[suijurisfreeman]

Back in 1987 I read Myam Maccoby's bookThe Myth-Maker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity. I found it to be an interesting read along with another of his books Revolution in Judea.

Here are some of the questions put forth by the author:

[1] Who and what were the Pharisees?

[2] What were their religious and political views as opposed to thoe of the Sadducees and other religious and political groups of the time?

[3] What was their attitude to Jesus?

[4] What was their attitude towards the early Jerusalem Church?

[5] Who and what was Jesus?

[6] Did he really see himself as a saviour who had descended from heaven in order to suffer crucifixion?

[7] Or did he have entirely different aims, more in accordance with the Jewish thoughts and hopes of his time?

[8] Was the historical Jesus quite a different person from the Jesus of Paul's ideology, based on Paul's visions and trances?

[9] Who and what were the early Church of Jerusalem, the first followers of Jesus?

[10] Have their views been correctly represented by the later Church?

[11] Did James and Peter, the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, agree with Paul's views (as orthodox Christianity claims) or did they oppose him bitterly, regarding him as a heretic and a betrayer of the aims of Jesus?

[12] Who and what were the Ebionites, whose opinions and writings were suppressed by the orthodox Church?

[13] Why did they denounce Paul?

[14] Why did they combine belief in Jesus with the practice of Judaism?

[15] Why did they believe in Jesus as Messiah, but not as God?

[16] Were they a later 'Judaizing' group, or were they, as they claimed to be, the remnants of the authentic followers of Jesus, the church of James and Peter?

If you're interested in discussing this book and/or the author's questions pick a number and start posting.

Later I'll post 6 short summaries of the propositions that Maccoby argues in his book.