''James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls'' is a 1997 book by American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

Biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...

Robert Eisenman. He is most famous for his controversial work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the origins of Christianity.

Content

Eisenman attempts to reconstruct the events surrounding the origins of Christianity, preceding the recorded history of early Christianity. He critically reviews the narrative of the canonical gospels drawing on the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, the

Apostolic Constitutions The ''Apostolic Constitutions'' or ''Constitutions of the Holy Apostles'' (Latin: ''Constitutiones Apostolorum'') is a Christian collection divided into eight books which is classified among the Church Orders, a genre of early Christian litera ...

, Eusebius, the two James Apocalypses from Nag Hammadi, the Western Text of Acts and the

Slavonic Josephus The Slavonic Josephus is an Old East Slavic translation of Flavius Josephus' ''History of the Jewish War'' which contains numerous interpolations and omissions that set it apart from all other known versions of Josephus' ''History''. The authentic ...

. The central claim is that Jewish Christianity emerged from the

Zadokites The Sons of Zadok ( he, בְּנֵי צָדוֹק ''bǝnê Ṣādōq'') are a family of priests, kohens, descended from Zadok, the first high priest in Solomon's Temple. The sons of Zadok are mentioned three times in the Hebrew Bible, as part of t ...

, a messianic, priestly, ultra-fundamentalist sect, making them indivisible from the milieu of contemporary movements like the Essenes, Zealots, Nazoreans, Nazirites, Ebionites, Elchasites, Mandaeans, etc. In this scenario, the figure of Jesus at first did not have the central importance that it later acquired. The canonical Twelve Apostles were no more than an artificially expanded replacement for the smaller circle of brothers of Jesus. After his crucifixion one of his brothers, James the Just took his place as the leader of this party, besides other factions loyal to Jesus (Ebionites) and to John the Baptist (Mandaeans). The central triad of the early Early centers of Christianity#Jerusalem, Jerusalem Church will be composed by James, Saint Peter, Peter, and John the Apostle. According to Eisenman, James was an important religious figure in his own right. Chronologically, the book moves the events reflected in the gospels closer to the First Jewish-Roman War than usual, identifying a Herodians, Herodian named Saulus, active during the Siege of Jerusalem (70), siege of Jerusalem, with Paul the Apostle (Saul), and considers the identification of Saint Peter, Simon Peter, with Simeon bar-Cleophas. Eisenman continues this discussion in his 2006 book ''The New Testament Code''.

Criticism

Eisenman's book has been met with strong criticism from the academic community, which has consistently rejected his theories. John Painter (theologian), John Painter, in an 11-page ''excursus'' of his book ''Just James'' (1997), has consistently refuted Eisenman's thesis. Painter accepts that James was the leader of the Jerusalem church, but concludes there is "no evidence of a direct relationship between James and the Qumran Righteous Teacher". Another criticism of Eisenman's thesis that James is the Righteous Teacher of Qumran has been made by Philip R. Davies (1999). Geza Vermes, Géza Vermes also criticised the thesis within the context of reviewing the book Eisenman co-authored with Michael Wise ''The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered'', published in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (1992). New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has described Eisenman's thesis as "speculative, fanciful and largely discredited".

Editions

Notes

References

* John Painter, ''Just James: The Brother of Jesus in History and Tradition'' (1999), . * Sheila E. McGinn, review of Painter (1999), Journal of Early Christian Studies 9.2 (2001) 290–291.

External links