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Jesus & the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Unlocking the Secrets of His Life Story

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_Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls_ provoked quite a bit of controversy when it came out in 1992. In it Barbara Thiering made presentable in a very easy to read fashion her theory that the Teacher of Righteousness (found in the Dead Sea Scrolls) is actually John the Baptist, AND ... the Wicked Priest or the Man of lies is Jesus of Nazareth.

Crucial to Thiering's theory is her pesher technique as described in chapter four. Thiering explains that pesher as found in the Old Testament means an "interpretation." However in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a pesher is a word puzzle set up by the writer so that hidden historical meanings could be conveyed. Thiering goes on to apply this technique to the New Testament.

Her theory is generally criticized for one of two things. First, Thiering's pesher technique is backward with regard to the NT. Whereas a pesher is a method for reinterpreting previously written authoritative writings, in Thiering's view the NT was originally written in a codified form. One might note with interest that if this were in fact so, then no one has realized this for about 2000 years. For example, the subapostolic writers totally miss it. The second criticism that scholars generally raise against Thiering's theory is her redating of some of the DSS in order to make them compatible.

_Riddle_ was controversial when it was published in the early 1990s. However the theory has gained few adherents and few scholars give it much attention anymore.

If this is the first book you read on the subject of the historical Jesus, you may well be impressed. It is a liberating experience to understand that the gospels, with all their contradictions, are political documents rather than 'the revealed word of God'. However, any examination of what the gospels actually are absolutely must be backed up with flawless evidence. This is the price of rejecting an interpretation upon which much of western history has been built.

The Pesher method is seductive. It offers a holy grail of meaning - a true understanding of what actually happened, something scholars have failed to uncover. But if you come to this book after researching the subject exhaustively, I'm afraid this book is an illusion.

Promising, even tantalizing, it signally fails to deliver on the promise. The explanation of the Pesher itself is rudimentary, and while some texts are given interesting twists, they are adrift in vast seas of speculation. It is no good hypothesizing that one verse has a new meaning, when those surrounding it bear no meaning as a result.

If Ms. Thiering really wants to convince, then she should apply her extraordinary scholarship to presenting a total picture, not one where every so often one verse can change everything. It can't. It doesn't. So that, ultimately, anyone with some reading on the historical Jesus will realize that this is one more chimera.

To be specific in one instance, if the early christians - Peter, Paul and Jesus (still alive) - had truly decided to hoodwink mankind into believing an untruth, i.e. that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, it surely casts them in a doubtful moral light. Tiering discusses neither this, nor any debate among the characters themselves as to the morality of the method. If Jesus travelled around Asia Minor and stood to one side, listening while Paul preached the story of his death and resurrection, he was a lesser man than I have understood to date.

A lot of scholarship hovers around this hypothesis, but in the final analysis it is not enough.

This book, Jesus & the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is the exact same book as Jesus the Man, both by Barbara Thiering. One is published in Sydney and London under the title, Jesus the Man, and the other is published in the U.S. by HarperCollins. This may help other readers avoid buying both books, as I did, thinking that they are 2 different books.

I bought this book after seeing the TV documentary, which I thought was very interesting. However, by the time I got about half-way through the book, I realized that her conclusions are based upon wild conjecture. Thiering believes that basically everything in the gospels is symbolic and that she has discovered the keys to understanding the real story behind the fiction. The real story, of course, was hidden from the uninitated, and now that hidden knowledge that was lost for thousands of years can be yours! Ya, right. If you like conspiracy theories, this book will probably interest you. If you want a good book about the Dead Sea Scrolls, look elsewhere.

After Robert Eisenman's `James the Brother of Jesus' this book was a pleasure to read. Barbara Thiering presents reasonable argument from the gospels and the dead sea scrolls to strip the historical Jesus of, his divinity, virgin birth, miracles and resurrection. I do not think that most reasonable thinking people will not have any problem with this in itself. Most reasonable thinking people will know this. I think that some present day church leaders will attempt to coerce their flock into not risking hell and eternal damnation that is surely within its covers. The author trims down the multitudes into just a few main players and relocates and redraws the Holy Land to a small area around the Dead Sea. She also seems to shrink the expanse of time around Jesus ministry to fall within 3 days, the 30th, 31st, and the 1st. The small circle around the man Jesus turn out be close associates as well as his most dangerous enemies, but NO REAL FRIENDS!! Not even his mother and brothers!! The author's presentation reminds me of the old saying that one should keep his friends close and his enemies even closer. The author claims that Jesus was a great man, but just a man. The feeling that I ended with was that Jesus was more political than great! If the author was not trying to be factual and scholarly, she could have very easily have set the scene in a church or government boardroom, and the final result of the corporate in fighting would be the election of a new chairman and a board of directors. I may be wrong but I think the author presented Jesus as being more in favor of Roman Herodian rule than against them, because for the most the Roman Herodians were more in favor the hierarchy that gave Jesus more power? Politics? You Bet!!

This work is obviously the result of many years of research into the writing technique of the gospel writers and some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which may or not be contemporary with the birth of what we now know as Christianity. I don't advise that you buy the author's version of `pesher', lock stock and barrel, but she will cause you to think. The reader will have to be on guard and decide what is fact or maybe the product of a great imagination. The author does have a great imagination!

The reader would have to be well versed in Greek to know for sure if the authors conclusions are reasonable, but the English read is still very interesting. For example, the author claims that a character named Simon Magnus appears many times in scripture, as Simon or Lazarus, or Lazarus the leper, or Simon the magician, and this same character is one of men crucified with Jesus and actually survives and is responsible for saving Jesus life and perpetuating the resurrection myth. The author also claims that Jesus' references to God, including Father and Holy Spirit are references to very specific flesh and blood men. The author makes the same claim for references to Satan. The author claims that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Joseph and that "Simon, called Simian in the gospels, was the *angel Gabriel*" a high official of the Essene Community, who talked Joseph into recognizing the child Jesus as his son and not putting away his wife. The author portrays Jesus as a man in constant struggle with the hierarchy of a fanatical religious group who eventually succeeds in replacing it with a hierarchy which is more liberal. The old fanatics seemed to be hung up on circumcision and the celibate life style. The author never does explain the reason for this? I think, I know the answer, but that is not the subject of this review.

The reader should remind themselves that the pesher that Barbara Thiering talks about, is the pesher that she has decided and not necessarily the pesher that was actually used in the creation of the gospels. Pesher seems to be an individual thing of the person making a comment on certain scriptures. Using Barbara Thiering's style of pesher one might also say that the man Gabriel, is a candidate for being the biological father of Jesus. The King James version in Matthew says *he came in unto her* and these words *he came in unto her* are the same words used to describe sexual intercourse on the Old Testament. Check out the Judah Tamar story! By this same pesher technique applied to the Genesis account of the Patriarchs one may come up with conclusions even more startling. One could speculate that Isaac is not the true son of Abraham and actually is the son of one of the second of two extramarital relations that are recorded in scripture. The two sons of Isaac are so physically different that one could pesher that they were not fathered by the same seed. Jacob stole the kingdom by coercion and the blessing by deceit. Essau was the firstborn and the rightful heir to Isaac. He was the father of Idumea and probably the patriarch of Herod who could be thought of as reclaiming what was rightfully his. Now lets not forget Ishmael who is a real son of Abraham and actually his firstborn? If one were to apply this type of pesher to the roots of the Jewish religion and their knowledge of the one true God, one might find that it did not come from Moses, but he was only the writer of a knowledge that was handed down through yet another son of Abraham, by a third wife. One might even conclude that the inheritance of their land and their identity as a nation was just as illegitimate as the one they claim as the sprouter of lies. Be careful with pesher!

Jesus the man? There has probably been more speculative writing about this man than any other in the history of the world. Barbara Thiering's gospel is another one. Barbara Thiering does help to remove the fluffy stuff but leaves the politics of a religion that Jesus may have created, without answering the question, did Jesus really intend to create a new religion? I say that if one were to remove the politics and religion as well, all that would be left would be the teachings that may or may not be from the man Jesus. The test as to the practicality of these teachings, most of which are found in Chapter 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, are not in years and years of study and are not to be found in the halls of any church and no hierarchy of popes and cardinals are needed. The test is to honestly try them and see if they make a difference in ones life. If they work, keep them and if not chuck them. As for the book, Jesus the Man, I found it interesting and imaginative, but not definitive. Read it!!

Barbara Thiering's work has been extremely controversial. People either regard her highly or think she's a nutcase. In this book you can see for yourself why she has generated so much controversy. Personally I find the book intriguing and interesting. Her technique is very unusual, and while we only have her interpretations to rely upon, in most cases I thought she presented a good case and one which was sympatehtic to my own views.

One can only wish that Dr. Thiering had inspired more students to pursue her area of study. Laurence Gardner has taken up her cause, but I'm afraid his "research" leaves much to be desired, although I have to confess to being sympathetic to many of his interpretations as well. Unfortunatwely, in the field of scholarly research (instead of general paperback novels), we need more than grand theories to whet our appetites.

This book definitely deserves a look. You may or may not agree with some of her conclusions, but you will gain an insight into the lives of the Essenes.

This is unequivically one of the most difficult books to write. A devout protestant comes across enlightening information contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls and performs a scientific analysis of the Gospels and Acts with this new information. With all that is known about the scrolls and the settlement at Cumran, it is surprising that she is the first to apply this knowledge in such a way. A tour-de-force in the area of historical writing and reporting. While her final conclusions about the end of Jesus's life are a little disappointing, she refused to say any more than the texts would tell her and therefore comes up empty. This fact is proof of her devotion to a scientific analysis of the scrolls and the gospels and should be admired. A gripping tale backed up with 300 pages of appendicies; reccomended for anyone that is interested in a thought provoking, possibly life changing book.

Christians will have a really hard time with this book because it pulls down the the myths surrounding Jesus. This book discusses the Jewish rituals and polatics of the time and puts it in perspective.It gives a look at the symbolism and how it was given. This book gives very important details of which you need to interpet the bible properly. Highly insightful and well woth the read!

Here is a solid expanation of the historical beginning of Christianity and for many miracles in the Bible. This is history taken directly from the Dead Sea Scrolls unfiltered by organized religion I expected blockbuster reaction and great debate. I am greeted with a book out of print instead. I theorize that enough copies are in circulation that the explosion is merely slowed down. I hope it is not stiffled completely. Discovery Channel video "The Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrools" covers a good portion of Barbara Thiering's discoveries.

I first read this book in 1992, and was thunderstruck to find a book that agreed with my beliefs as to Jesus. This book is completely and utterly believable and makes total sense to me - as does the fact that Christians whose income depend on their religion as it stands today would criticize and oppose this book at every opportunity.