Hyam Maccoby (Hebrew: חיים מכובי, 1924–2004) was a Jewish-British scholar and dramatist specialising in the study of the Jewish and Christian religious traditions.
[4][5] Maccoby claimed that Paul was a Hellenized Jewish convert or perhaps even a Gentile, from a background in which he had been 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 strongly influenced Paul's mythological psychology.
According to Maccoby, Paul fused the historical story of Jesus' crucifixion with elements of contemporary mystery religions and Gnosticism and developed such new non-Judaic mythic ideas as the Trinity and the Last Supper.
Paul came to present Jesus as a dying and rising saviour deity similar to those from the Hellenistic mystery cults, fused with the historical pedigree of Judaism, and thus gave birth to a powerful new myth whose preaching gained him a large following.
However, the Jewish Rebellion of 66–70 soon brought a violent end to the Jerusalem sect, and the Gentile Church that was founded by Paul emerged as the winner by default.
[10] The continuity with Graetz is also noted by Langton (2009), who contrasts Maccoby's approach with adherents of a "building bridges" view, such as Isaac Mayer Wise, Joseph Krauskopf, and Claude Montefiore, even if they shared some details of the polemic critique of Paul.
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 after Christiani's formal victory.