Rate My Professor Robert Eisenman

Robert Eisenman is Emeritus Professor of Middle East Religions, Archaeology, and Islamic Law at California State University, Long Beach, where he directed the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins. Previously, he served as head of the Religious Studies department. His academic background includes a B.A. in Philosophy and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1958, an M.A. in Hebrew and Near Eastern Studies from New York University in 1966, and a Ph.D. in Middle East Languages and Cultures and Islamic Law from Columbia University in 1971. Eisenman has held distinguished appointments such as Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford University, Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow-in-Residence at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. These roles underscore his contributions to Theology and biblical scholarship through rigorous analysis of ancient texts and archaeological contexts.

Eisenman's research specializations encompass the Dead Sea Scrolls, early Christianity, Judeo-Christian origins, and Islamic law. As consultant to the Huntington Library in 1991-1992, he was instrumental in the decision to open its archives, providing free access to photographic copies of the previously unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls for all scholars. He has directed the Judean Desert Explorations/Excavations Project since 1988, conducting surveys, excavations, and radar groundscans at Qumran and surrounding areas. Key publications include Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari’ah (1978), Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins (1983), James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (1986), A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1989, co-authored with James M. Robinson), The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (1992, co-authored with Michael Wise), The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996), James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1997-1998), The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ (2006), The New Jerusalem: A Millennium Poetic/Prophetic Travel Diario, 1959-1962 (2007), and James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I & II (2012-2013). In 2002, Eisenman was the first scholar to publicly announce the fraudulence of the James Ossuary.