Hyam Maccoby (1924-2004) was a British scholar, dramatist, and Orthodox Jew specializing in the study of the Jewish and Christian religious tradition. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch...

In retirement he moved to Leeds, where he held an academic position at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds^[1]. Maccoby was known for his theories of the historical Jesus and the historical origins of Christianity Leeds is a major city in West Yorkshire, England. ... The University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university, one of the largest in the United Kingdom with over 32,000 full-time students. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch...

Maccoby also wrote extensively on the phenomenon of ancient and modern Anti-Semitism. He considered the Gospel traditions blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus and especially the legend of Judas Iscariot (which he believed to be a product of the Gentile Pauline Church) as the roots of Christian antisemitism. Other topics of Maccoby's scholarship include the Talmudic tradition and the history of the Jewish religion. The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... For the American black metal band, see Judas Iscariot (band). ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a. ...

Maccoby's Theories of the Historical Jesus

Maccoby considered the portrayal of Jesus given in the canonical Gospels and the history of the early Church from the Book of Acts to be heavily distorted and full of later mythical traditions, but claimed that a fairly accurate historical account of the life of Jesus could be reconstructed from them nevertheless. For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ...

Maccoby argued that the real Jesus was not a rebel against the Jewish law, but instead a Jewish Messianic claimant whose life and teaching were within the mainstream of first-century Judaism. He believed that Jesus was executed as a rebel against the Roman occupation of Judaea. However, he did not claim that Jesus was the leader of an actual armed rebellion. Rather, Jesus and his followers, inspired by the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament prophetic writings, were expecting a supernatural divine intervention that would end the Roman rule, restore the Davidic Kingdom with Jesus as the divinely anointed monarch, and inaugurate the Messianic age of peace and prosperity for the whole world. These expectations were not fulfilled and Jesus was arrested and executed by the Romans. Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ Standard Hebrew Arabic: , المسيح), Tiberian Hebrew , Aramaic ) initially meant any person who was anointed to a certain position among the ancient Israelites, at first that of High priest, later that of King and also that of a prophet. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... Desert hills in southern Judea, looking east from the town of Arad Judea or Judaea (יהודה Praise, Standard Hebrew Yəhuda, Tiberian Hebrew Yəhûḏāh) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of historic Palestine, an area now divided... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ... In religion, a prophet (or prophetess) is a person who has directly encountered the numinous or the divine and serves as an intermediary with humanity. ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Davidic line, or Davidic Kingdom, known in Hebrew as Malchut Beit David (Monarchy [of the] House of David) refers to the tracing of royal lineage by kings and major leaders in Jewish history to King David in Judaism. ...

However, many of the disciples of Jesus did not lose their hopes, believing that Jesus would soon be miraculously resurrected by God, and continued to live in expectation of his second coming. Their fellowship continued to exist in Jerusalem, as a strictly orthodox Jewish sect under the leadership of James the Just. According to Maccoby, the founding of Christianity as a religion separate from Judaism was entirely the work of Paul of Tarsus. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ... Saint James the Just (יעקב Holder of the heel; supplanter; Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ, Greek Iάκωβος), also called James Adelphotheos, James, 1st Bishop of Jerusalem, or James, the Brother of the Lord[1] and sometimes identified with James the Less, (died AD 62) was an important figure... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... Paul of Tarsus (b. ...

Maccoby claimed that Paul was a Hellenized Jewish convert or perhaps even a Gentile, coming from a background exposed to the influence of Gnosticism and the pagan mystery religions such as the Attis cult, a myth involving a life-death-rebirth deity. The mystery religions, according to Maccoby, were the dominant religious forms in the Hellenistic world of that age and so, would have strongly influenced Paul's mythological psychology. Maccoby partially derived this theory from fragments of the writings of opponents of Ebionites, particularly in the treatise on Heresies by Epiphanius of Salamis. Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something non-Greek becomes Greek (Hellenistic civilization). ... The word gentile is an anglicised version of the Latin word gentilis, meaning of or belonging to a clan or tribe. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. ... Attis wearing the Phrygian cap. ... The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a dying-and-rising god is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities in world mythology who are born, suffer death or an eclipse or other death-like experience, pass a phase in the underworld among the dead, and are... A mystery religion is any religion with an arcanum, or body of secret wisdom. ... The Ebionites (from Hebrew; אביונים, Ebyonim, the poor ones) were an early sect of mostly Jewish followers of Jesus, which flourished in the early centuries of the Common Era, one of several ancient Jewish Christian groups that co-existed from the 1st to the 5th century CE in and around the... Epiphanius (ca 310–20 – 403) was a Church Father, a heresiologist who was a strong defender of orthodoxy, known for tracking down deviant teachings (heresies) wherever they could be traced, during the troubled era in the Christian Church following the Council of Nicaea. ...

Maccoby considered Paul's claims to an orthodox Pharisaic Jewish education to be false, asserting that while many of Paul's writings sound authentic to the uninitiated, they actually betray an ignorance of the original Hebrew scripture and the subtleties of Jewish Law^[2]. Maccoby claimed that an examination of the New Testament indicates that Paul knew no Hebrew at all, and relied entirely on Greek texts that no actual Pharisee would ever use because they were not properly translated. Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ...

According to Maccoby, Paul fused the historical story of Jesus' crucifixion with elements of contemporary mystery religions and Gnosticism, developing such new non-Judaic mythic ideas as the Trinity and the Last Supper. Paul also made an attempt to find prophetic justification for his newly created myth in the Old Testament. Paul came to present Jesus as a dying and rising savior deity similar to those from the Hellenistic mystery cults, fused with the historical pedigree of Judaism, thus giving birth to a powerful new myth whose preaching gained him a large following. As the Jerusalem group of the original disciples of Jesus gradually became aware of Paul's teachings, bitter hostility ensued between them. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      In Christianity, the doctrine... The Last Supper in Milan (1498), by Leonardo da Vinci According to the Gospels, the Last Supper (also called Lords Supper) was the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles before his death. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh. ...

Maccoby interpreted certain New Testament passages (for example Paul's account of his quarrel with Peter in the Epistle to Galatians) as remnants of authentic accounts of this hostility. However, the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70 CE soon brought a violent end to the Jerusalem sect, and the Gentile Church founded by Paul emerged as the winner by default. Maccoby viewed the Book of Acts as a later attempt by the Pauline Church to present the relations between Paul and the Jerusalem disciples as harmonious, thus presenting the Pauline Church as legitimized by the chain of apostolic succession reaching back to the original disciples of Jesus. Maccoby also conjectured that the Jewish-Christian sect of Ebionites may have been an authentic offshoot of the original Jerusalem community. John 21:1 Jesus Appears to His Disciples--Alessandro Mantovani: the Vatican, Rome. ... Saint Peter, also known as Shimon Keipha Ben-Yonah/Bar-Yonah, Simon Peter, Cephas and Keipha — original name Shimon or Simeon (Acts 15:14) — was one of the Twelve Apostles whom Jesus chose as his original disciples. ... The Epistle to Galatians is a book of the New Testament. ... The Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), sometimes called The first Jewish-Roman War, was the first of two major rebellions by the Jews of Judea against the Roman Empire (the second was Bar Kokhbas revolt in 132-135). ... The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. ... In Christianity, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession (or the belief that the Church is apostolic) maintains that the Christian Church today is the spiritual successor to the original body of believers in Christ composed of the Apostles. ... The Ebionites (from Hebrew; אביונים, Ebyonim, the poor ones) were an early sect of mostly Jewish followers of Jesus, which flourished in the early centuries of the Common Era, one of several ancient Jewish Christian groups that co-existed from the 1st to the 5th century CE in and around the...

Maccoby focused his work on tracing the roots of anti-Semitism back to an early-Christian origin, and on disassociating Christianity from a truly Jewish background. Maccoby placed the blame for the death of Jesus on the Roman authorities and their Jewish collaborators from the Sadducee party, who controlled the Temple, its funds, and its police. He considered the Gospel accounts of the hostility between Jesus and the Pharisees as an invention of the Pauline Church, and argued that Jesus himself subscribed to Pharisaic Judaism as revealed in such texts as the Sermon on the Mount.^[3] The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... The sect of the Sadducees (or Zadokites and other variants) - which may have originated as a political party - was founded in the 2nd century BC and ceased to exist sometime after the 1st century AD. Their rivals, the Pharisees, are said to have originated in the same time period, but... The word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew פרושים prushim from פרוש parush, meaning a detached one, that is, one who is separated for a life of purity. ...

The Disputation

Maccoby's play, The Disputation is a critically acclaimed^{[citation needed]} reenactment of the dramatic confrontation between the Spanish Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, better known as Nachmanides (1194-1270), and the Spanish apostate Pablo Christiani before King Jaime I of Aragon in 1263. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Friar Paul Christian (Pablo Christiani) was born to a pious Jewish family wih the name Saul. ... James I of Aragon. ...

Much of the play is drawn from Nachmanides's account of the disputation, and much is inferred from the king's affection for the rabbi and considerable generosity to him following Christiani's formal victory^{[citation needed]}. The play centers about King Jaime, who is portrayed as a complex, troubled soul who comes to accept the rabbi's ideas. The play has been widely performed and was dramatized by Channel 4^{[citation needed]}. Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ...

See also

• Barabbas
• Gnosticism and the New Testament
• Jesus as myth

Give us Barabbas!, from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910 In the Christian narrative of the Passion of Jesus, Barabbas, according to some texts Jesus bar-Abbas, (Aramaic Bar-abbâ, son of the father), was the insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover... This article discusses the relationship between Gnosticism and the New Testament. ... Jesus as myth refers to the idea that the narrative of Jesus in the gospels is not about a real person, but a construct of Christian mythology, which parallels mystery religions of the Roman Empire such as Mithraism and the myths of rebirth deities. ...

Books

• The Day God Laughed: Sayings, Fables and Entertainments of the Jewish Sages (with Wolf Mankowitz, 1973)
• Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance (1973)
• Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages (1981)
• The Sacred Executioner: Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt (1983)
• The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity (1986)
• Judaism in the First Century (1989)
• Paul and Hellenism (1991)
• Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil (1992)
• A Pariah People: Anthropology of Anti-Semitism (1996)
• Ritual and Morality (1999)
• The Philosophy of the Talmud (2002)
• Jesus the Pharisee (2003)
• Anti-Semitism and Modernity (2004)

Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

1. ^ http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,11617,1273283,00.html Hyam Maccoby obituary
2. ^ http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/maccoby3.htm
3. ^ [1]

External links

• Hyam Maccoby at Peter Kirby's page "Theories of the Historical Jesus" - contains links to Maccoby's books on Amazon
• A long excerpt from Revolution in Judaea
• A long excerpt from The Mythmaker
• Another excerpt from The Mythmaker