William Gunion Rutherford Vanity Fair 3 March 1898

William Gunion Rutherford (17 July 1853 – 19 July 1907) was a Scottish scholar.

Life

He was born in

Peeblesshire Peeblesshire ( gd, Siorrachd nam Pùballan), the County of Peebles or Tweeddale is a historic county of Scotland. Its county town is Peebles, and it borders Midlothian to the north, Selkirkshire to the east, Dumfriesshire to the south, and Lan ...

on 17 July 1853 and educated at

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he graduated in natural science. His intention to enter medical profession was abandoned in favour of a scholastic career. From 1883 to 1901 he was Head Master of

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

; and his death deprived classical scholarship in the UK of one of its most brilliant modern representatives. He was also a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

for a time.

Work

Rutherford devoted special attention to

Attic Greek Attic Greek is the Greek language, Greek dialect of the regions of ancient Greece, ancient region of Attica, including the ''polis'' of classical Athens, Athens. Often called classical Greek, it was the prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige diale ...

idioms and the language of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...

. His most important work, ''New Phrynichus'' (1881), dealing with the

Atticism Atticism (meaning "favouring Attica", the region of Athens in Greece) was a rhetorical movement that began in the first quarter of the 1st century BC; it may also refer to the wordings and phrasings typical of this movement, in contrast with variou ...

s of

Phrynichus Arabius Phrynichus Arabius (; grc-gre, Φρύνιχος Ἀράβιος, lit. 'Phrynichus “the Arab”') or Phrynichus of Bithynia ( grc-gre, Φρύνιχος ὁ Βιθυνός) was a grammarian of the Greek language who flourished in 2nd century Bith ...

, was supplemented by his ''

Babrius Babrius ( grc-gre, Βάβριος, ''Bábrios''; century),"Babrius" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 21. also known as Babrias () or Gabrias (), was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of which ...

'' (1883), a specimen of the later

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

, which was the chief subject of Christian August Lobeck's earlier commentary (1820) on Phrynichus. His edition (1896–1905) of the ''Aristophanic

scholia Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of th ...

'' from the Ravenna manuscript was less successful. Mention may also be made of his ''Elementary Greek Accidence'' and ''Lex Rex'', a list of cognate words in Greek, Latin and English. In the year 1900, Rutherford produced an English translation of some parts of the Bible, called " Five Pauline Epistles – A New Translation." This work was a translation of the books of

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, first and second Thessalonians, and first and second

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

, with a brief analysis.FIVE PAULINE EPISTLES A New Translation W.G. Rutherford
– Golden Age Books. Retrieved 26 August 2011. William G. Rutherford died on 19 July 1907, two days after his 54th birthday.

Family

On 3 January 1884, he married Constance Gordon Renton.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherford, William Gunion 1853 births 1907 deaths People from the Scottish Borders Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of University College, Oxford Scottish scholars and academics Head Masters of Westminster School