Now on YouTube:

Robert Eisenman's Dead Sea Scrolls lectures and several other courses now on YouTube - Eisenman Lecture
Interviews at the site of Qumran in Israel - Eisenman on the rocks
An assortment of Eisenman's talks and appearances to a variety of groups at Eisenman Talks
New: Eisenmanity: Robert Eisenman before non-Christian groups, etc.

Robert Eisenman is now blogging at the Jerusalem Post and the Huffington Post.

 

About Robert H. Eisenman

Robert Eisenman is the author of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ (2006), James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1998), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996), Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari'ah (1978), and co-editor of The Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992).

He is Professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and Islamic Law and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University Long Beach and Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University in Philosophy and Engineering Physics (1958), an M.A. from New York University in Near Eastern Studies (1966), and a Ph.D from Columbia University in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law (1971). He was a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and an American Endowment for the Humanities Fellow-in-Residence at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first examined.

In 1991-92, he was the Consultant to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California on its decision to open its archives and allow free access for all scholars to the previously unpublished Scrolls. In 2002, he was the first to publicly announce that the so-called 'James Ossuary', which so suddenly and 'miraculously' appeared, was fraudulent; and he did this on the very same day it was made public on the basis of the actual inscription itself and what it said without any 'scientific' or 'pseudo-scientific' aids.

Books

Breaking the DSS Monopoly

Breaking the Dead Sea Scrolls Monopoly. 2018.

In this book, Professor Robert Eisenman details his struggles to break the monopoly on the Dead Sea Scrolls enjoyed by “The Official Team” and open them up to all: scholars and lay people alike. This monopoly had been going on for almost 40 years where only a select few with identical views could see the entire corpus, while the vast majority of outsiders could only see what this Establishment chose to publish with their always like-minded interpretations. To break through this monopoly, Prof. Eisenman followed a series of fortuitous steps. First, in the mid-1980’s he was fortunate enough to obtain a complete copy of The Official Israel Antiquities Authority List of all the existing Scroll fragments and documents. In about the same year, while an N.E.H. Fellow at The Albright Institute (“The American School” where the Scrolls first came in, in 1948), on the very first day of his arrival he was also fortunate enough to meet the actual photographer who photographed them. With the help of Michael Baigent (z”l), he was able to convince this individual to make over a second copy of all the plates to him. Then after many adventures - some positive, some negative - he was able to arrange for their complete publication in two volumes. In this book, for the first time Prof. Eisenman will reveal the name of this individual. In the second part, he will go through the meaning of the Scrolls - why based on the contents of the Documents themselves and not inaccurate preconceptions this is actually “The Literature of the Messianic Movement in Palestine” or what the author sometimes alludes to as “Palestinian Christianity”. As such, it is the very opposite of thatoverseas development of “Normative Christianity” we all know – i.e., “Pauline Christianity” - which developed in Romeand Alexandria and was abominated by these “Messianists” at Qumran. Its progenitor, Paul, will be identified in the book as a descendant of Herod and the personal and absolute “Enemy” of“James the Brother of Jesus,” called “The Just One” and “The Leader of the Movement in Palestine” equivalent to “The Righteous Teacher” in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Available at Amazon.com

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James the Brother of Jesus

James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Penguin, 1998.


Review by Robert M. Price | Review from the Jerusalem Post | Review from the Portland Oregonian, May 6, 1997 | Essay by Dr. Andrew P. Gould, Ohio State U. Distinguished Professor of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

"In a profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, Eisenman establishes James - a figure almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament - as the leader of all opposition groups in the Jerusalem of his day and the spiritual heir to his famous brother Jesus. James, not Peter, was the true successor to the movement we now call Christianity. Once we have found the Historical James we have found the Historical Jesus.

"Drawing on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on long overlooked early Christian texts, Eisenman reveals in this groundbreaking major exploration the Christianity of Paul as a distortion of what James preached."

Now available as an audio book at Blackstone Library on 37 CDs. Read by Bob Souer.

* * *
The New Testament Code

The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ. Barnes and Noble, 2006.


Press release | Review by Robert M. Price | Table of Contents | Endnotes

"Eisenman uncovers the Truth and unravels the real code behind New Testament allusions like 'this is the Cup of the New Covenant in my blood,' connecting them to 'the New Covenant in the Land of Damascus' and 'drinking the Cup of the Wrath of God' in the Dead Sea Scrolls. In doing so, Eisenman demonstrates the integral relationship of James the Brother of Jesus to the Righteous Teacher of the Dead Sea Scrolls, deciphers the way the picture of 'Jesus' was put together in the Gospels, and clarifies the real history of Palestine in the First Century and, as a consequence, what can be known about the real 'Jesus'. In paring away the traces of Greco-Roman anti-Semitism - which were deliberately introduced into this picture, thereby tainting Western history ever since - The New Testament Code shows what really happened in Palestine in that time, not what the enemies of those making war against Rome wanted people to think happened."

New, revised and abridged version available through Grave Distractions publishing.
Also available now is the new Companion Edition to The New Testament Code.

* * *

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians. Harper Collins, 1996.


Publisher's summary

Included in this volume are Professor Eisenman's two ground-breaking works, Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran and James the Just in Habbakkuk Pesher, which were not previously widely available.

These classics are a foundation piece of Professor Eisenman's research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and fascinating for the beginner and scholar alike. Most importantly, these works triggered the debate over the relationship of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Christian Origns, which ultimately led to the freeing of the Scrolls in the early 1990s, a struggle in which Eisenman played a pivotal role.

Also included are previously unpublished papers and essays written by Eisenman and presented at international conferences over the last decade. Together they provide a most thorough examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls and link them more closely with first century Christianity.

In addition, this volume provides new translations of three key Qumran documents, the Habakkuk Pesher, the Damascus Document, and the Community Rule, available previously in the sometimes inaccurate and often inconsistent renderings by consensus scholars, missing the electric brilliance of the writers of the Scrolls. For the first time, the reader will have a chance to see the difference between these and a translation that grasps the apocalyptic mindset of the authors of the Scrolls.

* * *

Recent Releases

James the Brother of Jesus (Abridged edition), Watkins, 2014.
The New Testament Code (Abridged edition), Konecky & Konecky, 2014.
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Roots of Christianity and Islam, Kuala Lumpur, 2012.
The Paperback Edition of Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel, Grave Distractions, 2015.
James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, I and II (Abridged versions of James and New Testament Code), Grave Distractions, 2012.


* * *
The New Jerusalem

The New Jerusalem: A Millenium Poetic/Prophetic Travel Diario (1959-1962), North Atlantic Books, 2007, is a collection of his youthful travel poems from 1959-62 when Paris was still 'a moveable feast' and when he was 'on the road' between Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Iran, Beleuchistan, Pakistan, and India. Includes an Afterward on the Six-Day War, April-June, 1967.

"Eisenman...reveals an unexpectedly lyrical voice in this collection of poems, written between 1959 and 1962 on the overland trail to India via Paris (when it was still 'a Moveable Feast'), Israel, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan. A backpacker's journal in free verse - which can be looked upon as an 'anti-Beat Manifesto' and even includes some 'quasi-prophecy' - The New Jerusalem not only starts out in San Francisco, but is also an intimate self-portrait of a young man at a turning point in his spiritual development."

Article involving The New Jerusalem: "Robert Eisenman - Man of New Ideas." Allan Koay in The Star (Malaysia), Dec. 5, 2010.

* * *

Now available: Triphammer Falls: An Ivy League Jewish Romance. A novel by Robert Eisenman.

* * *

Now available: War Territory Nation: Israel, the Arabs, and the Jewish People. Essays by Robert Eisenman.

* * *

Now available: Suzanne Fisher. A novel by Robert Eisenman.

* * *

The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered: The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld For Over 35 Years (with Michael Wise). Penguin, 1992.
Review by Robert M. Price

* * *

A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (with James Robinson). Biblical Archaeology Society, 1991.

* * *

* James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher. E.J. Brill Leiden, 1986.

* Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins. E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1984.

* Reprinted in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians. Harper Collins, 1996.

* * *

Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel. E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1976.

* * *

Articles

"Every Plant Which My Heavenly Father Has Not Planted Shall Be Uprooted," with Noelle Magana 2010. From Sources of the Jesus Tradition, ed. R. Joseph Hoffmann.

Sicarii Essenes, "Those of the Circumcision", and Qumran, The Journal of Higher Criticism, vol. 12, no. 1, Spring 2006.

"'Ad,' 'Thamud,' 'Hud,' and 'Salih' as Reflecting Edessene/Northern Syrian Conversion Stories about 'Thomas,' 'Addai'/'Thaddaeus', 'Yehudah' ( 'Judas Thomas'/'Judas the Zealot'/'Judas Barsabas' ), and James." Journal of Higher Criticism, Fall 2005.

MMT as Jamesian Letter to "The Great King of the Peoples Beyond the Euphrates", The Journal of Higher Criticism vol. 11, no.1, Spring 2005.

Northern Syria as an Area for Many Language References at Qumran, paper presented at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Denver, 2005.

An Esoteric Relation between Qumran's "New Covenant in the Land of Damascus" and the New Testament's "Cup of the New Covenant in (His) Blood"? Revue de Qumran, vol. 21, no. 83, March 2004.

Redating the Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Dead Sea Discoveries, 11,2 (2004).

Archaeological GPR investigations at Rennes-Le-Château, France. From the Proceedings of SPIE (the International Society for Optical Engineering), 2002.

The James Ossuary: Is It Authentic? Folia Orientalia, vol. 38, 2002.

"Re-erecting the Fallen Tent of David" in a Land "North" of Damascus at Qumran and in Acts' "Jerusalem Council". Paper presented at SBL, Rome 2001.

The 1988-92 California State University Dead Sea Walking Cave Survey and Radar Groundscan of the Qumran Cliffs, The Qumran Chronicle, vol. 9, no. 2, December 2000.

A Ground-Penetrating Radar Testing the Claim for Earthquake Damage of the Second Temple Ruins at Khirbet Qumran, Qumran Chronicle, December 2000. With Michael Baigent.

* The Final Proof that James and the Righteous Teacher are the Same. Paper presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1994.

The Theory of Judeo-Christian Origins: The Last Column of the Damascus Document, in Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects, ed. by Wise, M. O., Golb, N., Collins, J., and Pardee, D., Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, v. 722, 1994.

The 1990 Survey of Qumran Caves, The Qumran Chronicle, vol. 2, no.1, December 1992.

The Sociology of MMT and the Conversions of King Agbarus and Queen Helen of Adiabene. Paper presented at SBL conference, 1992.

* Joining/Joiners, 'Arizei-Go'im, and the Simple of Ephraim Relating to a Cadre of Gentile God-Fearers at Qumran. Paper presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1991.

A Response to Schiffman on MMT, The Qumran Chronicle 1990/91, no. 2/3.

* Eschatological "Rain" Imagery in the War Scroll from Qumran and in the Letter of James, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 49 no. 2 1990.

* Interpreting 'Abeit Galuto in the Habakkuk Pesher: Playing on and Transmuting Words, Folia Orientalia, vol. 26, 1989. Presented at Groningen Conference in Holland in 1989.

* Interpreting some Esotericisms: The King of the Peoples, the Princes of Judah and Gehazi in the Damascus Document. Paper given to the Society of Biblical Literature in 1989.

The Historical Provenance of the "Three Nets of Belial" Allusion in the Zadokite Document and Balla'/Bela' in the Temple Scroll, Folia Orientalia, volume 25, 1988. (First given as an NEH Fellow at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem in a Joint Session with the Ecole Biblique in November, 1985.)

* The Jerusalem Community of James the Just and the Community at Qumran. Paper given at Mogilany Conference in Poland, 1987.

* Paul as Herodian. Paper given at Society of Biblical Literature conference in 1984; published in the Journal of Higher Criticism, Vol. 3, Spring 1996, pp. 110-122.

Confusions of Pharisees and Essenes in Josephus. Presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1981.

The Zaddik-Idea and the Zadokite Priesthood. Presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1979.

The Young Turk Legislation, 1913-17 and its Application in Palestine/Israel, in Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period, ed. by D. Kushner, E.J. Brill Leiden, 1978.

Making Sense of Hegesippus' Testimony to James as High Priest. Presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1978.

James the Just as Righteous Teacher. Paper presented at the Society of Biblical Literature in 1976.

The Dismissal of Strugnell as Editor of the Scrolls and the Behaviors of the IAA, Unpublished, 1992.

The Desecration of the Scrolls, Midstream Magazine, Dec. 1991.

The Meaning of 'Dead Lands', Manchester Guardian, March 22, 1981.

How the West Bank Views Terrorism, Midstream, 1973.

* Reprinted in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians. Harper Collins, 1996.


Opinion

Thug Capitalism and Free Enterprise, Jerusalem Post, June 26, 2013.

Sharon, Hero of Israel, 'Feeds the Crocodile', Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2012.

The James Ossuary: Is It Authentic? (An Update), Huffington Post, October 11, 2011.

Israeli Geniuses: A Lesson in Strategic Imbecility, Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2011.

Did the British kill Orde Wingate? (Part I), Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2011.

Did the British kill Orde Wingate? (Part II), Jerusalem Post, July 7, 2011.

Who Killed Orde Wingate? (Part One), Huffington Post, June 24, 2011.

Who Killed Orde Wingate? (Part Two), Huffington Post, June 27, 2011.

'The James Ossuary' and Its Authenticity, Huffington Post, January 20, 2011.

The Scrolls, the James Box and the Gospel of Judas, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 3, 2010.

The Greatest Heritage Site of All: A Proposal for an International Architectural Competition to Provide Solutions to the Issue of the Temple Mount, The Huffington Post, August 2, 2010.

Why We Must Become a Territorial People Again, The Jerusalem Post, July 6, 2010.

Enough Crying Over Herod's Stones: We Know how to Commemorate the Dead but Do We Know How to Commemorate the Living?, The Jerusalem Post, March 13, 2010.

Remember, the Temple was built by Herod, The Jerusalem Post, October 27, 2009.

Redemonizing Judas: Gospel Fiction or Gospel Truth? The Huffington Post, September 13, 2009.

Gospel Fiction and the Redemonization of Judas, The Huffington Post, December 19, 2007.

Digging on the Temple Mount: A Modest Proposal, The Jerusalem Post, September 16, 2007.

Christiane Amanpur's God's Warriors, "the Jews", and the "Occupied Territories" - Is This For Real?, The Jerusalem Post, August 27, 2007.

The Jesus Tomb: Primeval Stupidity, The Huffington Post, March 8, 2007.

Rehabilitating Judas Iscariot, The Huffington Post, January 23, 2006.

Fisk is Wrong on the West Bank, January 18, 2006.

A Discovery That's Just Too Perfect, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2002.

New Borders: The Dismemberment of Iraq, Jewish Forward, 1992


Newspaper, magazine articles on Eisenman and his work

Robert Morgan, "Brother in the Shade," review of James, Guardian, Mar. 27, 1997.

The Mail, Mar. 30, 1997, review of James.

UCF article on freeing the Scrolls.

Helen Jacobus on Eisenman: "Shock and Scroll," Jewish Chronicle, Mar. 22, 2002.

Eisenman replies to NY Times review, May 18, 1997.

Parabola, Summer 1998, review of James.

Karen Armstrong reviews James, The Times, Mar. 27, 1997.

Alex Auswaks' review of James in the Jerusalem Post Lit. Supp., April 24, 1997.jpost

Review of James, Kirkus Reviews, Oct. 15, 1996.

Article on Eisenman in MacLeans Magazine, Dec. 11, 1989.

Review of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians, in New Humanity.

AP article in Washington Post on Eisenman and the Scrolls, July 1, 1989.

Article on James in the Oxford Times, May 2, 1997.

Ron Rosenbaum column in the New York Observer on Eisenman.

Review of James in Scotland, Mar. 30, 1997.

Washington Times article on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Eisenman, June 28, 1989.

Interviews, Essays, etc.

The Nuclear Threat to Israel

All the World Loves a Winner (or The Danger of Letting the Arabs "Think" You Lost a War to Them")

Arab Class Structure and the New Terrorism

WAR TERRITORY DESTINY: Essays on Israel, the Arabs, and the Jewish People

The Problem With Rabbinic Judaism.

Why We Must Stop Being "Jews" or Why We Must Become “Hebrews” Once Again: An Essay on the Rebuilding of the Third Temple

Cyprus - Aprodite's Isle

Dr. Carlos Vazquez explores the issue of Jesus having a brother with Robert Eisenman.

Interview for the JesusMysteries forum, with Dennis Walker, May 15, 2012.
Also available in three parts in the Jerusalem Post: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Eisenman on Rennes-le-Chateau and the Turin Shroud, from Andrew Gough's Arcadia, February 2011.

"Robert Eisenman - Man of New Ideas." Article by Allan Koay in The Star (Malaysia), Dec. 5, 2010.

Broadcasting Interview by Rachel Kohn on her program "Spiritual Things" (ca. 2005): "Eisenman on the Scrolls"

Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio program "Encounter" (transcript), 26 July 1998, on James, the Brother of Jesus.

The Riddle of the Scrolls, Vanity Fair, Nov. 1992.

Eisenman Teaches "Objective Religion," The University Bulletin, ca. 1975.

 

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