James, the Brother of Jesus: the Key to Understanding the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Robert Eiseman.
What a scrupulously researched and detailed book! The author weaves together an exhaustive list of ancient documents which include canonical and non canonical works (Jewish and Christian), the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient historians and many more. It took me months to complete and I think it would really require a PhD for me to fully evaluate it. Eiseman uses philology, etymology, historical criticism, and deep knowledge of comparative religions and ancient history. He connects dots in such a remarkable way that I'm not sure he is not creating dots.
But the basic theory as I understand it (and it would have to remain a theory for me) associates the earliest Jesus followers (earliest Christians) in the general apocalyptic milieu of the era. So the earliest followers would have been more militant, staunchly observant of the Torah, messianic, rebellious, and ritualistic. It would not have been a turn the other cheek religion.
James is portrayed as the brother of Jesus and his successor as leader of the group on Jesus' crucifixion. And Eiseman contends James was effectively written out of the cannon by the followers of Paul in a effort to basically allow the Pauline version of Christianity of prosper--a version more in cooperation with the Romans and more identified with love and a heavenly kingdom instead of an Earthly one. Paul's early persecution of the new sect gave way to his being the major proponent. Eiseman contends Paul actually was responsible for an attack on James which was rewritten in the New Testament as the stoning of Stephen and even to some extent in suicide description of Judas.
An intriguing aspect of the book for me is that it gives a plausible, even if inaccurate, picture of how early Christianity could have developed in a time of intense religious and political upheaval. When we read the current cannon, we are perhaps only reading the final victorious version of conflicting and battling ideas, beliefs and practices.
--the Bishop
What a scrupulously researched and detailed book! The author weaves together an exhaustive list of ancient documents which include canonical and non canonical works (Jewish and Christian), the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient historians and many more. It took me months to complete and I think it would really require a PhD for me to fully evaluate it. Eiseman uses philology, etymology, historical criticism, and deep knowledge of comparative religions and ancient history. He connects dots in such a remarkable way that I'm not sure he is not creating dots.
But the basic theory as I understand it (and it would have to remain a theory for me) associates the earliest Jesus followers (earliest Christians) in the general apocalyptic milieu of the era. So the earliest followers would have been more militant, staunchly observant of the Torah, messianic, rebellious, and ritualistic. It would not have been a turn the other cheek religion.
James is portrayed as the brother of Jesus and his successor as leader of the group on Jesus' crucifixion. And Eiseman contends James was effectively written out of the cannon by the followers of Paul in a effort to basically allow the Pauline version of Christianity of prosper--a version more in cooperation with the Romans and more identified with love and a heavenly kingdom instead of an Earthly one. Paul's early persecution of the new sect gave way to his being the major proponent. Eiseman contends Paul actually was responsible for an attack on James which was rewritten in the New Testament as the stoning of Stephen and even to some extent in suicide description of Judas.
An intriguing aspect of the book for me is that it gives a plausible, even if inaccurate, picture of how early Christianity could have developed in a time of intense religious and political upheaval. When we read the current cannon, we are perhaps only reading the final victorious version of conflicting and battling ideas, beliefs and practices.
--the Bishop
