[shunyadragon]

This thread is intended to be a discussion on a book I just finished and I am reading again called The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians by Robert Eisenman. It is an interesting book, but a bit difficult to read because it is a bit heavy into Hebrew and other Biblical languages. If the moderators would please note, that I would like this thread to be open to everyone included atheists and agnostics. The Comparative Religions section should be more open, but sometimes I have seen non-theists excluded.

The book presents a somewhat radical view of the community that compiled the Dead Sea scrolls than previous scholars have concluded. The previous works I had read before I came to China did not clearly draw these radical conclusions presented in this volume, though I had read of some claims to this new apparoch to the scrolls before I left.

The book concludes that the Dead Sea scrolls were the library of an early Christian Messianic Movement living at Qumran in the 1st century. The movement at Qumran is depicted as one of several or many rebellious zealote communities at the time rebelling against the establishment. The book concludes that the 'Righteous teacher' was none other than James the Just. He further concludes that the 'Wicked Priest' or the enemy may be Paul (pre-conversion Paul?).

The book does present an interesting picture of the Holy Lands of the time occupied by Rome, The Pharisees and there allies are portrayed as compromisers and selling out to Greek and Roman influences polluting the true pure Hebrew faith and desicrating the temples with foreign gifts, ornaments and influence. The Pharisees are described 'seeking accomidations with foreigners'.

The book also alludes to a possible controversy within early Christianity that is also alluded to in the Bible, and that is whether Christianity was a Jewish movement or a Hebrew-Gentile movement.

Was James the Just the advocate of a pure Jewish only movement, and Paul the advocate of a Jewish-Gentile movement?