Samuel George Frederick Brandon (1907 – 21 October 1971) was a British

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

comparative religion Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study of religion yie ...

. He became

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of comparative religion at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

in 1951.

Biography

Born in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

in 1907, Brandon was a graduate of the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. He was ordained as a priest in 1932 after Anglican training at

Mirfield Mirfield () is a town and civil parish in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield ...

, and then spent seven years as a

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

before enrolling as an

army chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term '' ch ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, after which he began a successful academic career in 1951 as an

historian of religion A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. Brandon's most influential work, ''Jesus and the Zealots,'' was published in 1967, wherein he advanced the claim that Jesus fitted well within the ideology of the anti-Roman Zealot group. He was elected general secretary of the International Association for the History of Religions in 1970. As he flew over the Mediterranean Sea on 21 October 1971, he died of an infection he had contracted while working in Egypt.

Ideas

His thinking on

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

themes grew out of ''The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church'' (1951). His most celebrated position is a controversial one that echoes the works of Hermann Reimarus, that the

historical Jesus The term "historical Jesus" refers to the reconstruction of the life and teachings of Jesus by critical historical methods, in contrast to religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural contexts in which Jesus lived. ...

was a political revolutionary figure, influenced in that by the

Zealots The Zealots were a political movement in 1st-century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jew ...

; this he argued in the 1967 book ''Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political Factor in Primitive Christianity''. ''The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth'' (1968) raises again, amongst other matters, the question of how the Fall of the Temple in 70 CE shaped the emerging Christian faith, and in particular the '' Gospel of Mark''. He was a critic of the myth-ritual theory, writing a 1958 essay "The Myth and Ritual Position Critically Examined" attacking its assumptions. Brandon also claimed that the Pauline epistles and the accounts of Jesus Christ found in the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

s represented two opposing factions of Christianity, a view first proposed by 19th century

Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

theologian

Ferdinand Christian Baur Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...

Selected works

*''The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church'' (1951) *''Time and Mankind: An Historical and Philosophical Study of Mankind's Attitude to the Phenomena of Change'' (1954) *''Man and His Destiny in the Great Religions: An Historical and Comparative Study'' (1962) *''Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East'' (1963) *''History, Time, and Deity'' (1965) *''The Judgment of the Dead: The Idea of Life After Death in the Major Religions'' (1967) *''Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political Factor in Primitive Christianity'' (1967) *''The Trial of Jesus of Nazareth'' (1968) *''Religion in Ancient History: Studies in Ideas, Men, and Events'' (1969) *''Ancient Empires'' (1970)

As editor

*''The Saviour God: Comparative Studies in the Concept of Salvation'' (1963) *''A Dictionary of Comparative Religion'' (1970)

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * *