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),[3] of which he had been a founding member since 1925, due to his unwillingness to affirm the deity of Jesus.[4][5] He later associated with Messianic Judaism for a while, but was bitterly disillusioned by the experience.[6] He called himself "the Jewish historian of Christian beginnings",[7] and at the time of his death he was described in obituaries as a "non-practicing Jew."[8][9]

At one time he was president of the H.G. Wells Society. He founded the "Mondcivitan Republic," Commonwealth of World Citizens, in 1956.[10]

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution.[11][12] 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.[13]

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.[14] This was also described as controversial,[citation needed] but had less impact than the earlier book.[15][failed verification]

An additional aspect of his work was the revision of the Hebrew writing system.[16] 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. ^ "H.J. Schonfield, 81, Author and Editor Of Books on Religion". New York Times. 28 January 1988. Retrieved 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. doi:10.1177/004057364800500321. S2CID 170657899. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  3. ^ Daniel R. Langton (2010). The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination: A Study in Modern Jewish–Christian Relations. p. 155. Schonfield was expelled from the Executive Committee of IHCA, of which he was a member from 1925 to 1937.
  4. ^ Harvey, Richard (2002). "Passing over the Plot? The Life and Work of Hugh Schonfield (1901-1988)" (PDF). Mishkan: A Forum on the Gospel and the Jewish People (37): 35–48. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  5. ^ Power, Owen (2013). Hugh Schonfield: A Case Study of Complex Jewish Identities. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. ISBN 9781620322673.
  6. ^ David A. Rausch (1982). "Messianic Judaism: its history, theology, and polity". Hebrew Christian Alliance Quarterly: 48–49. Note 43. It is interesting that Daniel Juster, the Spiritual Leader of Beth Messiah Congregation in Rockville, Maryland, corresponded with Schonfield several years ago. Schonfield confirmed to him that he indeed had had a bad experience with the… He said that after that experience he began to rethink everything and came to new conclusions… Schonfield indicated to Juster that Juster's faith in Messianic Judaism was naive and that he would have to someday "grow up" as Hugh Schonfield had done.
  7. ^ Dearing, Vinton A. (30 March 1986). "The Original New Testament edited and translated from the Greek by Hugh J. Schonfield". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  8. ^ "Hugh J. Schonfield, 86; Biblical Scholar, Author". Los Angeles Times. 2 February 1988. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  9. ^ "Scholar H.J. Schonfield; Wrote Passover Plot". Chicago Tribune. 28 January 2023.
  10. ^ The Cramoisy Queen: A Life of Caresse Crosby – Page 168 Linda Hamalian – 2009 All that was required, she thought, was formal official status, and so she merged with the legally established Commonwealth of World Citizens founded by Dr. Hugh Schonfield, a British historian and scholar of what the West called..."
    • The politics of God, Hugh Joseph Schonfield – 1970 "There shall be identical treatment of those outside the Commonwealth as of those within it, treatment that is founded on reverence for the human personality. 3. The Commonwealth of World Citizens shall ever promote and actively assist ..."
    • World citizenship and mundialism: a guide to the building of a ... – Page 23 John Charles de Villamar Roberts – 1999 "The Commonwealth of World Citizens offered itself as an example of a new "nation" devoted solely to serving humanity. Its founder, Dr. Hugh Schonfield, a distinguished Biblical scholar, had worked for world citizenship and mundialism ..."
    • Alternative approaches to world government Hanna Newcombe – 1967 "The Commonwealth of World Citizens, or Mondcivitans , was founded long before Garry Davis. In 1938, Dr. Hugh Schonfield, distinguished British Jewish scholar and diplomat, conceived the civilized world's need for a new "independent and ...
    • No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe – Page 141 Matt Young – 2001 "Hugh Schonfield was a New Testament scholar who was educated at King's College, London, and earned a doctorate in sacred literature at the University of Glasgow. He was a prolific author but received attention mostly for The Passover Plot..."
  11. ^ "Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  12. ^ "Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  13. ^ "Preparing earth constitution | Global Strategies & Solutions | The Encyclopedia of World Problems". The Encyclopedia of World Problems | Union of International Associations (UIA). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  14. ^ Fiske, Edward B. (21 July 1968). "The Villain is Paul; Those Incredible Christians". New York Times. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  15. ^ Martin Lunn (2004). Da Vinci Code Decoded: The Truth Behind the New York Times #1 Bestseller. p. 119. Dr. Schonfield was one of the original researchers working on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and his most notable book on Biblical history is The Passover Plot. He applied the code to some of the scrolls that ...
  16. ^ "The Schonfieldian Script Page". Archived from the original on 25 August 2003. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
  17. ^ 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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