age of 11.

Publications

*''Outlines of Old Testament Theology'' (London, 1899) *''

Encyclopaedia Biblica ''Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible'' (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedi ...

'' (contributor, 1903) *''Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings'' (Oxford: Clarendon, 1903) *''Israel's Settlement in Canaan: The Biblical Tradition and its Historical Background'' ( Schweich Lecture for 1917, London: OUP) *''The Book of Judges, with introduction and notes'' (London: Rivingtons, 1918) * Also availabl
in another format
*''The Poetry of Our Lord'' (Oxford: Clarendon, 1925)Bibliography
Explore.bl.uk, Retrieved 27 September 2017

References

External links

*Open Library online edition ''The Poetry of Our Lord'
The poetry of Our Lord: an examination of the formal elements of Hebrew poetry in the discourses of Jesus Christ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burney, Charles Fox 1868 births 1925 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Charles Fox British biblical scholars Oriel and Laing Professors of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture