JAMES THE BROTHER OF JESUS The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls Robert Eisenman, Watkins Publishing, London, 2002. Paperback, 1073 pages, £14.99. ISBN 1-84293-026-5.

Professor Robert Eisenman has long been a thorn in the side of those scholars and institutions which wish to suppress or control the Dead Sea Scrolls, their interpretation and the impact of their data. In his scholarly earlier books – notably, Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran and James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher – Eisenman detailed the evidence for the early Christian texts having emerged from the same messianic Jewish milieu as did the Dead Sea Scrolls. Further, that the Scroll "Community" described in the Habakkuk Pesher as having a later headquarters based in Jerusalem, is the same "Community", based in the same city, described in the New Testament (Acts) as the early Christian Community under the leadership of James, "the brother of the Lord". Eisenman concluded that the historical data woven into the Dead Sea Scrolls – especially the commentaries (the Peshers) – cast new light upon the events of the First Century AD and the rise of Christianity; events given a very different treatment in Acts.
    James the Brother of Jesus is the result and culmination of Eisenman’s research. It is written for a general audience although its extensive notes provide the source data for those wishing to delve deeper. It is an extraordinary book – a vast, comprehensive and detailed exploration of the religious events of the first half of the first century in Judaea.
    Eisenman is an historian, not a theologian, so his writing is free from dogmatic influence; his account is convincing. His book is crammed with insights and revelations: such as that James was the real successor to Jesus, not Peter; that James was an "opposition" High Priest permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple once a year at Yom Kippur; that the account of the stoning of "Stephen" disguises the tragedy of the stoning to death of James by a pro-Roman mob, a mob led by Paul who then left for Damascus – and his conversion.
    The implications of this masterful work will reverberate through the study of Christian origins for many years to come.
    Michael Baigent