Select delivery location
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Revolution in Judaea Hardcover – January 1, 1980

4.7 out of 5 stars 23

A compelling, engrossing study of the historical Jesus views him as a leader of the Jewish resistance against the Roman Occupation who became transformed through the Gospels into a divine being

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Taplinger Pub Co; First Edition (January 1, 1980)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 080086784X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0800867843
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 23

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Hyam Maccoby
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
23 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2019
Love this book as description of first century Judaism and the Roman occupation. Plus a whole bunch of insight into what Jesus did, and may have done, in light of his Jewishness, which is often totally lost in modern Christianity. Highly recommend for anyone looking for basic information about first century situation in Palestine that led to Jesus' failed Messiahship. And by the way, it makes you respect Jesus a lot more for having the patriotism and love for his people to have tried to change their circumstances, but not through force necessarily.
3 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2019
A master historian looks at the Holy Land at the time of Jesus. Hate to live there at that time.
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2002
Maccoby expounds a theory of the life and work of Jesus using the "historical" approach, i.e. he assumes no genuine miracles, accounts for contemporaneous events and assumes defensive dissembling by New Testemant authors in deference to established authority. Maccoby himself is very defensive of Phariseeism, which he regards as the forebearer of modern Judaism, and he possibly strains too much to present every dispute between Jesus and Pharisees as a falsification. He also represents Roman influence in Judaea at the time as abjectly evil and therefore develops a pro-Jesus thesis proposing anti-Semitic misrepresentation of an anti-Roman, traditionally Jewish Messiah. In his haste to deconstruct an anti-Semitic, pro-Roman revision of Jesus, Maccoby seems sometimes even to overstate the Gospels' pro-Roman (or oblivious to Rome) position. "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" has always seemed to me precisely what the author proclaims it to be, without any revisionism at all. The statement in Mark clearly asks Temple priests to remove a picture of Caesar from the Temple and little more. The incident seems anti-Roman on its face and can only be construed otherwise by taking the oft-cited verse out of context from the Gospel itself. Regarding the Temple Cleansing, I see little reason to attribute a pro-Roman intention to the author of Mark at all, only a healthy respect for Roman authority and an apparent effort to disguise anti-Roman intentions with clever rhetoric. In some respects, the Synoptic Gospels seem to me less a pro-Roman whitewash than an effort by their authors to protect something of Maccoby's Jesus from hostile authorities. Regardless, though Maccoby's account could no more be the last word on Jesus than the Gospels themselves, the account often rings true to me. The book confirms with scholarly rigor impressions I've germinated for years through reading the Gospels and understanding the similar theories of Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Jefferson and others. The book held my attention very effectively, and I offer no higher praise.
14 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2006
Somehow,I stumbled onto this,years ago-and then went on to read several of Maccoby's other books.Maccoby makes a terrific case that Jesus was tried and executed for sedition against Rome-and if Hollywood is interested in making another 'Jesus' movie,this is the one.
10 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2023
What the heck is wrong with Amazon's pricing? This is a book people should read. It's magnificent, provocative, challenging, and well done. My paperback is falling apart, and I went looking to replace it, but holy cow. I ain't paying these prices, especially if it's the same "quality" of binding. Looking elsewhere.
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018
Hyam Maccoby was a brilliant scholar. I've read several of his other books but had not read this one until recently. In Revolution in Judaea, Maccoby analyses the Christian Gospels to unpack the true aims and motivations of the historical Jesus. As in his other books, Maccoby employs Tendenz theory to great effect. Tendenz theory was developed by the German theologian F.C. Baur in the early 19th century and posits that each of the Gospels was written with a tendenz. The German word sounds like 'tendency', but the meaning is not identical; the German word connotes almost a bias or purpose, rather than just a habit or predisposition, as in the English meaning. Maccoby's starting thesis is that anything in the Gospels that clearly runs counter to its tendenz must be closely examined and its implications unraveled, because the incident or topic must have been so well known at the time that any alteration or "editing" would discredit the author and the Gospel.

in Revolution in Judaea, Maccoby employs this technique to show that Jesus's mission was not to reveal himself as a man-god and preach about the kingdom of heavan, but rather was to reestablish the Davidic Kingdom on Earth and free the Jews from the vicious tyranny of the Romans.

If you are a Christian, this, and the rest of Maccoby's ouvre, will challenge your faith. If you are a Jew or other non-Christian, you will gain great insight into the historical Jesus's character and mission.

Some reviewers have complained that Maccoby has no proof for his conclusions, or that his work is all speculation. These are not fair assessments. His reasoning is deductive - if A, then B; if B, then C, etc. until he reaches his conclusions, which admittedly are startling and upsetting to many Christian readers. Even if you discount some of his conclusions, if you look at his work as a whole his conclusions are remarkably self-consistent and paint a very plausible - from the Jewish perspective - picture of Jesus and the birth of Christianity.

Revolution in Judea fits in neatly with the rest of Maccoby's books, which are all (or at least the several that I have read) interrelated. Revolution details Jesus's mission, and the political circumstances of Israel at the time. Jesus the Pharisee examines Jesus's teaching and concludes that he was not at all a rebel or revolutionary against Judaism but instead was an adherent of Judaism's mainline denomination, the Pharisees. The Sacred Executioner examines the ancient practice of literal human sacrifice and shows that Judaism developed as a rebellion to the awful practice, while Christianity embraced it as its mythological underpinning and forced the Jews to play the unwilling part of Jesus's sacred executioner. The Mythmaker examines the historical Paul and shows that he was not a Pharisee as he claimed, but instead was someone who grew up in the Hellenic tradition; and further, that his Christian teachings had almost nothing to do with Judaism, but instead are based on a fusion of Gosticism and the Mystery Cults of the near east. And finally, Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil examines the character of Judas and shows he was likely one of Jesus's brothers. It also shows that in the Christian tradition, Judas was the embodiment of the Jews and Jewish evil and explores the hellish consequences of the Judas tradition for the Jews, reaching the ultimate conclusion that the Holocaust was not an aberration but rather was the natural culmination of Christianity (or at least a certain strand of it) in the Age of Reason.

I would highly recommend Revolution to Jewish and other non-Christian readers. If you are a Christian whose faith is absolute and unshakable, you should probably skip this, since it will just make you irate. But if you are an intellectually adventurous Christian, I urge you - actually, I dare you - to read Revolution and Maccoby's other books mentioned above.
8 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

Gorgeous Gertie
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, insightful book, the result of superb scholarship.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2013
This book fills in so many gaps in general knowledge about the period during which Jesus was in Palestine. It corrects many false assumptions we may have made, from our familiarity with the New Testament but without access to other documents from that time period. I think it may be out of print, which is sad, as I'm sure many people would finding it fascinating and illuminating today. I feel very fortunate to have got hold of a copy through Amazon.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Victoria Reuben
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional service and wonderful book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2019
Exceptional service. I ordered 3 copies (2 for
Friends) and each copy was perfect. Better condition than the company gave them credit for. Would definitely recommend the book as the content is well written and very interesting concepts! Would most definitely use company again!
One person found this helpful
Report
John James Turner
4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and Humbling Experience for Christians
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2015
Hyam Maccoby writes engagingly and persuasively. He argues compellingly that (1) Jesus is an orthodox Jew with no intention of starting a new religion, who would be horrified to learn that he has been turned into a divinity and that (2) Christianity is anti-semitic from the outset and that (3) it is essentially a dualistic religion with a divide between the heavenly realm and this world, which is in the devil's control. The book includes many intriguing insights. For example Jesus and Barabbas are one and the same person. Barabbas is invented by Gentile Christianity as a mechanism for vilifying "the Jews" and for contrasting Jesus' otherworldly mission with the Jewish notion of a Messiah who comes to make this world a better place and to institute a reign of peace. I think Christians will benefit from reading this book. They should find it a humbling experience. All religions are man made, of course, and we have to take responsibility for our values and what we believe.The great thing about Hyam Maccoby is his passion for the subject. This leads him to lend more weight to evidence he likes and to dismiss arguments that go against his thesis. So, to a degree, a pinch of salt is required, but it is nonetheless a challenging and stimulating read. I would also recommend his book "The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity". I am about to read his "Jesus the Pharisee", where I am expecting some overlap with the book currently under review.
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2022
Eye opener for those interested in the culture Christ actually had to deal with.