James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I: The Historical James, Paul the Enemy, and Jesus' Brothers as Apostles

In this new series of books: James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I, renowned biblical scholar Robert Eisenman revisits the subject of James the brother of Jesus connecting him even more effectively, not only to the Leadership of Early Christianity in Palestine, but to the Dead Sea Scrolls in Palestine too.

In a more reader-friendly format that compresses the results of his several previous works, Eisenman uses the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Church texts to create the most comprehensive picture of Jesus’ brother James conceivable. The private specialist and enthusiastic aficionado will not want to miss it.

The James, Eisenman presents, is the pivotal Opposition Jewish Leader leading up to the fall of the Temple and beyond in the First Century. As a typical Essene or Dead Sea Scrolls sectarian, James wears only linen, bathes daily in cold water, was a vegetarian, and is a life-long Nazirite; but he and the Party, the New Testament attests he led, are also “zealous for the Law” and insist on “Circumcision”.

Moreover Eisenman makes compelling arguments that James not Peter -- whoever he was and however he existed -- and certainly not Paul, was the true heir to his brother Jesus and the Leader of early Christianity everywhere. Eisenman will also cover subjects like “the Brothers of Jesus as Apostles,” “the New Covenant in the Land of Damascus,” and Paul’s almost mortal attack on James in the Temple.

Eisenman’s work will also extend to the competition between Paul and James in Antioch and over the conversion of Queen Helen of Adiabene and her two sons in Northern Syria, who not only led the ‘famine relief” efforts ascribed to Paul in Acts, but also gave the fabulous golden candelabra depicted as booty from the Temple on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

Eisenman will show the figure of James to have been so influential and highly-regarded in the Jerusalem of his day that his death was the capstone event that led up to the Jewish Revolt against Rome.

In this series, Eisenman’s revelations will extend far beyond these examples. Adapted from a lifetime of research, James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, both I and II, will complete the task of rescuing James from the oblivion into which he was cast either intentionally or via benign neglect. His conclusion will therefore definitively bear on the problem of “the Historical Jesus”: “Who and whatever James was, so was Jesus.”