S. G. F. Brandon

Samuel George Frederick Brandon (1907-1971) was a British scholar of comparative religion. He became professor of comparative religion in the University of Manchester in 1951.

Theses

His thinking on New Testament themes grew out of "The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church" (1951). His most celebrated position is the controversial one, that a political Jesus was a revolutionary figure, influenced in that by the Zealots; this he argued in the 1967 book "Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the Political Factor in Primitive Christianity". [Time magazine, 3 January 1969 [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900520,00.html] : "Brandon pictures Jesus as a politically aware activist vigorously working against the Palestinian "Establishment"—the Roman occupying forces and Jerusalem's collaborationist Jewish aristocracy."] It has generated much in the way of opposing views. [For example [http://www.wheaton.edu/DistanceLearning/Fall.htm] , dealing with Brandon's views in bulk, and attacking his handling of sources.] "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. [In "Myth, Ritual and Kingship" edited by S. H. Hooke. Reprinted in "The Myth and Ritual Theory" (1998) edited by Robert A. Segal. Segal refers to the Sharpe-Hinnells volume for biography.]

Life

He was a graduate of the University of Leeds. He was ordained in 1932 after Anglican training at Mirfield. He spent seven years as a parish priest, and then enrolled as an army chaplain in World War II, before beginning an academic career in 1951.

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)
*The Saviour God: Comparative Studies in the Concept of Salvation (1963) editor, contains Brandon’s The Ritual Technique of Salvation in the Ancient Near East
*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)
*A Dictionary of Comparative Religion.(1970) editor
*Ancient Empires (1970)

References

*"Man and His Salvation: Studies in Memory of S. G. F. Brandon" (1973) edited by Eric J. Sharpe and John R. Hinnells

Notes

ee also

Scholars who have advanced related ideas:
* Haim Cohn
* Robert Eisler
* Robert Eisenman
* Richard Horsley
* Hyam Maccoby
* Hugh J. Schonfield

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870122,00.html "Time" magazine biography, 7 September 1962]