JAMES, BROTHER OF JESUS?

Book by Robert Eisenman
Book Report and Commentary by Barbara Schuknecht-Rodriguez


Information found in the Dead Sea Scrolls substantiate Jewish perspective of those living during harsh and brutal times under Roman domination. James, Brother of Jesus presents conjecture concerning the brother of "Jesus." 1

During the times of The Herods: appointees and descendants collaborating with Rome held control of Jerusalem and the Temple. Earlier Herod the Great had effectively smothered Messianic and national hopes, aroused by the Maccabees two hundred years before, by his own enforced intermarriage into the royal family of the High Priesthood. At long last, the people looked to the pious family of "Jesus," whose appointed successor was his brother James, known as James the Just [and as The Righteous One of the Dead Sea Scrolls]. Brothers Simon and Judas were known as Zealots. Followers of the brotherhood, identified as Ebionites, called themselves "the poor" and "the meek." These followers aspired to the "Way of Righteousness" as taught by James.

James lived as a Nazarite under vows of purity and chastity. He opposed the [Roman] Establishment with its appointees while preaching to the people from the steps of the Temple which provoked the collaborating High Priesthood to plan and cause his murder.

An interloper, Saul a descendant of the Herods, later to exchange his Jewish name for that of Paul, appeared with self appointing claims to leadership, all the while maintaining important contacts with Roman officials, becoming a double agent for them. Often defending foreign ways, Paul chose some (i.e., Cornelious) to become cofounders for his new brotherhood of believers into a new religion, not just for Jews only, nor centered from Jerusalem, the sacred city of the Jews, but from a new base, the foreign city of Antioch, thereby establishing the newly amalgamated religion acceptable to foreigners, called "Christianity."

Many of James' followers, born Jews, fled eastward into the desert "land of Damascus," eventually to become known as the site of Qumran. Sermons of James found among the Dead Sea Scrolls thundered against "the Enemy" and "the Liar," referring to someone daring to teach differently than the cherished standards of observant Jews while he, James, continued to teach and extol the "Way of Righteousness."

Adversarial letters went out accompanied by blatant denials with skillfully rearranged events and place names in parodies devised to belittle James and his message. Later they became known as the "Epistles of Paul." Paul, admittedly a mixed-breed Herodian, had also claimed to be "a Pharisee of the Pharisees," yet introduced co-mingling of foreign Mystery Religion rituals. The Jewish Passover became subject to rearrangement, intermixed with the very ancient sacrificial meal of blood/wine and body/bread of a dying foreign god.

The brothers, Zealots as they were, would not remain living long in their opposition to Roman foreign standards. Simon fled eastward outside the jurisdiction of Rome. Judas (retold as "John the Baptist") was beheaded. Only James remained tending alternately between those at Qumran and the populous at the Temple in Jerusalem, becoming the high priest the Jewish people looked to, still teaching Messianic hopes and the Way of Righteousness. He was waylaid by the nonreligious political Establishment Priesthood. Upon making Atonement in the Holy of Holies, he was taken and hurled from the pinnacle of the Temple Mount and stoned to death below the Temple steps (retold as Stephen.) Wherever "Jesus" steps went, James was close beside. Were they actually two? Was there ever a "Jesus?"

James' death lit the fuse of Zealot led revolution, which led directly to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple after seven years. Those at Qumran fled further to Masada, still to perish before the Romans. Yet, they left hidden records in the Judean hills and caves, unseen and unknown for two thousand years.

A few prominent Jews survived by voluntarily subjugating themselves to the Romans by publicly avowing that the Romans were appointed of "God." Those that did not were not allowed to live. Notables among the survivors were: Yohanen ben Zacchai, acknowledged founder of Judaism, and Josephus, erstwhile Essene and Zealot, the subsequent historian for the Romans.

Further writings by foreigners additionally distorted the Jewish roots of Jesus' family. Displacing details with ancient legends, foreign titles and names also lead to distinct anti-Semitism with foreign opposing theology, later to be rerouted through Rome. These are known today as the Gospels and Acts of the New Testament.