Charles Rufus Brown (1849–1914) was an American Baptist clergyman and biblical scholar.
Aiming at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, he graduated and was serving in the Navy when he felt a call to the clergy.
Resigning, he spent the next several years learning the languages and scholarship of the Bible, publishing and teaching at last in the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem.
He was born in Kingston, New Hampshire, graduated from the United States Naval Academy and reached the grade of master (1871) in the United States navy, from which he resigned in 1875.
In 1910-11 he was resident director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem.