Rating: 
Summary: Unique, therefore a five, but needs editing and organizing
Review: The author is the only writer presenting this unique and compelling view of James, therefore it is a must read. However, his style is rambling and repetitive. Editing and organizing the material would increase its readability. When is the next volume coming out?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Excellent book. It reveals the political aspects of the Bible. Anyone who enjoys this work should aquaint themselves with the Piso conspiracy theory. This book borders on the theory, but never mentions it. I wonder if the author is aware of the idea that the Piso family authored many of the New Testament texts as an effort to calm the rebellious messianic Jews.
Rating: 
Summary: Everyone's got an opinion, but let's stick to the facts!
Review: Apparently Mr. Eisenman thinks all of us should believe every word he writes. He may have done his research but it was buffed by his own opinions and misconceptions. Sure, it would be nice to believe that amoung the Dead Sea Scrolls lies scrolls that would give us more insight into the life of Jesus. Unfortunately, (or rather fortunately depending on your point of view) these scrolls, that Mr. Eisenman so avidly refer to, do not name names or even give positive implications. These things are important in any research but have been denied in these scrolls. The facts and the evidences are missing from his research and we are left with 1,000 pages of mere speculation and guessing (which for our reading pleasures have been stated as fact). Mr. Eisenman has made some awesome theories in this book "James the Brother of Jesus" but let's not confuse fact with fiction as we have with "Darwin's Theory of Evolution". Without solid proof, proper evidence and discernment his claims can't be taken seriously. You can't prove a theory with a theory and you shouldn't state a theory as though it is fact. When will we learn this lesson? I'd like to read some works concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls that aren't based on speculation. If anyone knows of any I would appreciate some feedback. Please email me.
Rating: 
Summary: Long, cynical, contradictory.
Review: Eric von Daniken must've written the promotional material for this Sears catalogue of a book.Note the subtitle: "The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls." Lots of profit making buzzwords there, but the book fails to deliver on this lurid claim. Eisenman's prose dodges, whirls and zigzags like a fly exploring every crevice of a Hindu temple. With microscopic advances, points are made, re-stated and stated again. The first 125 pages could be lopped off and no one would be less well informed. Conclusions reached are somewhat plausible, if you persist in assigning the most base motives to virtually everyone scrutinized. Eisenman relies heavily on the ancient historian Josephus. Josephus' limitations are well known to most modern historians. Eisenman occasionally attacks the old hack himself, when Josephus' accounts collide with the author's own baroque constructions. Once the second volume is complete, print a run for the eggheads. Do the rest of us a favor and boil all of it down to 350 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Challenging, repetitive, enlightening
Review: I am now reading "James the Brother of Jesus." It is challenging and dense. Dr. Eisneman makes many tangential remarks (even in the middle of long complex sentences!) and I find myself re-reading and parsing sentences on every page. But despite this, I feel there is much to praise in this book. On the simplest level, it has allowed me to break free from my conventional understanding of early Christianity. I wonder how I could have spent years not giving a second thought to: (1) the veiled (and not so veiled) power struggle between Paul and the leaders in Jerusalem, (2) the fact that the leadership in Jerusalem surely had a far more intimate knowledge of Jesus than did Paul, and (3) the astonishing inconsistency between the Gospels' portrayal of occupied Palestine and what we actually know about that period. As one reviewer said (above), "There is nothing new here". If that's true, Eisenman has done me a wonderful service: showing me this "old" information in a new way.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, even compelling thesis that lacks in execution
Review: Robert Eisenman looks at Christianity from a detailed historical perspective, and concludes that James of the early Church in Jerusalem was meant to be the spiritual heir to Jesus' ministry and life. For those Christians with sincere doctrinal disputes with St. Paul, this is compelling reading. Unfortunately in a book whose entire premise relies on the interpretation of ancient manuscripts, Mr. Eiseman does not seem to have a grasp of language. His early and continued misuse of the word "decimate" grates, and made me reconsider how much I could trust any of the more critical interpretations he offered. Although I am well read in this area, I found the constant going back and forth between my reference books, the text and the detailed footnotes exhausting. I believe this is a great coffee table book and conversation starter, but offers little in the way of solid historical authenticity.
Rating:
Summary: At last some light.
Review: I am not a bible scholar and this was tough reading but I am always curious about what really happened in Palestine in the lst century. The conclusions of the book make such sense and clear up many of the confusions of the New Testament. There may have been four brothers, a family of revolutionaries, and the stories of the four have converged into the Jesus mythology.
Rating: 
Summary: Sincere scholarship, but much too long and complex .
Review: This book could have been a 5 star winner, but it is too long, repetitious, and redundant. Evidently it was subjected to copy-editing, because there are few if any typos -- but it could not have been edited for content and style. Sentences are run-on and almost always broken by infuriatingly complicated parenthetical remarks. I used the 2-inch-thick paperback edition, which I had to physically cut in three pieces in order to conveniently refer to the notes. Having said that, I agree with Eisenman's positions on James, Jesus, and the Essenes -- which are amply covered in the many other reviews appearing here. I wish Prof. Eisenman would get somebody to condense this book to a readable two- or three-hundred pages. The information he presents is quite valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Detail!
Review: This book needs all 1112 pages--there is no fluff here. Personally, I feel honored as a reader by being provided with such extensive quotations and background as Eisenman provides in order to illuminate his reasoning process. This allows me as a reader to evaluate the data myself and judge whether I think his conclusions are warranted. 'Jesus was like James' is the thesis of this book, and Eisenman not only illuminates who James was, but makes it very difficult to draw a picture of Jesus that is too far from James. (I've been trying to find some wiggle room, and it's difficult!) Some of the things this book taught me or persuaded me were probable: o 1st Century Judea was more violently polarized than is often depicted. o James was the chief opposition priest, leading the popular movement against the accomodationist priests. He was very powerful and controversial even apart from his relationship to Jesus. o The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was originally attributed to the death of James, not Jesus. o James was a Nazirite (devoted to God) from birth. He was a lifelong vegetarian, teetotaller, and virgin. He never cut his hair. o Jesus' family were probably Rechabites, a tradition combining Jewish asceticism along with manual trades such as metalworking or carpentry. o Apparently, Paul murderously assaulted James shortly before Paul's conversion. o Large sections of Paul's epistles are devoted to lengthy personal attacks on James which are quite gratuitously nasty. (James also personally attacks Paul in his epistle.) o Paul was a Roman accomodationist after his conversion (as well as before). o Paul seems to have been a Herodian, i.e. related by blood to Herod the Great's family. o The Essenes of the Dead Sea Scrolls were (or became) Jewish Christians. All the above items (except the Rechabite one) come directly from historical and patristic sources. (That is, they are not based on 'interesting similarities', such as the idea that Jesus might have been a wandering! sage in the cynic tradition.) There's a lot more. Eisenman was not convincing to me on everything: o For my taste, he draws too many conclusions from linguistic similarities (eg, frequent references to 'nets' or 'casting down' in the NT and the Dead Sea Scrolls). Perhaps it's more stiking in the original texts. o He often collapses two or three characters into one, such as the disciple James and James the brother of Jesus. On the other hand, his solution to Jesus' family structure is strikingly elegant in light of the many conflicting lists and references. Yeah, I guess the writing style didn't always sparkle, but I could not put this book down. I can't wait for the second volume!
Rating:
Summary: A worthy study but not easily accessible
Review: A scholarly work that is worthy of any University library, but barely accessible - without the recommended source material. I found myself wanting to enjoy the writing since it IS a reasonable assumption that James was the heir-apparent, rather than Peter. Unfortunately I felt more 'obliged' to believe than 'persuaded'. Robert Eisenman should take a look at the less scholarly, but infinitely more persuasive, "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing Years" by Richard G. Patton if he is considering another monumental task such as this. Patton delivers spiritual dilemmas through the eyes of a fully believable human being and history lives. Eisenman presents a worthy study that is more relevant to academia than the high street bookstore.
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