Hugh J. Schonfield - Biography

Hugh Joseph Schonfield (London, 17 May 1901 - January 24, 1988) was a British Bible scholar specializing 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 postgraduate religious studies in Glasgow, Doctor of Sacred Literature. He was one of the founders of and was president of the pacifist organization Commonwealth of World Citizens "Mondcivitan Republic," and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his services toward international humanity.

Religious and political beliefs

Schonfield and Humanism

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

Schonfield, Hebrew Christians and Messianic Judaism

Schonfield was a Hebrew Christian. In 1937 Schonfield was a expelled from the Executive Committee of International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA), of which he had been a member since 1925, this organisation is now the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA). He later for a period associated with Messianic Judaism, though was bitterly disillusioned by the experience.

Works

Schonfield was one of the original Dead Sea Scrolls team.

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 whose thesis 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.

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 writing system. In The New Hebrew Typography, published in 1932, he argued for a revised version of the Hebrew alphabet modeled 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

• An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel, Translated (translator, with notes and appendices)
• Letters to Frederick Tennyson (editor)
• The New Hebrew Typography
• The Authentic Photograph of Christ (by Kazimir de Proszynski; editor and author of "historical supplement")
• For the Train: Five Poems and a Tale (by Lewis Carroll; arranged poem order, wrote preface)
• The Book of British Industries
• The History of Jewish Christianity from the First to the Twentieth Century(1936)
• Richard Burton, Explorer
• Ferdinand De Lesseps
• According to the Hebrews
• Travels in Tartary and Thibet
• Travels and Researches in South Africa
• The Suez Canal
• Jesus: A Biography
• The Treaty of Versailles
• Readings from the Apocryphal Gospels
• Judaism and World Order
• Italy and Suez
• This Man Was Right: Woodrow Wilson Speaks Again
• The Jew of Tarsus: An Unorthodox Portrait of Paul
• Saints Against Caesar: The Rise and Reactions of the First Christian Community
• Lost Book of Nativity of John
• The Suez Canal in World Affairs
• Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Studies Towards their Solution
• The Song of Songs
• The Bible Was Right: An Astonishing Examination of the New Testament
• A Popular Dictionary of Judaism
• A History of Biblical Literature
• The Passover Plot: New Light on the History of Jesus
• Reader's A-to-Z Bible Companion
• Those Incredible Christians
• Suez Canal in Peace and War
• Politics of God
• The Jesus Party
• For Christ's Sake
• The Shroud of Turin
• 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
• After the Cross
• Proclaiming the Messiah
• The Mystery of the Messiah
• Jesus: Man and Messiah

Articles

• Wells as religious humanist

External links

• The Hugh & Helene Schonfield World Service Trust
• The International Leadership and Business Society (A business society based on the ideas of Hugh Schonfield)
• The Schonfieldian Script Page
• Debate between Hugh Schonfield and Baptist minister Walter Martin - MP3 file
• Harvey 'Passing over the Plot: The Life and Work of Hugh Schonfield' (in Mishkan ISSUE NO 37 Fall 2002, Caspari Centre, Jerusalem)