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Review title: Stimulating, well-argued and iconoclastic
Product review: Maccoby goes with relish after inconsistencies in NT writing and makes a well-argued case that Paul was not a Pharisee and basically founded Christianity as a new religion of his own design, incorporating elements of gnosticism, mystery religions and Judaism. The other, corresponding hypothesis (viz. that Jesus was, indeed, a Pharisee) is less well developed in this volume, but a previous book has taken care of it.This book is written for a lay audience, but even non-theologians would at times prefer a little more in-depth source material. Maccoby's style is a bit shoddy: It is surprising how many awkward sentence structures and poorly chosen words have crept into this book. For this reader, that weakness detracted somewhat from the pleasure of reading an otherwise absolutely captivating narrative, and raised the question: Where was the publisher's copy editor?
