Robert Eisenman, one of the most eminent researchers of early Christianity working today, has produced an exhaustive study of the historical milieu at the time of Jesus and come to the conclusion that James, rather than Peter, was heir to his teachings. Because the historical material regarding James is actually quite plentiful, a clear picture arises not only in regard to who James was, but by extension, who Jesus was also. Controversy is assured; still, given a patient reading, one will discover that Eisenman's research is meticulous, his arguments cogent, and his conclusions persuasive. This should prove to be a popular and influential book.


From Library Journal
In previous writings (most recently, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, LJ 2/1/93), Eisenman drew attention to apparent parallels between the Qumran community reflected in the scrolls and the early Jewish Christian community led by James, the brother of Jesus. In his latest work, he attempts to examine further those parallels and to rescue James from "the scrapheap of history." Eisenman believes James's role in early Christianity has been downplayed in the tradition(s) preserved in the New Testament, primarily the Gospels and Acts. Vestiges of the real James are blurred. Eisenman, therefore, chooses to place more confidence in extra-biblical writings, especially the Dead Sea Scrolls, for understanding James and his role in early Christianity; he takes every opportunity to deprecate the writings of the New Testament (except where they can be pressed into service to strengthen his case). At times it is difficult to determine whether the author's goal is to reclaim James or defame the New Testament. This piece of tendentious research is not the key to unlocking anything about early Christianity.?Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama Lib., BirminghamCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Anthony J. Saldarini
He will not persuade many because his conclusions are improbable, his arguments incoherent and his prose impossible ... He says James, who kept alive the real teaching of Jesus and whose story was suppressed in Jewish and Christian writings, was the rival of accommodationist high priests and the authentic leader of the Jewish community. In arguing this bizarre thesis, Mr. Eisenman ignores the normal canons of historical argument and of literary analysis. He treats later Christian sources, which contain legendary material, as historically reliable ... In Mr. Eisenman's hands ... legend becomes simple history.


From Booklist
For those interested in early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, this hefty volume looks irresistible. Not only does Eisenman, a longtime scrolls scholar, cast his gaze on James, the brother of Jesus, a fascinating but little-understood biblical character, but he also links early Christianity with the community at Qumran, whose members are thought by many to be the writers of the ancient scrolls. Unfortunately, those eager to be educated on those topics will find Eisenman rough going. Not only is the book almost 1,000 pages long, a good part of it will be comprehensible only to those with advanced knowledge of the subjects. Eisenman himself suggests that readers of his book should have in front of them a copy of the New Testament, a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the works of the ancient Jewish historian Josephus. Actually, this is a helpful suggestion, but how many of us can find our copy of Josephus? This is the sort of book that will attract considerable attention and even some requests in public libraries. Whether it will be read is another issue. Ilene Cooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Gripping but partisan conjectures from Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Eisenman (Middle East Religions/ California State Univ.), arguing that St. James is the missing link between Judaism and a supposed pre-Pauline Christianity. Although James is called the brother of Jesus and surnamed ``the Just'' (or ``the Righteous''), he has a relatively minor role in the New Testament. For Eisenman, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls opens up the background of events preceding the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, revealing a world of highly nationalistic and apocalyptic Jewish sects that were bitterly opposed to Gentile influence and in which James was prominent. Eisenman argues that Christianity was originally one of these groups, closely linked with the Essenes. James was, Eisenman suggests, a leader of the Jerusalem Christians and represented the authentic succession to Jesus, a continuity that was obliterated by the Roman destruction of the city in 72 a.d. Eisenman hypothesizes an aboriginal Christianity marked by scrupulous adherence to the Torah and standing in complete contrast to St. Paul's universalism, grace, and freedom from Jewish law. In this scenario, Paul is James's bitter antagonist: It was Paul who transformed a zealot movement into a Hellenistic mystery religion acceptable to the Roman imperium. That Christianity, albeit ``Pauline,'' was tailored to first-century Roman tastes will strike many readers as a paradox. Eisenman reaches his conclusions by exploring literary parallels and lacunae in the New Testament, the Scrolls, and contemporary literature, a methodology colored by the author's historical approach to Jesus and the New Testament, which denies the supernatural and can shed a negative light on Christianity and its founders. Eisenman's historical reconstruction makes for fascinating reading, but it never takes us beyond the realm of the merely plausible. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Drawing on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on long overlooked early Church texts, Eisenman reveals in this groundbreaking major exploration the Christianity of Paul as a distortion of what James and Jesus preached. Whereas James and his followers, "zealous for the Law" of Moses, were nationalistic and apocalyptic, Paul's Hellenized movement promoted itself as pacifist, cosmopolitan, and faith-based. In an argument with enormous implications, Eisenman identifies Paul as deeply compromised by Roman contacts, and James as not simply the leader of Christianity of his day, but the popular Jewish leader of his time, whose death triggered the Uprising against Rome. Creative rewriting of early Church documents has obscured this fact. Eisenman shows that characters like "Judas Iscariot" and "the Apostle James" did not exist as such and details an actual physical assault by Paul on James in the Temple. By rescuing James from the oblivion into which he was deliberately cast, James the Brother of Jesus reveals one of the most successful historical rewrite enterprises ever accomplished.

SYNOPSIS

This is the first in renowned biblical scholar Robert Eisenman's projected two-volume examination of early Christianity. Eisenman here sets out a fascinating and controversial theory that puts St. James at the center of the story as the heir to Jesus' teachings.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal