Raymond Joseph Hoffmann (born December 16, 1957) is a historian whose work has focused on the early social and intellectual development of Christianity.

[1] His work includes an extensive study of the role and dating of Marcion in the history of the New Testament, as well the reconstruction and translation of the writings of early pagan opponents of Christianity: Celsus, Porphyry and Julian the Apostate.

[2] Hoffmann holds graduate degrees in theology from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD in Christian Origins from the University of Oxford.

He began his teaching career at the University of Michigan as assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies, where he developed the undergraduate and graduate program in Christian origins.

Hoffmann has also served as special lecturer in Liberal Arts at the New England Conservatory in Boston[3][4] As a fellow at the Center for Inquiry, he was chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion from 2003 to 2009, and a founding faculty member (1986) of the Humanist Institute.

With Yasir Fazaa, he founded the Westminster School in Port Sudan while serving as deputy general manager for academic affairs (2013; 2016) of Cambridge International.

Writing in Revue Biblique, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor called attention to the radical nature of Hoffmann's theory while asserting that it was "unlikely that a book of equal importance will appear in this generation.

"[7] J. L. Houlden commended Hoffmann's skill in "reading between the lines" of Marcion's ancient critics and called the book "a model of how doctrinal history should now be written",[8] while George E. Saint-Laurent concluded, "[H]ereafter Marcion's positive contribution to the mainstream tradition of Catholic-Orthodox Christianity so far as the decisive role of Paul is concerned will have to be acknowledged.

[10][11] The book received a very negative assessment from C. P. Bammel, who accused the author of numerous historical errors and misinterpretations of patristic texts.

In 2007 Hoffmann, together with New Testament scholars Robert Price and Gerd Lüdemann, announced the formation of a colloquium to re-examine the traditions for the existence of a historical Jesus.

The Project, according to Hoffmann, was designed to determine "what can be reliably recovered about the historical figure of Jesus, his life, his teachings, and his activities, utilizing the highest standards of scientific and scholarly objectivity".