The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ - Hardcover

Eisenman, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1842931865 ISBN 13: 9781842931868

Publisher: Watkins Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

It’s finally here and Eisenman’s many readers will not be disappointed! In this follow-up to his blockbuster biblical studies, world-renowned scholar Eisenman not only gives us a full examination of James’ relationship to the Dead Sea Scrolls, he also reveals the true history of Palestine in the first century and the real Jesus’ of that time. It’s a work of intriguing speculative history, complete with a conspiracy theory as compelling as any thriller.
Eisenman begins with a question: Is there a New Testament Code?’” He proves that there is and exposes the deliberate revisions, falsifications, and historical trivializations introduced into New Testament writings. In so doing, he identifies the Scrolls as the literature of the Messianic Movement in Palestine and decodes” many favorite sayings in the Gospels, including These are the signs that the Lord did in Cana of Galilee.” Offering a point-by-point analysis of James’ relationship to the Dead Sea Scrolls, he illuminates such subjects as the Pella Flight,” the wilderness camps, and Paul as an Herodian,” and demonstrates how, once we have found the Historical James, we will find the Historical Jesus.
Every page presents fascinating new insights and revelations that will leave Eisenman’s many fans enraptured. And because it will coincide with the release of the similarly themed film of The Da Vinci Code, interest will be high. 
 
 
 
 

 

About this title

About the Author

Robert Eisenman is the author of The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ, 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 Shariah (1978), and co-editor of The Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989) and The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992). He is Emeritus Professor of Middle East Religions and Archaeology and the former 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.

From Booklist

Eisenman, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and an expert in first-century Christianity, theorized in his book James the Brother of Jesus (1997) that the Qumran community, assumed to be responsible for the original Dead Sea writings, was important in the development of early Christianity. He further advances that theory here, once again using literary analysis of pertinent texts. Eisenman examines such topics as James' relationship to the Qumran community's Teacher of Righteousness and offers a reinterpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially the relatively recent translation of the MMT document, which he links to a Jamesian proto-Christianity. There is also much here about the Messianic movement in the first century and, more personally, about Peter and Paul's relationship to James and to one another. As in the previous book, however, Eisenman's writing is dense and often difficult to follow without a solid knowledge of the subject. Readers wishing to delve more closely into his sources will have to check the notes online. Moreover, he also uses some of the hefty work's 1,120 pages to settle some internecine scholarly feuds. As always, Eisenman's ideas are provocative, but it will take dedicated readers to digest them. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Watkins Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1842931865
• ISBN 13: 9781842931868
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 244