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The Mythmaker Paul and the Invention of Christianity Maccoby Hyam 9780760707876 Books

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The Mythmaker Paul and the Invention of Christianity Maccoby Hyam 9780760707876 Books

I agree with the author's position: Jesus would not have recognized himself in Paul's teaching. The "Jesus" that Paul invented had very little do do with the historical Jesus.


Tags : The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity [Maccoby Hyam] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Maccoby's account of Paul is nothing short of a thorough shredding. If Paul was a trained Pharisee, why don't his arguments have the sound logical structure he should have learned in Pharisee School? Isn't there something a little funny about the way Paul whipped out Roman citizenship papers whenever he got into trouble? And just what _was_ the nature of the famous disagreement between Peter and Paul? Maccoby's Paul was,Maccoby Hyam,The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity,Barnes & Noble,0760707871

The Mythmaker Paul and the Invention of Christianity Maccoby Hyam 9780760707876 Books Reviews

Having a talmud scholar examining the new testament adds a much needed perspective to the historical Jesus debate. He examines rabbinical writings, talmud law and logic, heretical treasies etc. in his dissection of "Paul's NT". This volume turns over the stones that get in the way of studing the New Testament, then presents a plausible theory (story) that can explain them. As a child and young adult these very real "inconsistencies" or "contradictions", did get away in my religious education that a simple "faith" did not wave away. These include the additutes of the Pharisees toward Jesus and the Jesus movement, Paul's curious yet insistent claim to be a Pharisee, the mentioning of various Jewish sects (or religious leadership) vs. "the jews", the apparent acceptance of Torah law by the apostles who knew Jesus best vs. St. Paul, and many others. All these things were quite apparent to me even as a child and cause the NT stories to look absurd. One can see why the NT was largely kept to a priestly caste to interpret for a thousand years!

There are a few small drawbacks to his writing worth mentioning. His conclusions in his book occasionally get reinforced as "facts" which can be a bit annoying. His conclusions on Jesus are based on selective material from the NT in his attempt to separate J's more pharisaical views from the more hellenistic additions to the story. The book who primary readership will most likely be Jewish or Agnostic, really should be familar with the new testament to understand the bulk of his points. There are plenty of Jews and Christians who have never read Acts or the Letters to any degree that can allow them to truly access Maccoby challenges to the text. Otherwise this is an exceptional book worth reading.

Its a pity that ardent Christians will most likely not be open to these types of challenges to their own texts, when books like this are needed to keep our religious perspectives honest. Maccoby's observations on for example the corn plucking incident on the Sabbath or the Nazarene version of the Noahide laws are truly important insights worth revisiting in the NT.
I have talked about it on Facebook and gotten positive feedback.
A very thought provoking book
When Hyam Maccoby first published this book, Pauline scholars, whether they are religious, not religious, or even atheists agreed that this is one of the worst books on Paul ever written. Atheist scholars like Bart Ehrman, James Crossley, and Gerd Luddeman (to name a few) have about as much respect for this book as they do for tinfoil hat conspiracy theories. Even his fellow Jewish scholars like Mark Nanos thought this book was crank history.

I am writing this review not as a Christian, but as an Orthodox Jew with an interest in Pauline thought. There are plenty of well-researched books out there which challenge traditional Christian views of Jesus and Paul. This is not one of them. Maccoby takes his simplistic view of Second Temple Judaism (which is really just his understanding of Medieval Judaism which he projects onto antiquity) and forces it on the New Testament.

What's even worse is that he trusts Ebionite teachings on Paul as more historically accurate than Paul's own writings! Not only is this enormously ad hoc (there is no evidence Ebionism existed before the year 70 C.E., but the earliest records of these Ebionite teachings are very late. The earliest record we have of Ebionism is in a work by Irenaeus in C.E. 180. In order to get a full treatment of what Ebionites believed, you have to go to Epiphanius's Against Heresies published in C.E. 375. Maccoby also relies on the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions, which was Published in C.E. 350.

Maccoby's method of separating fact from fiction reminds me of typical Internet conspiracy theorists

Any evidence which contradicts his theory is dismissed as outright fabrication, no matter how early or multiply attested it is.
Any evidence which supports his theory is accepted as fact, no matter how late or sketchy it is.

Finally, Maccoby goes full retard on page 95, where he asserts that Paul is not only a Sadducee, but also a convert to Judaism with no Jewish lineage. The problem is that the Sadducees were not a political party based on ideology, but one based on identity. The whole point of being a Sadducee is to claim that you are a paternal descendant from the line of the high priest Zadok (the name Sadducee is based on the name of Zadok). A convert with no Jewish blood could no more be a Sadducee than he could be a Kohen or a Levi.

For a real Jewish look on Paul, I'd recommend Joseph Klausner's From Jesus to Paul. Klausner clearly did his homework for this book as he did for his previous work Jesus of Nazareth. The only downside is that it's a bit dated. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the publication of Paul and Palestinian Judaism by E.P. Sanders have convinced most scholars that Paul's "innovations" are not the result of Greco-Roman influences, but the result of Second Temple Jewish thought.
We are studying this along with Jesus Words Only. Complements his book, and Zealot by Aslan is good too.
Excellent book with details not often noted elsewhere demonstrating Paul was in all probability the founder of Christianity.
Excellent study into the Roman puppet Paul. I don't know if I agree with everything in the book, but it is quite interesting.
I agree with the author's position Jesus would not have recognized himself in Paul's teaching. The "Jesus" that Paul invented had very little do do with the historical Jesus.