Mikhail Moiseyevich Kublanov (; 3 May 1914 – October 1998) was a Soviet scholar and historian of religion. Kublanov published about 100 scholarly works on the

history of religion The history of religion is the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BCE). The Prehistoric religion, prehistory of reli ...

and archaeology. He was born in the city of Sebezh, then in the Russian Empire, he graduated from the history department of the

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public university, public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the uni ...

. After the discovery of

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

Kublanov became one of the Soviet scholars who acknowledge the

historicity of Jesus The historicity of Jesus is the scholarly question in Biblical criticism and early Christian history of whether Jesus historically existed or was a purely mythological figure. Scholarly discussions questioning the historical existence of Jesus ...

, unlike proponents of 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 ...

, like Sergey Kovalev. Kublanov also regarded the Testimonium Flavianum as authentic, writing that the passage, as attested to in Agapius' chronicle, "does not conflict with the political allegiance and religious affiliation of

Josephus Flavius Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, so there is no evidence whatsoever to consider it false". In 1994 Kublanov emigrated to the United States and lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. His works were also published in Hungary and Poland.

Major publications

*"Finds in the Judean Desert" («Находки в Иудейской пустыне», 1960) *"Jesus Christ – God, Man, Myth?" («Иисус Христос – Бог, человек, миф?», 1964) *"The New Testament. Searches and Finds" («Новый Завет. Поиски и находки», 1968) *"The Emergence of Christianity. Epoch. Ideas. Searches" («Возникновение христианства. Эпоха. Идеи. Искания», 1974)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kublanov, Mikhail 1914 births 1998 deaths People from Sebezh People from Sebezhsky Uyezd Soviet historians Russian historians of religion Saint Petersburg State University alumni Russian emigrants to the United States