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

Abraham’s salvationary state, providing further evidence that this King is probably a foreigner and linking him to the individual Eusebius is calling ‘ the Great King of the Peoples beyond the Euphrates ’ and, even perhaps, Queen Helen’s son Izates – if the two, in fact, can be differentiated in any real way. 75
    In the same vein, Muhammad’s subsequent ideological reliance on Abraham – prefigured, as it were, by Paul – is not so surprising either. Certainly Paul visited this area. But, in our view, so did Muhammad. Plainly he was heir to the traditions, however garbled, stemming from these lands as suggested by the striking references he provides to them in the Koran. 76 If Muhammad participated in the caravan trade, as the Biographies of the Prophet insist, then surely he visited the trading center Charax Spasini (modern Basrah) at the Southern end of the Tigris. It is here, in our view, he would have become familiar with the kinds of ideologies and new salvationary schemes we have been delineating above.
    Nor are such foci surprising in a text like the Damascus Document which, as its name implies, focuses on ‘ the New Cov e nant in the Land of Damascus’ , in particular, the region ‘ north of Damascus ’ where for it, at some point, ‘ the fallen tent of David ’ was going to be re-erected . 77 As we shall see, Acts 15:16 puts the same words about ‘ re-erecting the fallen tent of D a vid ’ into James’ mouth in its portrait of his speech at the Jerusalem Council, another incontrovertible parallel between Acts’ portrait of events it considers central to the development of the early Church and Qumran’s picture of its own history. 78 The position of this book will be that, not only are all these allusions parallel, but they argue for a parallel chronological provenance for documents in which they are to be found. In addition, they are directed towards conversion activities in areas where Abr a ham ’ s name and his salvationary state were looked upon with more than a passing reverence .
    Not surprisingly, too, when James does send his messengers Silas and Judas Barsabas ‘ down from Jerusalem ’ to this region in Acts 15:22–35, it is to Antioch they direct their steps – the only question being, as we have suggested, which Antioch was inten d ed . Was it the one assumed in normative Christian tradition and by all commentators (though never proven) Antioch-on-the-Orontes , where nothing of consequence appears to have been happening in this period, or the more historically significant ‘ Antioch-by-Callirhoe ’ or ‘ Antiochia Orrhoe’ , also known as Edessa and all but indistinguishable from Abraham’s city Haran, where all these incredible conversions were going on and Abraham’s name was held in such regard? As far as I can see, the answer should be obvious – the second.
    Izates’ Conversion and Circumcision
    The connection of so many of these traditions and ideologies with Abraham is not simply fanciful as the theme, whether in the Koran, earlier Christian writings, Josephus, the Talmud , and even in the Dead Sea Scrolls, is too persistent to be i g nored. Not only do the people of Urfa connect the spring at Callirhoe (from which ‘ Antiochia-by-Callirhoe ’ or ‘ Edessa Orrhoe ’ derives its name) to Abraham to this day, but he was said to have been born in one of the caves in its environs as well. 79 Like the legends connected to both the births of John the Baptist and Jesus in Luke’s Infancy Narrative and the Protevangelium of James , Abraham too, according to these ‘apocryphal’ traditions, was said to have been ‘ hidden ’ by his mother there. 80
    For Josephus, this is the Kingdom near Haran which was originally given to Helen’s favorite son Izates by his father (whom Josephus calls ‘ Bazeus ’ – whatever or whomever is intended by this). 81 Josephus calls this area, which Bazeus (evidently defective) gave Izates, ‘ Carrae’ , thus tightening even