Mikhail Moiseyevich Kublanov (russian: Михаил Моисеевич Кубланов; 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 refers to 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 BC). The prehistory of religion involves th ...

and archaeology. He was born in the city of

Sebezh Sebezh (russian: Се́беж) is a town and the administrative center of Sebezhsky District in Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in a picturesque setting between Lakes Sebezhskoye and Orono south of Pskov, the administrative center of the oblast ...

, then in the Russian Empire, he graduated from the history department of the

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. After the discovery of

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

Kublanov became one of the Soviet scholars who acknowledge the

historicity of Jesus The question of the historicity of Jesus is part of the study of the historical Jesus as undertaken in the quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus. Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Je ...

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

, like

Sergey Kovalev Sergey Alexandrovich Kovalev (russian: Сергей Александрович Ковалёв (Ko-va-LYOV); born 2 April 1983) is a Russian professional boxer. He has held multiple light-heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Undi ...

. Kublanov also regarded the

Testimonium Flavianum The extant manuscripts of the book ''Antiquities of the Jews'', written by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus around AD 93–94, contain two references to Jesus of Nazareth and one reference to John the Baptist. The first a ...

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 (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

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

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. 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