Morton Smith

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Morton Smith

Morton Smith (born May 28, 1915 in Philadelphia , † July 11, 1991 in New York City ) was an American historian , theologian and university professor . He taught u. a. at Columbia University Ancient History . He was best known for discovering the controversial Secret Gospel of Mark .

Life

Smith earned bachelor degrees at Harvard College and the Harvard University , a doctorate then in history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and in theology at Harvard Divinity School . He then taught at Brown University and Drew University and moved to Columbia University in 1957 . In 1958, during a sabbatical in the Mar Saba monastery near Bethlehem, he discovered a fragment of the controversial Secret Gospel of Mark and published a paper on magical elements of early Christianity in 1960 . He dated the establishment of strict monotheism in Judaism at a relatively late date. He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1973. After his retirement as a professor in 1985, he held lectures in theology until 1990.

Smith died of heart failure in Manhattan and left no immediate relatives.

Publications (selection)

  • Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels (1951)
  • The Ancient Greeks (1960)
  • Heroes and Gods: Spiritual Biographies in Antiquity (with Moses Hadas ) (1965)
  • Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament (1971)
  • Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (1973)
  • The Secret Gospel (1973)
  • The Ancient History of Western Civilization (together with Elias Bickermann ) (1976)
  • Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978)
  • Hope and History (1980)
  • Studies in the Cult of Yahweh. Vol. 1. Historical Method, Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism. Vol. 2. New Testament, Early Christianity, and Magic (edited by Shaye JD Cohen) (1996)
  • What the Bible Really Says (edited with R. Joseph Hoffmann ) (1992).

In addition, numerous articles in magazines and other publications.

Awards

  • Lionel Trilling Book Award (for Jesus the Magician )
  • Ralph Marcus Centennial Award of the Society of Biblical Literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Neusner, Jacob, Christianity, Judaism, and other Greco-Roman Cults. Part 1: New Testament , ed. J. Neusner, Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, vol 1, New Testament (Leiden: EJ Brill, 1975), pp. Ix.
  2. Calder III, William M. “Smith, Morton”, in Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists , Ward W. Briggs, Jr., (ed.) (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 600.