Boris Derevensky

By this time Publishing House “Amphora” became quite aware of  Derevensky’s attraction to Islam and his respect towards Muslim tradition. In 2009 this Publishing House published one more omnibus of documents: “Muslim Jesus. Gospel tradition in Islam”. In the atmosphere of strained relations between West and East civilizations, when in the minds of Western  Islam became a hostile, aggressive religion, Derevensky tried to show how indeed close Islam and Christianity are to each other (“Islam is as close to Christianity as no other religion”), how much the Muslims had embraced from Gospel legends and how much they were imbued with the doctrine of the Messiah-Christ.

During the interviews and discussions Derevensky claimed that this book should be a desk book for Biblical scholars and everyone who is interested in the History of Christianity. Indeed, the omnibus was accepted by a large readership with a great interest.  This book has been quoted from by historians specializing in Christianity, as well as by divines. However, the book has also provoked a protest of those, who were not happy with the fact that many apologetic statements were there along with the antichristian extracts from the Talmud sources, which happened to be the historical documents. The omnibus included three versions of translation of the Jewish anti-Gospel “Toledot Yeshu” – something that had never been published in Russia before (see also: Yeshu).  The 5th, extended and revised edition of the omnibus (2007) considers almost all critical comments and suggestions, which were found in the scientific literature.

“Doctrine of Antichrist in ancient times and Middle Ages” (2000) is another work by Derevensky, which also attracted attention of historians and divines. It seems natural that after writing about the figure of the Christ a theologian-writer turned to the figure of His hell-twin – the Antichrist. In 2007 the Saint-Petersburg Publishing House “Amphora” published the revised edition of this work – “The book of Antichrist”.

The same year he started working with Historical reliability of the Gospels and wrote a novella in two parts “Pilate” (1996)  and several short stories. However, what Boris considered to be the most important, was the publication of an omnibus of historical documents, dedicated to Jesus Christ. After laborious work of gathering and translating the materials (part of which had never been published before) omnibus “Jesus Christ in the Documents of History” came out in 1998 in Saint-Petersburg Publishing House “Aletheia”. Impartially, as a true researcher, Derevensky published it, providing detailed commentaries to various documents: evidences of Jewish, Greek and Roman writers of the 1st and 2nd centuries; extracts from the works of early Christian authors; stories from New Testament apocrypha; messages from Talmud and Midrash. A separate chapter was dedicated to Muslim literature, which narrated about Prophet ‘Isa Ibn Maryam. Also many fabrications on the subject of Gospel were included in this book.

His debut as a writer happened in 1991 in Shimkent, where his booklet “Afterworld: Legends. Evidence. Facts” came out. At the same time he became interested in the history of Ancient world. In 1996 “Lenizdat” published his novels “Herod and Cleopatra” and “Fatale Monstrum”, both dedicated to famous Egyptian empress Cleopatra VII. His historical essay “Women in the fate of Marc Anthony” was printed in the appendix of the novel.

In 1981–1986 studied at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University (Alma Ata); his major was history and soviet law. After graduating he worked as a staff correspondent in such newspapers as “Kentau’s truth”, “Shymkent Panorama” and as a news anchor at “Ikar” TV studio in Kentau. It was the time of his first literary experience as well.

Boris Derevensky (Russian: Бoри́с Дереве́нский ; born June 30, 1962) is a Russian  writer, best known for his publication of a popular omnibus “Jesus Christ in the Documents of History” (Russian: «Иисус Христос в документах истории»), which had several reissues (1st publication – 1998, 7th publication – 2013). Derevensky also has publications in different literary magazines and collective books.

Boris Derevensky was born on 30 June 1962, in a family of an electrical engineer in the Kentau (South of Kazakhstan}. He was the elder of two brothers. His father’s bloodline included Ural Cossacks.