Hugh J. Schonfield Explained

Hugh Joseph Schonfield (London, 17 May 1901 – 26 January 1988, London) was a British Bible scholar specialising in the New Testament and the early development of the Christian religion and church. He was born in London, and educated there at St Paul's School and King's College, doing additional studies in the University of Glasgow.[1] He was one of the founders and president of the pacifist organisation Commonwealth of World Citizens "Mondcivitan Republic".

Religious and political beliefs

Born Jewish, Schonfield became a liberal Hebrew Christian who sometimes referred to himself as a Nazarene.[2] In 1937 Schonfield was excluded from membership of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA), of which he had been a founding member since 1925, due to his unwillingness to affirm the deity of Jesus.[3] [4] He later associated with Messianic Judaism for a while, but was bitterly disillusioned by the experience. He called himself "the Jewish historian of Christian beginnings",[5] and at the time of his death he was described in obituaries as a "non-practicing Jew."[6] [7]

At one time he was president of the H. G. Wells Society. He founded the "Mondcivitan Republic," Commonwealth of World Citizens, in 1956.

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.[8] [9] As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt a Constitution for the Federation of Earth.[10]

Works

Schonfield wrote over 40 books including commercially successful books in the fields of history and biography as well as religion. In 1958 his non-ecclesiastical historical translation of the New Testament was published in the UK and the US, titled The Authentic New Testament. This aimed to show without idealised interpretation the meaning intended by the writers while maintaining the original structures. A revised version appeared in 1985 titled The Original New Testament. In 1965 he published the controversial The Passover Plot, a book the thesis of which is that the Crucifixion was part of a larger, conscious attempt by Jesus to fulfill the Messianic expectations rampant in his time, and that the plan went unexpectedly wrong. According to Steve Turner, this was one of the books John Lennon was reading when he commented that the Beatles were "More popular than Jesus".

Schonfield followed The Passover Plot with a sequel in 1968, Those Incredible Christians.[11] This was also described as controversial, but had less impact than the earlier book.

An additional aspect of his work was the revision of the Hebrew writing system. In The New Hebrew Typography, published in 1932, he argued for a significantly revised version of the Hebrew alphabet modelled after the Latin alphabet, including a capital-lowercase distinction, no final forms, a vertical emphasis, and serifs. This alphabet has not been adopted.

Selected bibliography

Articles

References

  1. News: . 28 January 1988 . H.J. Schonfield, 81, Author and Editor of Books on Religion . The New York Times . 12 June 2023.
  2. Jamison . A.L. . 1948 . Review of The Jew of Tarsus: An Unorthodox Portrait of Paul, by Hugh J. Schonfield . Theology Today . 5 . 3 . 441–443 . 10.1177/004057364800500321 . 170657899 . 12 June 2023.
  3. Harvey . Richard . 2002 . Passing over the Plot? The Life and Work of Hugh Schonfield (1901-1988) . Mishkan: A Forum on the Gospel and the Jewish People . 37 . 35-48 . 2 October 2023.
  4. Book: Power, Owen . 2013 . Hugh Schonfield: A Case Study of Complex Jewish Identities . Eugene, Oregon . Wipf & Stock . 9781620322673.
  5. News: Dearing . Vinton A. . 30 March 1986 . The Original New Testament edited and translated from the Greek by Hugh J. Schonfield . Los Angeles Times . 12 June 2023.
  6. News: . 2 February 1988 . Hugh J. Schonfield, 86; Biblical Scholar, Author . Los Angeles Times . 12 June 2023.
  7. News: . 28 January 2023 . Scholar H.J. Schonfield; Wrote Passover Plot . Chicago Tribune.
  8. Web site: Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961 . 2023-07-01 . Helen Keller Archive . American Foundation for the Blind.
  9. Web site: Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials . 2023-07-03 . Helen Keller Archive . American Foundation for the Blind.
  10. Web site: Preparing earth constitution Global Strategies & Solutions The Encyclopedia of World Problems . 2023-07-15 . The Encyclopedia of World Problems Union of International Associations (UIA).
  11. News: Fiske . Edward B. . 21 July 1968 . The Villain is Paul; Those Incredible Christians . The New York Times . 13 June 2023.
  12. Religious humanism: Volume 3 Fellowship of Religious Humanists – 1969 WELLS AS RELIGIOUS HUMANIST By Hugh J. Schonfield – Experiment in Autobiography, by HG Wells"

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External links

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