Hyam Maccoby (, 1924–2004) was a Jewish-British scholar and dramatist specialising in the study of the Jewish and Christian religious traditions. He was known for his theories of the historical Jesus and the origins of Christianity. Life Maccoby was a Domus Exhibitioner in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford University. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Signals. Maccoby was librarian of Leo Baeck College in London. In retirement he moved to Leeds, where he held an academic position at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds. 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. 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 Tanakh or Old Testament prophetic writings, were expecting a supernatural divine intervention that would end 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. According to Maccoby, Barabbas, from the Aramaic Bar Abba, "Son of the Father", originally referred to Jesus himself, who was called thus from his custom of addressing the Father as Abba, "Father", in his prayers, or else as a form of the rabbinic honorific Berab. 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. In 2012, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote Kosher Jesus, in which he drew on past work by Maccoby. Maccoby's theories on Paul According to Maccoby, the founding of Christianity as a religion separate