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Books - James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
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Rating:  -
Very interesting thesis, but the evidence is so scant, it is difficult to judge the plausibility of specifics.
Rating:  -
Professor Eisenman has written a masterpiece. I demands work on the part of the reader; I am a physicist and expect good books to be demanding. Eisenman has smashed the old paradigm and presented a compelling alternative. Here we see the true followers of Jesus as rebels, pious Jews who were closer to Zealots & Essenes than Paul's fanciful neo-Greek folk tales about The Christ, that so influenced the Gospels. A must read!
Cypress Showley
Rating:  -
Some of the key concepts of this book are excellent, even so the book is horribly flawed. The good:
1) James the brother of Jesus was the leader of the first Christian Church
2) James was well respected by all
3) James and his community continued to follow the Torah
4) Paul's vision based Christianity and James' Christianity could not be reconciled.
5) The Ebonites continued the traditions of James' community, and essentially asserted that Paul was an antichrist.
5) Why weren't the Essene's mentioned in the New Testament? I'm not sure I agree with the book's conclusion that the Essenes was the "pool" for the early Jewish church.
These points are covered in "Mythmaker" by by Hyam Maccoby, which is a much more enjoyable read, though Mythmaker itself is also flawed (it is unlikely that Jesus saw himself as a Pharisee, for example).
The initial thesis of this book must have been that James was identical to the "Rightous One" of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It appears that before the book was published more convincing evidence of the dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls (>100 years before James) became available, causing a major rewrite, and a large section devoted to asserting that the new evidence was probably fraudlent driven by ideology (not likely in my opinion). In any event the book often borders on the incoherent, and I often found myself thinking "he doth protest too much".
The book does have merit in mapping aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls to James and the early Jewish church, which does raise the issue of to what degree they were heirs to the DSS traditions (though you have to sort this out from the (failed) attempts to prove that the DSS were the product of the early church).
If you are a student of biblical history, and are up to hacking your way through a jumbled thicket of thoughts and words to extract the few pearls, then this book is worthwhile.
If you want a more fun read that outlines evil Paul vs the true jewish church, then get Mythmaker (but do remember that Hymam takes many of his insights too far).
Rating: -
I enjoyed the book in spite of the agenda that Eisenman seems to have in discrediting the New Testament writings. The book gives an satisfactory, well-rounded portrait of James, along with his motivations and standing in the church. From a Protestant perspective, the idea that Jesus has a biological brother by his mother isn't anything unusual. Neither would the fact that Christianity of James and the Essenes' was Jewish and ritualistic. The book as a piece of non-fiction provides a historic view of a key person in Christianity. It will do nothing to change the minds or beliefs of the people who read it, nor should it given the mission of the text.
Rating: -
Eisenman has written a masterpiece of scholarship that could become a classic if more people could read for longer than 15 minutes without drifting back to the television or computer games.
All the criticisms of this book include how "long" it was. If you want an easy explanation for things just listen to the six o'clock news and try not to fall asleep while your priest or minister "explains" matters too "complex" for little minds.
Eisenman has not written a book intended ONLY for scholars. Anyone with a strong enough desire to understand how Christianity was fabricated to grease the wheels of anti-Jesus interests (i.e. the wealthy and powerful and the "wannabees") can follow and understand this work of genius.
If you already "know" that Christianity is accurately reflected in the New Testament and is "explained" by learned theologians that support the New Testament, don't even try to read this book. It's not for you.
One must have an OPEN mind (and this assumes an actively working one) in order to set aside "beliefs" long enough to judge whether one's beliefs are based in reason or superstition and fear.
I suspect the negative reviews here have been written by those that didn't or couldn't read this great book. There are many people that simply want to bash anyone that looks too closely at their shaky world view and offers sound reasons why it is not a rational one.
Eisenman has created here a total and rationally sound rebuttal to all current forms of religion that go under the name of Christianity.
After reading this book no one can honestly continue to believe that Paul offered an accurate view of Jesus' beliefs and teachings. And no one can honestly continue to believe that the Roman Catholic church did not fabricate, omit and destroy documents to serve its own purposes quite in opposition to Jesus' teachings.
Of course the key term in the last paragraph is "honestly."
Thank you, Professor Eisenman, for this monumental tribute to scholarship, integrity and bravery.
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