The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Convenant, and the Blood of Christ

Professor Eisenmen has produced a landmark work that will be referred to for decades to come. This book is for readers who are serious about understanding the first fifty years after the crucifixion and how traditional Christianity has avoided the message of the Dea Sea Scrolls (DSS). Only a professional and dedicated researcher like Profesor Eisenman could hold his readers by the hand and lead them through the maze of the traditional Christian spin of the past two thousand years. The traditional Christian movement will attack the evidence so artfully consolidated by Eisenmen. Their only other choice is to open their closed minds to the first century evidence provided by the Dea Sea Scrolls and many other collaborating first century records. Eisenman meticulous presentation mirrors the complexity of the subject matter. In this regard, the significance of several sections of the book may remain partially unappreciated, unless the reader is well versed with the large diversity of early Christian records. The bottom line is that Eiseneman proves that Pauline Christianity as we know it today is largely a convoluted blend of the authentic teachings of the enlightened Jesus and the flawed beliefs of the historical figure know as the Apostle Paul. It will come as a shock to most readers that Eisenman proves that Paul was adversary of the inner circle of Jesus; an adversary who never met the living Jesus. Paul's version of Christianty is based primarily on his alleged psychic visions and was in opposition to the views of the real Apostles and the family of the enlightend Jesus. The underlying message of Eisenman is as follows: Who do you want to agree with, the inner circle of Master Jesus or some Greek named Paul, who never the enlightened Jesus? Many, including the most respected members of Christian acedamia, will quickly dismiss the comprehensive case presented by Eisenman. This is unfortunate but expected given the brain washing that has been perpetrated by the traditional Christian movement for the past two thousand years. The foundation of the traditional Christian movement is largely based on the flawed Pauline perspective that dominates the New Testament. How can someone who never met the enlightened Jesus and who obtained the title of apostle only by self appointment, author 13 of the 27 documents that comprise the foundation of Christianity, New Testament? In addition, it is commonly accepted that Paul wrote his flawed epistles well before the balance of the other documents that comprise the New Testament. Thus, Paul's flawed perspective had a polluitng and conditioning effect on most of the documents within the New Testament. Paul was an expert at placing his primitive religious beleifs into the mouth of the enlightened Jesus. This erroneous practiced was unfortunately copied by most of the other authors of the New Testament. Ever since the Catholic Church lost its control on the Christian movement, approximately 400

The New Testament Code is the continuation (conclusion?) of Robert Eisenman's thesis of the ambience of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The patience of Eisenman's adherents, who have long waited for the release of the present volume, will be rewarded with the extraordinary scholarship, research, interpretations, and perspicaciousness which continually characterize his endeavors. His thesis is at variance with the majority who are determined to construct their exegesis of the Scrolls in the Maccabean era-- beginning in the mid-2nd Century BC. That upon which these results are based is not in harmony with this time period. He explores assumptions that others have not pursued nor considered. The notion that the movement of those associated with the Scrolls was one of passivity, tranquility, and isolation is dismissed. The Scrolls are representative of the theological mindset of the Messianic Movement that developed in Palestine before it became usurped and amalgamated into one that conveyed a Hellenistic god-tale and allegorical mythologizing under the name of Christianity. Eisenman identifies many who appear to have been the originators of the Gentile version of the Messianic Movement as having affiliation with the Herodians who were granted rule over Palestine by the Romans. There were four cities that bore the name Antioch which increased the potential for not only expanding the geographical sphere of the New Testament narrative, but by also increasing the number of individuals who might be involved in it. The faction of those who represented the Scrolls, as well as those responsible for the theology of the New Testament, were not only aware of one another, but were also in opposition. This is astutely documented from the scroll Peshers (commentaries) and texts in the New Testament. Far too many writers and commentators of the Scrolls are simply content to analyze the content, and comment on the "uniqueness." The impression is that from the Palestinian Jewish matrix of ideas, phrases and terminologies that developed, they found their way into the New Testament. The dominant impression is that most of what was associated with Qumran developed in a geographical Petri dish, despite its close proximity to Jerusalem and other Palestinian locales. Eisenman presents a movement whose effects reached the regions from the Levant to southern Iraq. More importantly it was a movement that flourished contemporaneously with the events depicted in the New Testament--the 1st Century C.E. The "internal data" presented by Eisenman, as implements to assist in the dating of the Scrolls, is in opposition with the 2nd Century B.C. renderings of Carbon-14 tests and paleography. The accuracy of Eisenman's data brings into question the scientific impartiality involved. This internal data includes allusions to the New Covenant, pollution of the temple, the House of Judgment, the fallen tabernacle of David, doing according to the precise letter of the Law, the las

Professor Eisenman continues to raise the bar. This is another great masterpiece from the man who put everything on the altar to give the world access to the Scrolls. His analysis and presentation are impeccable. This is a book that every serious student of the First Century, and even those with just a curiosity about the beginnings of Christianity, should pick up and read. Whether a seasoned academic/scholar, or a person with a desire to simply immerse oneself into a captivating and stimulating topic, Professor Eisenman delivers a controversial and provocative argument with a language and style provided by only the very best of teachers. No one can ignore this work and claim to be well-informed about the First Century and the Jewish phenomenon later called Christianity. -R.E. Potter, author of "The Crimson Thread: The Struggle To Become Jesus During The Revolt Against Rome"

After reading Eisenman's newest addition to `James the brother of Jesus' I find his ideas are significantly different from mainstream early church historians and those "in the know" of Judeo/Christian/Islamic studies. In the first place, Eisenman's work area is always massive and challenging, and I found this one to be particularly chllenging. There are so many new ideas in it, in a subject one might have thought was already dead, that it is hard to catch one's breath or count them all. Of course, it is clear that Eisenman works outside the box, and a lot of his ideas are likely to be met with extreme criticism and prejudice - as anything does when they fly against the current zeitgeist and religious zeal. But I implore anyone interested in this subject to approach Eisenman's work with an open and scientific mind. Believer or unbeliever alike, they will not be disappointed and, if anything, they will ssurely be extended -- a rare commodity in today's world. The legwork Eisenman has done is truly massive. His prolific knowledge on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Judeo/Early Christian/Roman ethos, which seems almost intractable, is displayed and tied together with brilliant clarity. It is refreshing to see light being shed in this angle, and a curiosity as to why this route had not yet been explored. Although I personally found Eisenman's material controversial, it is so well argued and the massive back-up of data and insight he provides often from sources I myself never knew even existed, caused me in the end (even though a person of Faith mysef -- as I believe he is from perhaps a different perspective) to be unable to find fault in the logic or reasoning that Eisenman presented after reviewing `James the Brother of Jesus' and its addendum `The New Testament Code.' Like many scientific studies, there are always different ways to interpret data, so putting Achems Razor aside, you don't have to swallow what he is saying, but I recommend that you read the book and maybe even do some legwork of your own to make your own interpretations. I'm sure you'll find Eisenman is not off the mark. But then again, there are those who still proclaim that the earth really is flat.

Every decade or so a book comes along that completely redraws the map in its field. In the field of Early Christianity, Robert Eisenman's "James the Brother of Jesus" was just such a book and here, nearly ten years later, Eisenman, with the "New Testament Code", has done it once again. The book is a massive work with incredible depth and insight and completes his promise in his earlier work to lay out the connections between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament/Early Christianity. Make no mistake about it, Eisenman is a scholar's scholar and possesses an almost unfathomable grasp of the original sources. His stature among the scholarly community has been on a constant upward climb since the days in the early 90's when he broke the scrolls monopoly with the publication of the "Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered" and later with his ground breaking "James the Brother of Jesus". In "The New Testament Code" his main thesis is that James, the actual brother of Jesus and known as The Righteous One in early Christianity can be equated to the Righteous Teacher in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Along the way he unpacks many myths and obfuscations about Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity and clears the way for a keener and fuller understanding of messianism in first century Palestine, as well as where the historical Jesus fits into the equation. Rather than denying the existence of Jesus, he rescues him from the ideological hatchet job given him by a later Pauline Christianity to show the true place that he and his at that time better known brother James occupied in the Jewish fight for liberation from Roman oppression and power. However, Eisenman is not content to stop there. He shows that the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls were part and parcel of a larger messianic movement against Rome and he demonstrates conclusively that the authors of the New Testament were well aware of the ideas and beliefs in the Scrolls and used a sort of "code" in their writings to obscure, confuse, parody and disguise the real intent of their authors. Specifically, he demonstrates that what seem to be otherwise benign phrases such as "The Cup of the New Covenant" and "The Land of Damascus" are fraught with meaning for both the Scrolls community and the earliest Pauline Christians. In the end he concludes that the way the author of the Book of Acts and Paul -- among other New Testament authors -- distorted the original meanings of these and countless other expressions "are indicative of some more persistent esoteric or allegorical wordplay" that was meant to transform and downplay their significance "into its exact or mirror opposite" (pg 998) to create a new messianism that the Roman authorities were comfortable with and one that could survive in the Roman Empire. As it was with "James the Brother of Jesus" his contributions to the field with "The New Testament Code" are monumental and his conclusions are at once awe inspiring and mind boggling. At the same ti