James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II by Robert Eisenman

companion taught (whom, given the circumstances and teaching involved, we take to be Paul) did not require circumcision – a strange sort of Judaism!
    Ananias , whom Josephus refers to as a merchant , also appears in parallel texts like the one Eusebius claims he found in the Royal Archive of the Edessa describing Agbarus ’ conversion to what Eusebius thinks is Christianity, though the date is only 29–30 CE or thereabouts. And as already remarked, he also appears in Acts’ presentation of the aftermath of Paul’s co n version at a house of one ‘ Judas ’ on ‘ a street called the Straight ’ in Damascus . 59
    Just as in Scroll delineations of its ‘ New Covenant in the Land of Damascus’ , Acts also considers the conversion of the character it most cares about to have taken place ‘ on the road to (or ‘ in the Land of ’) Damascus’ , which might have wider i m plications, as we shall eventually see, than the first-time reader might initially imagine. 60 One consequence of this correspon d ence is that the ‘ Covenant ’ in the first might simply be reversing the other , that is, unlike the more ‘ Paulinizing ’ one in Acts, Qumran’s ‘ New Covenant in the Land of Damascus ’ rather insisted on ‘ separating Holy from profane ’ as well as ‘ setting up the Holy Things according to their precise specifications’ . 61
    Not only did Mani (216–277 CE), the founder of Manichaeism, reportedly come from an Elchasaite family living in the same general locale in Southern Iraq as Izates when he was converted – a place the sources refer to as ‘ Mesene ’, 62 but the Mandaeans , who represent themselves as the followers of John the Baptist and are in all things absolutely indistinguishable from these same Elchasaites , inhabit Southern Iraq down to this very day. 63 They have been referred to in Arab texts for over a thousand years as ‘ Sabaeans ’ – again, Arabic for ‘ Baptizers ’ or ‘ Daily Immersers ’ (not persons from Southern Arabia as no r mative Islam usually considers the term to mean) and, in popular parlance, used by Arabs then and still today, ‘ the Subba ‘ of the Marshes’ . These Mandaeans also refer to their priest class as ‘ Nasuraiya ’, that is, ‘ Nazoraeans ’ (compare this with the town of Naziriyya fought over by US forces in the war in Iraq).
    This is the area that in later times ultimately becomes a hotbed of Shi‘ite Islam as it clearly still is today. The key seems to have been ‘ the Primal Adam ’ ideology associated, according to all commentators, with groups like the Ebionites and Elchasaites . It, in turn, was transformed into what became the Imam or Hidden Imam idea so integral to Shi‘ite though not Sunni Islam. 64 The Hidden Imam idea is basically a variation of this ‘ Primal Adam ’ or ‘ Standing One ’ notation fundamental, according to the Pseudoclementines, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius, to groups like the Ebionites, Elchasaites, Jewish Christians, and, even before these, Simon Magus . 65
    The idea would also appear to be present in one form or another in Qumran documents and echoes of it are identifiable across the breadth of New Testament literature – though not perhaps to the uninitiated reader – in the never-ending allusions to ‘ standing ’ one encounters in it. 66 Like the Elchasaites preceding them, the Manichaeans were precursors of Islam and, for the most part – in this part of the world anyhow, probably absorbed into it. Indeed, Muhammad has many doctrines in co m mon with the traditions represented by both groups, in particular, the idea of the ‘True Prophet’ or the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ and the importance of Abraham in the salvationary scheme he is delineating. 67
    The Land of Noah and Abraham’s Religion
    The connection to Abraham of traditions relating to religious ideas arising in these areas should not be underestimated. It is important to realize that Edessa, the capital of Eusebius’ ‘ Great