William Mitchell Ramsay

Sir William Mitchell Ramsay FBA (15 March 1851 – 20 April 1939) was a British archaeologist and New Testament scholar. By his death in 1939 he had become the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor and a leading scholar in the study of the New Testament.

For other people with the same name, see William Ramsay (disambiguation).

Sir William M. Ramsay

Ramsay was educated in the Tübingen school of thought (founded by F. C. Baur) which doubted the reliability of the New Testament, but his extensive archaeological and historical studies convinced him of its historical accuracy.[1] From the post of Professor of Classical Art and Architecture at Oxford, he was appointed Regius Professor of Humanity (the Latin Professorship) at Aberdeen.[2]

Knighted in 1906 to mark his distinguished service to the world of scholarship, Ramsay also gained three honorary fellowships from Oxford colleges, nine honorary doctorates from British, Continental and North American universities, and became an honorary member of almost every association devoted to archaeology and historical research. He was one of the original members of the British Academy, and was awarded the Gold Medal of Pope Leo XIII in 1893 and the Victorian Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1906.[2]

Life

Ramsay was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the youngest son of a third-generation lawyer, Thomas Ramsay and his wife Jane Mitchell, daughter of William Mitchell. His father died when he was six years old, and the family moved from the city to the family home in the country district near Alloa. The help of his older brother and his maternal uncle, Andrew Mitchell of Alloa, made it possible for him to receive an education at the Gymnasium in Old Aberdeen.[3]

Ramsay studied at the University of Aberdeen, where he achieved high distinction and later became Professor of Humanity. He won a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in classical moderations (1874) and in literae humaniores (1876). He also studied Sanskrit under scholar Theodor Benfey at Göttingen.

In 1880 Ramsay received an Oxford studentship for travel and research in Greece. At Smyrna, he met Sir C. W. Wilson, then British consul-general in Anatolia, who advised him on inland areas suitable for exploration. Ramsay and Wilson made two long journeys during 1881 and 1882.

He travelled widely in Asia Minor and rapidly became the recognised authority on all matters relating to the districts associated with St Paul's missionary journeys and on Christianity in the early Roman Empire.[4] Greece and Turkey remained the focus of Ramsay's research for the remainder of his academic career. In November 1881,[5] he discovered two of the most important Phrygian monuments – the rock tombs "Aslantaş" (Lion Stone) and "Yılantaş" (Snake Stone), located close to the city centre of Afyon.[6] In 1883, he discovered the world's oldest complete piece of music, the Seikilos epitaph. In 1890 he discovered inscriptions in an unknown Anatolian language, Pisidian, a description of which he published in 1895.[7] He was known for his expertise in the historic geography and topography of Asia Minor and of its political, social, cultural, and religious history.

Ramsay's studies in Asia Minor led him to accept the trustworthiness of Luke's account in the Book of Acts. He wrote:

"I may fairly claim to have entered on this investigation without any prejudice in favour of the conclusion which I shall now attempt to justify to the reader. On the contrary, I began with a mind unfavourable to it for the ingenuity and apparent completeness of the Tubingen theory had at one time quite convinced me. It did not lie then in my line of life to investigate the subject minutely but more recently I found myself often brought in contact with the book of Acts as an authority for the topography antiquities and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne in upon me that in various details the narrative showed marvellous truth."[8]

After becoming a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 1882, from 1885 to 1886 Ramsay held the newly created Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford and became a fellow of Lincoln College (honorary fellow 1898). In 1886 Ramsay was appointed Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen.[4] He remained affiliated with Aberdeen until his retirement in 1911.[9]

From 1880 onwards he received the honorary degrees of D.C.L. Oxford, LL.D. St Andrews and Glasgow, and D.D. Edinburgh. In 1906, Ramsay was knighted for his scholarly achievements on the 400th anniversary of the founding of the University of Aberdeen. He was elected a member of learned societies in Europe and America and was awarded medals by the Royal Geographical Society and the University of Pennsylvania.[4]

In 1919, Ramsay served as president of the Geographical Association.[10]

Family

His wife, Agnes, Lady Ramsay, granddaughter of Dr Andrew Marshall of Kirkintilloch, accompanied him in many of his journeys and is the author of Everyday Life in Turkey (1897) and The Romance of Elisavet (1899). He was a grandson of entrepreneur William Mitchell (1781–1854). Other relatives include Mary Ramsay and Agnes Margaret Ramsay who were responsible for contributing several photographs and illustrations in his work on The Letters to the Seven Churches.[4]

Contribution to biblical studies

At the time when Ramsay first went to Asia Minor, many of the cities mentioned in the Book of Acts had no definite location. Later in life he concluded: '"Further study … showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement" (The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85). On page 89 of the same book, Ramsay accounted, "You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's". On the authorship of the Pauline epistles he concluded that all thirteen New Testament letters ostensibly written by Paul were authentic.

Publications

See also

References
  1. "I may fairly claim to have entered on this investigation without any prejudice in favour of the conclusion which I shall now attempt to justify to the reader [i.e., the reliability of the book of Acts]. On the contrary, I began with a mind unfavourable to it, for the ingenuity and apparent completeness of the Tübingen theory had at one time quite convinced me. It did not lie then in my line of life to investigate the subject minutely; but more recently I found myself often brought in contact with the book of Acts as an authority for the topography, antiquities, and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne in upon me that in various details the narrative showed marvellous truth. In fact, beginning with the fixed idea that the work was essentially a second-century composition, and never relying on its evidence as trustworthy for first-century conditions, I gradually came to find it a useful ally in some obscure and difficult investigations." Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, 1904, Putnam and Sons, p. 8.
  2. W.M. Ramsay: British archaeologist and New Testament scholar, Christian Classics Ethereal Library
  3. Lock, Peter W. "Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35664. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 880.
  5. Ramsay, W.M., "A Study of Phrygian Art", Part I, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 9, 1888, p. 353.
  6. "Phrygian Valley: Home to natural wonders, ancient civilizations, aliens". Daily Sabah, Istanbul. 27 October 2017.
  7. Ramsay, W.M. (1895). "Inscriptions en langue Pisidienne". Revue des universités du Midi. Nouvelle Série. 1 (2): 353–362. Retrieved 15 April 2021. Archived at BnF Gallica.
  8. Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell (1895). St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, Chapter 1: The Acts of the Apostles, Section 1: Trustworthiness. London, England: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 7–8.
  9. Public Domain Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Ramsay, Sir William Mitchell". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 32 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. pp. 241–242.
  10. Alan Parkinson (31 December 2020). "All the (GA) Presidents: Men (and Women)".
  11. "Was Christ Born in Bethlehem?". ccel.org.
  12. "Philologos - The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia by W.M. Ramsay". philologos.org. Archived from the original on 19 April 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  13. Ramsay, W.M. The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (PDF). p. 15. The Christian letters contained the saving power of the Church; and in its epistolary correspondence flowed its life-blood. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)

Sources
  • Letters to the Seven Churches, Preface. (William Mitchell Ramsay)
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