Ralph Marcus (August 17, 1900–December 25, 1956) was an American

classical philologist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

and historian of

Hellenistic Judaism Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism wer ...

and the Second Temple period. He is most known for his Loeb Classical Library translations of works of the Jewish authors

Josephus 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 ...

and

Philo of Alexandria Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's de ...

from

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

and Classical Armenian into English.

Biography

Ralph Marcus was born on August 17, 1900, in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. His father was Moses Marcus, a Talmudic scholar, and his mother was Selma Marcus, née Neufeld. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, his family moved to New York. Marcus studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and received his BA, Masters, and PhD there. He finished his doctorate in 1927, with his dissertation being "Law in the Apocrypha". In addition to his studies at Columbia, Marcus also worked and studied with

Harry Austryn Wolfson Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887 – September 19, 1974) was an American scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, and the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Center in the United States. He is known for his seminal work on ...

at Harvard from 1925–1927, one of the premier scholars of Hellenic Judaism and Philo of Alexandria of the era.MARCUS, Ralph
at Rutgers Library of Classical Scholars] After attaining his doctorate, he acquired a teaching position at

Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (also known as HUC, HUC-JIR, and The College-Institute) is a Jewish seminary with three locations in the United States and one location in Jerusalem. It is the oldest extant Jewish semi ...

, a seminary of

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous sear ...

in New York. He would teach there from 1927–1943, and acquired a professorship in philology in 1935. He also worked as a lecturer at Columbia, his alma mater. In 1943, he left New York for Chicago and joined the Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

as an associate professor of Hellenistic culture. He became a full professor there in 1950. In the academic year 1954/55, he served as a visiting professor at

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

in Frankfurt. Marcus died of a heart attack on December 25, 1956, in Chicago.

Work

Marcus's most notable achievements were landmark translations for the Loeb Classical Library of the works of

and

Flavius Josephus 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 ...

. The first five volumes of Josephus's ''

Jewish Antiquities ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ( la, Antiquitates Iudaicae; el, Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume Historiography, historiographical work, written in Greek language, Greek, by historian Josephus, F ...

'' had been translated for Loeb by Henry St. John Thackeray in the 1920s, but Thackeray died in 1930. Marcus was called upon to complete the sixth volume, as well as perform further Loeb translations of volumes 7–17. ( Allen Wikgren finished 16–17 that Marcus had started before his death, and

Louis H. Feldman Louis Harry Feldman (October 29, 1926 – March 25, 2017) was an American professor of classics and literature. He was the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University, the institution at which he taught s ...

would translate volumes 18–20 of the mammoth work.) For Philo, Marcus translated "Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus" despite much of the work only existing in an

Armenian language Armenian ( classical: , reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken th ...

translation; his attempts at reconstructing the original Greek from the Armenian were lauded. Toward the end of his life, Marcus contributed to academic study of the

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 ...

, a cache of scriptures of the

Essenes The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st ce ...

found in the late 1940s that greatly expanded knowledge of Hellenistic and Roman era Judaism. Marcus served as an associate editor of the

Journal of Biblical Literature The ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' (''JBL'') is one of three academic journals published by the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). First published in 1881, ''JBL'' is the flagship journal of the field. ''JBL'' is published quarterly and incl ...

and various other journals during his career.

References

1900 births 1956 deaths Historians of Jews and Judaism Columbia University alumni Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion faculty Classical scholars of the University of Chicago 20th-century American historians Classical philologists {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, Ralph