Ralph Marcus

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Ralph Marcus (born August 17, 1900 in San Francisco , † December 25, 1956 in Chicago ) was an American ancient historian , religious and cultural scholar for Hellenistic Judaism .

Live and act

Marcus was born in 1900 to Moses Marcus, a Talmudic scholar, and Selma Marcus, b. Neufeld, born in San Francisco. After the devastating earthquake of 1906 , his family moved to New York . There Marcus studied at Columbia University and received his PhD in 1927 . The title of his dissertation is "Law in the Apocrypha" (Columbia 1927). From 1925 to 1927 he also worked at Harvard a . a. studied with Harry A. Wolfson , who increased his interest in Hellenistic Judaism. He taught from 1927 to 1943 at the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where he was appointed Professor of Semitic Philology in 1935 . At the same time he worked from 1928 as a lecturer at Columbia University. In 1943 he moved to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago as Associate Professor of Hellenistic Culture , where he was appointed full professor in 1950. In the academic year 1954/55 he was a visiting professor ( visiting professor ) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

His scientific achievements include a. Translations of the works of Philon of Alexandria ( Quaestiones et Solutiones in Genesim & in Exodum from Armenian ) and Flavius ​​Josephus ( Antiquitates Judaicae ). In addition, he continued the Josephus Lexicon begun by Henry St. John Thackeray . Marcus was co-editor of major journals such as the Journal of Biblical Literature and a member of learned societies. In his final years of academic work, he made important contributions to the interpretation of the meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls and to the analysis of their relationship to the Essenes and the Gnostics .

Ralph Marcus died of a heart attack on Christmas Day 1956 .

Works (in selection)

  • Law in the Apocrypha (= Columbia University Oriental Studies 26, ZDB -ID 762284-3 ). Columbia University Press, New York NY 1927 (Also: Columbia, Univ., Diss.), (Reprinted. AMS Press, New York NY 1966).

literature

Web links

  • Entry on Ralph Marcus in the Database of Classical Scholars, written by Louis H. Feldman (English)
  • Photography by Ralph Marcus [2]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Louis H. Feldman: Marcus, Ralph. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. 2020 ( [1] on dbcs.rutgers.edu)
  2. ^ GE von Grunebaum: Ralph Marcus (1900-1956). Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, Ralph Marcus Memorial Issue (Jul., 1957), pp. 143-144
personal data
SURNAME Marcus, Ralph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American expert on Hellenistic Judaism
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1956
Place of death Chicago