Abram Borisovich Ranovich (real surname Rabinovich, , – 29 May 1948) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

scholar of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

and religion. Ranovich authored several publications on the history of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

. He was awarded the

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union. It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...

. Born in

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

, Ranovich received his doctoral degree in 1937. In 1937–41, he was the Professor of the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

. Ranovich's works ''Sources for the Study of the Social Roots of Christianity'' and ''Primary Sources for the History of Early Christianity'', both published in 1933, as well as ''The Ancient Criticism of Christianity: Fragments from Lucian, Celsus, Porphiry and Others'' (1935) provided Soviet historians of Christianity with the materials to go further. Ranovich also translated

Frontinus Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40 – 103 AD) was a Roman civil engineer, author, soldier and senator of the late 1st century AD. He was a successful general under Domitian, commanding forces in Roman Britain, and on the Rhine and Danube frontier ...

' '' Stratagems'' into Russian. His final work, ''On Early Christianity'' (published posthumously in 1959) was a major Soviet study of this topic. According to Ranovich, three factors contributed to the success of Christianity: the teaching about the incarnation of the Godhead in man, the social richness of

Christian eschatology Christian eschatology is a minor branch of study within Christian theology which deals with the doctrine of the "last things", especially the Second Coming of Christ, or Parousia. The word eschatology derives from two Greek roots meaning "last ...

and the international nature of its preaching. At the same time Ranovich supported the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the fringe view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. Alternatively, in terms given by ...

compatible with materialistic Marxist–Leninist approach of his times; in particular, he wrote: "It can be considered scientifically well established that Jesus Christ is a mythical creature. He was not the founder of the religion whose ignorant and gullible followers elevated him to the rank of God and endowed him with superhuman traits, as liberal theologians want to portray. On the contrary, Jesus is a deity, who was later endowed with human traits, with earthly 'biography'". Ranovich died in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

at the age of 62.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ranovich, Abram 1885 births 1948 deaths Historians of Christianity Historians of Jews and Judaism Writers from Zhytomyr Soviet historians Russian historians of religion