Book of Genesis : Scholar Translates Long-Hidden Secrets of Dead Sea Scrolls

Robert Eisenman’s five-bedroom home is at the vortex of an intellectual whirlwind of biblical proportions.

Its floors are piled high with boxes of yellowed documents. Its tables are covered with pages containing obscure passages. And everywhere an atmosphere of creative disorder prevails, a sort of rumbling of the mind and spirit borne of a feverish true belief.

“I work at home,” explains Eisenman, a professor of religious studies at Cal State Long Beach and chairman of that university’s department of religious studies. “I find this very exciting.”

The source of excitement is the impending Nov. 23 publication of Eisenman’s new book, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered,” the first complete translation of 50 key scroll fragments never before seen by the public. Eisenman, 54, believes that the book could blow the lid off traditional views of early Judeo-Christianity, changing forever beliefs on the origins of Western religion.

“The question on the lips of the public has been, ‘What is in those scrolls?’ ” the professor said, repeating a query that has been inspiring tabloid headlines for years. “Well, here it is and it (provides) a tremendous insight into life in the 1st Century BC.”

A key element of that life, according to Eisenman, who co-authored the book with University of Chicago professor Michael Wise, is that the early Christians were more tied to Judaism, more aggressive, more nationalistic, more messianic and far more militant than biblical scholars have traditionally believed.

It’s a controversial view--Eisenman has numerous critics in the world of religious scholarship--and not one that he arrived at quickly.

The son of a chemist from South Orange, N.J., he made his first trip to Israel after graduating from Cornell University in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. After spending some time on a kibbutz there writing poetry and teaching math and English, he returned to the United States and earned a doctorate in Mideast studies, eventually specializing in Middle Eastern religions, including early Christianity in Palestine.

Eisenman first became interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls as a graduate student in 1965. In the course of pursuing his studies, however, he kept running up against the inaccessibility of the many Dead Sea documents that had yet to be published.

Held by Israel’s Department of Antiquities, the documents had been tightly controlled since their discovery in 1947 by an international committee of scholars based at Harvard University, a group Eisenman has described as a “strange cartel” bent on denying access to anyone who didn’t share its views.

In 1986, Eisenman began spearheading a drive for access to the closely guarded scrolls. Eventually, his efforts were instrumental in persuading the Israeli government to agree to their release, a move that made international headlines.

Now the Orange County scholar is coming out with the world’s first English translation of the new materials, which he believes could radically alter public perceptions.

“These were not people who loved their enemies,” he said of the long-ago writers of the scrolls. “They were a militant, violent, aggressive . . . group preparing for the last apocalyptic war against all evil.”

A collection of 2,000-year-old Palestinian documents that chronicle much of the background of Judaism and Christianity, the Dead Sea Scrolls have traditionally been viewed by most scholars as products of Jewish scribes with little connection to the early Christian church. Eisenman, however, contends that the religious zealots who wrote them--members of a sect called Qumran--not only adhered closely to Jewish law, but can be linked directly to early Christianity.

As evidence, he cites scroll fragments containing language strikingly similar to that which later appeared in the New Testament. He also cites descriptions of a Qumran sect leader known as the Teacher of Righteousness, whom he believes may actually have been James, an apostle of Jesus.

Other interesting scroll fragments, Eisenman says, include:

* A revision of the Noah flood story that changes the chronology of events as reported in the Bible;

* Mystical material similar to that contained in the Kaballah--an early book of Jewish mysticism--which attests to the rapturous excitement of these early religionists;

* Zodiacal references showing the Qumran sect’s interest in astrology;

* And a disciplinary text in which a Qumran leader orders the punishment of a man found guilty of masturbating.

Taken as a whole, Eisenman’s scroll interpretations paint the picture of an early Christian movement that, during Jesus’ lifetime, was much different than the otherworldly, cosmopolitan and forgiving church created by the apostle Paul and his followers during succeeding generations.

“It gives a lot of ammunition to people into the liberation theology of Latin America,” Eisenman said, referring to Christians who advocate religious-based social activism.

Not everyone shares Eisenman’s interpretations of the scrolls.

Stephen A. Reed, a biblical scholar now teaching at African University in Zimbabwe, has described the Orange County professor as a maverick of sorts, whose views are fairly isolated. “He’s not really mainstream,” Reed said in an interview earlier this year. “I don’t know that he has a lot of followers.”

William Yarchin, associate director of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, agrees, describing Eisenman’s views as “a departure from the consensus of the past several generations regarding the early Christian community.”

And Benjamin Hubbard, a professor of religious studies at Cal State Fullerton, says he’s not yet convinced that the early Christians were as aggressive as Eisenman contends.

Yet even his critics give the Orange County professor major credit for opening up the discussion on such matters.

“Eisenman is kind of a prophet,” Hubbard says. “He’s going to make all of us go back and re-examine the New Testament. His book is really going to make people think. We’re going to have to come out of our interpretational slumbers.”

Concludes Eisenman: “At least now people can make up their own minds.”