Hugh Joseph Schonfield (London, 17 May 1901 – 24 January 1988, London) was a British Bible scholar specialising in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
. He was one of the founders and president of the
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campai ...
organisation
Commonwealth of World Citizens
The Commonwealth of World Citizens (later named 'Mondcivitan Republic' after the Esperanto) was founded by Hugh J. Schonfield, an associate of H.G. Wells, in 1956. The organisation describes itself as a servant-Nation.
Objectives
Hugh Schonfiel ...
"Mondcivitan Republic".
Religious and political beliefs
Schonfield was a liberalHebrew Christian. 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. He later associated with Messianic Judaism for a while, but was bitterly disillusioned by the experience.
At one time he was president of the H.G. Wells Society. He founded the "Mondcivitan Republic,"
Commonwealth of World Citizens
The Commonwealth of World Citizens (later named 'Mondcivitan Republic' after the Esperanto) was founded by Hugh J. Schonfield, an associate of H.G. Wells, in 1956. The organisation describes itself as a servant-Nation.
Objectives
Hugh Schonfiel ...
, in 1956.
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
''The Passover Plot'' is a 1965 book by British biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield, who also published a translation of the New Testament from a Jewish perspective.Crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...
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
"More popular than Jesus" is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus and that Christian faith was declining to the exte ...
".
Schonfield followed ''The Passover Plot'' with a sequel in 1968, ''Those Incredible Christians''. 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
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
writing system. In ''The New Hebrew Typography'', published in 1932, he argued for a significantly revised version of the
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewi ...
modelled after the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
, including a capital-lowercase distinction, no final forms, a vertical emphasis, and serifs. This alphabet has not been adopted.
Selected bibliography
* An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel, Translated ''(translator, with notes and appendices, 1927)''
* The Lost 'Book of the Nativity of John' ''(1929)''
* Letters to Frederick Tennyson ''(editor, 1930)''
* The New Hebrew Typography ''(1932)''
* An Astounding Scientific Discovery: The Authentic Photograph of Christ: His Face, and Whole Figure as Marvellously Appearing on the Shroud Which Was Thrown over His Body after the Crucifixion ''(by Kazimir de Proszynski; edited with an historical supplement by Hugh J. Schonfield)''
* The Speech That Moved the World ''(1932)''
* For the Train: Five Poems and a Tale ''(by
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
; arranged poem order, wrote preface, 1932)''
* The Book of British Industries ''(editor, 1933)''
* Jesus Christ, Nineteen Centuries After: The Search Symposium by Leaders of the Great World Faiths ''(1933)''
The History of Jewish Christianity from the First to the Twentieth Century ''(1936)''
* Richard Burton, Explorer ''(1936)''
* Ferdinand De Lesseps ''(1937)''
* According to the Hebrews: a New Translation of the Jewish Life of Jesus (the Toldoth Jeshu), with an Inquiry into the Mature of its Sources and Special Relationship to the Lost Gospel according to the Hebrews ''(1937)''
* Travels and Researches in South Africa
* The Suez Canal ''(1939)''
* Jesus: A Biography ''(1939)''
* The Treaty of Versailles, The Essential Text and Amendments ''(1940)''
* Readings from the Apocryphal Gospels ''(editor, 1940)''
* The Divine Plan of World Government: An Introduction to the Doctrine of a Holy Nation ''(1940)''
* Italy and Suez ''(1941)''
* Judaism and World Order ''(1943)''
* This Man Was Right: Woodrow Wilson Speaks Again ''(editor, 1943)''
* The Jew of Tarsus: An Unorthodox Portrait of Paul ''(1947)''
* Saints Against Caesar: The Rise and Reactions of the First Christian Community ''(1948)''
* The Suez Canal in World Affairs ''(1952)''
* Egypt: Cross-Road on a World Highway ''(1953)''
* Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Studies Towards their Solution ''(1956)''
* The Bible Was Right: An Astonishing Examination of the New Testament ''(1956)''
* The Song of Songs ''(editor and translator, 1960)''
* A Popular Dictionary of Judaism ''(1962)''
* A History of Biblical Literature ''(1962)''
*
The Passover Plot
''The Passover Plot'' is a 1965 book by British biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield, who also published a translation of the New Testament from a Jewish perspective.The Original New Testament ''(originally published in 1958 as The Authentic New Testament, updated and re-published under this title in 1985)''
* The Essene Odyssey: The Mystery of the True Teacher and the Essene Impact on the Shaping of Human Destiny ''(1984)''
* After the Cross ''(1981)''
* Proclaiming the Messiah: The Life and Letters of Paul of Tarsus, Envoy to the Nations ''(1997)''
* The Mystery of the Messiah ''(1998)''
* Jesus: Man, Mystic, Messiah ''(2004)''
Articles
* ''Wells as religious humanist''Religious humanism: Volume 3 Fellowship of Religious Humanists – 1969 WELLS AS RELIGIOUS HUMANIST By Hugh J. Schonfield – Experiment in Autobiography, by HG Wells"
References
The Cramoisy Queen: A Life of
Caresse Crosby
Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the first recipient of a patent for the modern bra, an American patron of the arts, publisher, and the "literary godmother to the Lost Generation of expatriate writ ...
– 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
Sol Gareth "Garry" Davis (27 July 1921 – 24 July 2013) was an international peace activist best known for renouncing his American citizenship and interrupting the United Nations in 1948 to advocate for world government as a way to end nation ...
. 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''..."