Dead Sea Scrolls Deception (ISBN 0671797972)

Fascinating and pretty well supported:
This is a fascinating book about two controversial topics. The first one is how the International Team dominated by Roman Catholic Fathers controlled the possession and withheld all information from the Dead Sea Scrolls since their discovery in 1947 until 1991 when the Huntington Library in California released complete set of photos of the Scrolls. The second topic is Pauline Christianity or how this religion was really created by Paul. There are no valid reasons why a team of Roman Catholic Fathers should have withheld information about the Scrolls for 44 years. By comparison, the Nag Hammadi Scrolls (the Gnostic Gospels) discovered in 1945 had been accessible to outside scholars and nearly completely translated by 1979. Meanwhile, very little published translation regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls occurred prior to 1991. The exceptions were the few published translations from John Allegro regarding the few Scroll sections under his responsibility. Allegro was the only secular member of the International Team. His releasing information caused his being ousted from the Team. The Roman Catholic dominated International Team was adamant in censoring the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Their purpose was to distance the history of the related Qumran Judaic community from Jesus times and the onset of Christianity. They wanted to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus as a human being-God founder of a new religion. The International Team attempted to distance the Dead Sea Scrolls from the New Testament in two ways. First, they conveyed that the Qumranic community was isolated and out of touch with its cultural surrounding. Second, they maintained that the Dead Sea Scrolls dated from much earlier than Jesus time. Thus, this community would have had no interaction with Christian times. However, they had no evidence to support their claims. Robert Eisenman observed that coins found at the Qumran excavation sites dated from 135 B.C.E. to 132 C.E. This suggested that the Dead Sea Scrolls had been written during a period overlapping Jesus time. Since then, carbon dating of the Scrolls has confirmed comparable dates from 200 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. Eisenman research suggests that far from being isolated, the Qumran community was a cultural, military, and religious Judaic center. He also advances that Jesus was a messiah belonging to the Zealots, one of the Judaic sects of the time. Chapter 12 is a fascinating analysis of The Acts demonstrating that Christianity was the creation of Paul who never met Jesus. This is referred to as Pauline Christianity. The chapter describes how Paul rebelled against the Judaic law and beliefs, including Jesus original teachings. Paul decides to turn Jesus into a God. To do so, he assigns miracles to Jesus including his birth from a virgin mother, walking on water, multiplying the breads, and the resurrection. None of the miracles have any supporting historical evidence. Paul's splitting from Judaic tradition marks the beginning of a new religion: Christianity. In addition to Eisenman, many other secular historians support Pauline Christianity. Chapter 7 is most relevant today as it describes the background of the current Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger). He was head of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Their purpose is to impose the traditional Christian faith over any discovery by secular historians that questions Christian dogmas and the history of Jesus as described in the Bible. These organizations serve as tribunals for whoever within the order does not follow the party line on Christian orthodoxy. Many contemporary priests and teachers have been deprived of their posts by these organizations. As the Church is much behind the times (overpopulation vs family planning, banning women from the orders, celibacy, children molestation scandal), the cardinals selected the most dogmatic to become the Pope (Ratzinger). The authors conclude by hoping that the study of early Christianity will underline the common foundation of all three monotheist religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). In turn, they hope this will breed understanding and tolerance. They observed, however, that all three religions are beset by a resurgent fundamentalism. They wrote this in 1991. It appears that religious fundamentalism has become more intense veering towards fanaticism. If you like this book, I also recommend other books written by Michael Baigent especially his latest one "The Jesus Papers" where he further studies the Zealots and the history of Jesus. I also strongly recommend "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels.

Informative but promotes a lame conspiracy theory!:
According to the Consensus View (Frank Cross; Fr.Devaux;P. Benoit; Milik; Strugnell)Qumran was inhabited by Essenes, who were ascetic, pacifist, reclusive people totally enamoured with the Torah. These people built on the ruins of an abandoned Israelite fortress (first built around 600 B.C.). Major buildings were erected around 100 B.C.. The community was destroyed by a fire caused by an earthquake in 31 B.C. Rebuilt under Herod's son, it flourished as a quietist, politically neutral community until it was destroyed once and for all by the Romans, who garrisoned it until the end of the 1st century. It was inhabited by squatters during the 132 A.D. rebellion. The scrolls that have been found are pre-Christian. C14 predates Christ by almost 300 hundred years. The scrolls were written between 250 BC and 70 A.D. According to the Alternative View (John Allegro, Robert Eisenman)the Qumran community was the equivalent of the "early Church" based in Jerusalem, of the so-called "Nazoreans" who followed James, the Lord's brother. Qumran was inhabited by Zealots after the Essene community was destroyed by fire on orders of Herod. Rebuilt in 4 B.C. by Archelaus, Herod's son. There are interesting parallels with the early church: p.132-33 (e.g.,baptism, community life, common meal, 12 apostles). Of interest is the military character of Qumran's ruins. Scrolls were written during the Christian era and brought over to Qumran. The militant tone of the scrolls evokes Masada. Documents: COPPER SCROLL: A treasure map. 64 sites where gold, silver and precious vessels were hidden. COMMUNITY RULE: members designated as "keepers of the Covenant," or as "they who have zeal for the Law." Daily baptisms, daily prayers, Meal of Congregation (similar to LastSupper) WAR SCROLL: against the "Kittim" who have a "King." This cannot be republican Rome which invaded the land of Israel in 63 B.C. under Pompey, but rather imperial Rome, in 66 A.D. This document mentions the "children of light" and the "children of darkness" TEMPLE SCROLL: The King should not marry his niece (against Herod?) DAMASCUS DOCUMENT: Where is Damascus? Is it the city in Syria or Qumran? HABBAKUK COMMENTARY: Members of the community, under instigation of the Liar, break the Covenant and the Law (p. 195) 4QMMT: Letter of the Qumran sect leader to the head of the opponents (160 B.C.) about 22 matters of Jewish Law over which they disagreed. Some questions are discussed: Who was the Teacher of Righteousness? Who was the Liar? Who was the Wicked Priest? Could the Liar be Paul? In regard to the last question, see the attempt on his life by zealous for the Law (Acts 22:22)and his escort by 200 infantry, 200 spearmen 70 cavalry to Caesarea. Why so many troops for only one prisoner? According to the alternative view, Paul originally joined the community of James the Just, but later rejected its teachings and came to be called a Liar. James the Just believed that Jesus would return as Messiah. Chapter 7, entitled "The Inquisition Today" lost my respect for and interest in this book. Was Jesus Last Supper a Passover meal (Mt 26:17-19) or a dinner before Passover (Jn 13:1; 18:28)? It was Passover meal according to Qumran's community which followed a solar calendar as opposed to the lunar calendar of the Temple priesthood. Interesting reading but not persuasive as far as demonstrating that a plot existed to suppress it.

Dead Sea Scrolls Deception:
Highly recommended but can take time to read. It involves so much information so make sure you read in it in a quiet and non-invasive environment to get full benefit from it.

torn about this:
I'm still not sure about the scholarship of this book. Some of the DSS history is accurate and can be authenticated from myriads of other sources. But some of the "deceptions" I don't know about, some seem pretty far fetched. It does at least reveal what scholars already know but Christians seem ignorant of though: that the scrolls do nothing at all to advance biblical scholarship and have nothing whatsoever to do with "New" Testament documents.

Mouthpiece for Eisenman:
The main problem with this book is that Robert Eisenman is not credited as a co-author. Essentially everything is written to harmonize with Eisenman theories, so much so in fact that he must have had significant input to its content. I cannot find fault with the author's dating of the sectarian scrolls, and how conventional scholars neglect the obvious, but the real "deception" is hardly that the scrolls are the work of early Christians. If one actually reads the scrolls, which very few people bother to do, and focus on the Wicked priest character, then one notices how his life resembles Jesus of the gospels. In other words, the scolls were composed by enemies of the early Christians - most probably followers of John the Baptist. Obviously Christian scholars won't go there, but as Eisenman does not believe that Jesus even existed, then clearly the authors can't go there.