Abram Borisovich Ranovich (real surname Rabinovich, russian: Абрам Борисович Ранович, – 29 May 1948) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

scholar of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

and religion. Ranovich authored several publications on the history of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

and

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

. He was awarded the

Order of the Badge of Honour The Order of the Badge of Honour (russian: орден «Знак Почёта», orden "Znak Pochyota") 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 ...

. Born in

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, a ...

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

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. 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 prominent 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 ...

' '' 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, a major branch of study within Christian theology, deals with "last things". Such eschatology – the word derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" () and "study" (-) – involves the study of "end things", whether of ...

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 view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology", possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact". Alternatively ...

compatible with

materialistic Materialism is the view that the universe consists only of organized matter and energy. Materialism or materialist may also refer to: * Economic materialism, the desire to accumulate material goods * Christian materialism, the combination of Chris ...

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

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 ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

at the age of 62.

References

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