From: ACUS10@WACCVM.SPS.MOT.COM (Mark Fuller)
Subject: Re: A Critique of Barbara Thiering's 'Jesus the man'
Organization: Motorola Inc.
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 20:55:36 GMT


<C44590@TRMETU.BITNET> writes:
>        today i e-mailed a request for recieving a copy of the critique to
> the book 'jesus the man'to the writer of it personally,but i was informed that
> ...

My latest issue of BAR contains a review of Thiering's book.  I was
looking for a reason to use my scanner -- hope the attached helps.

===== Biblical Archaeology Review - September/October 92 ============

-Book Review- Jesus & the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Unlocking the Secrets of His Life Story -- _Barbara Theiring_
---------------------------------------------------------------------


              Did Jesus Really Die on the Cross?

      This is not really a book about the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is
a fantastical reinterpretation of the Gospels and the life of
Jesus, supposedly using a technique unlocked by the scrolls.

      Thiering divines her thoroughly novel reading of New
Testament texts on the  basis of what she calls "the pesher."
_Pesher_ is a Hebrew word that means explanation. It normally
refers to the interpretation of an ancient text as if it were
saying something about a much later time--usually the end of
days. This kind of interpretation is common in the New Testament,
where, for example, the prophecies o Isaiah are read as applying
to the time of Jesus. It is also common among the Dead Sea
Scrolls. For example, several Qumran texts known as _pesharim_
(the plural of _pesher_) are commentaries on particular Biblical
books--among them Habakkuk and Nahum; these _pesharim_ first
quote a passage from the Biblical text and then give the
_pesher_, or commentary, applying the text to the time of the
commentary. Thiering uses _pesher_ somewhat differently, however.
She uses the term with reference not simply to then-ancient texts
such as the books of the Israelite prophets, but with respect to
then-new texts, that is, the New Testament. When used in this
way, the term can refer only to a secret meaning. In short, says
Thiering, the Gospel writers put a secret meaning into their
texts at the time they were written. There is really no need for
Thiering to use the word _pesher_, except that it lends a certain
mystery to the process by which she reads the New Testament. All
she is saying is that there is a secret subtext to the Gospels,
put there by their authors.

      Ancient authors also used code words frequently. A
particular word often stood for another word. In rabbinic
writings, "Edom" usually means Rome. In Revelation, "Babylon"
stands for Rome. Thiering includes the use of code words in her
definition of _pesher_.

      Thus is she prepared to read the subtext of the Gospels.

      Even the fawning introduction--by a Dr. Leonie Star, not
otherwise identified--recognizes that "there is no doubt that
some find difficulty in accepting [Thiering's] reasoning." It is,
Dr. Star concedes, "a matter of faith as much as a scholarly
hypothesis."

      According to Thiering, who teaches at Sydney University in
Australia, the Gospel writers wrote on two levels. On one level,
they wrote for the "babes in Christ," who "need[ed] the
supernatural as an element of their faith." On another, concealed
level--never noticed in the nearly 2,000 years since they were
written--is an intentionally accurate, factual, nonsupernatural,
historical account of events. That--nothing less--is what
Thiering has uncovered.

      She is helped by the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Similarities
that all scholars see between early Christianity and the Qumran
sectarians suggest to Thiering that "the Qumran sect represented
the form of Judaism out of which Christianity came.' From there
she jumps to the conclusion that the famous Teacher of
Righteousnes of the Qumran texts is John the Baptist and that his
opponent, the Wicked Pries (whom she conflates with the Man of a
Lie), is none other than Jesus himself.

      One of the problems with this theory is that many of the
Qumran references t the Teacher of Righteousness, etc., are dated
100 years or more before the time of John the Baptist or Jesus.
The scrolls are dated paleographically, however--that is, by the
shape and stance of the letters. There is enough ambiguity in the
Qumran references, Thiering tells us, "to encourage a fresh look
at the dating of the figures in the scrolls." Q.E.D. If written
in the mid-first century A.D., they could be contemporaneous with
the Gospels, which Thiering dates much earlier than most
scholars. John (which she says was the earliest) she dates to 37
A.D.; the others were all composed by the 60s; even Acts was
completed by the early 60s. Almost all scholars will be startled
by these early dates.

      For Thiering, Christianity like its founder was born near,
if not at, Qumran. "Jesus was born, not in Bethlehem, but in the
building about a kilometer south of the Qumran plateau. He was
born there because at the time of his birth he was officially
classed as an illegitimate child." Thus the roller coaster
begins. Why was he born at a place known today as Khirbet Mird?
Because some (much later) Christian writings were found there.

      The Galilean references in the Gospels are, when read
properly (that is, by Thiering, allegedly using the pesher
technique), references to the Dead Sea area. This is demonstrated
by the fact that the locations in Galilee seem vague and
imprecise and the times needed to cover the distances do not seem
to work. But when the code names are understood, the locations
all fit. Thus the Sea of Galilee is really the Dead Sea: "The
boat trips taken by Jesus and the disciples were on the Dead Sea,
not on Lake Galilee." Gerasa is Ain Feshka; Capernaum is Mazin
(another site on the shore of the Dead Sea).

      From a passage in Josephus, Thiering concludes that the
Essenes (whom she identifies with the Qumran sect, to which
Jesus' family belonged) had a two-stage marriage procedure. The
first wedding was a kind of betrothal that initiated a maximum
three-year probation period during which the couple was permitted
to engage in sexual relations--in effect, a trial marriage. If
during this period, the woman became pregnant, the couple had "a
second marriage ceremony.... Thus the woman was always three
months pregnant at her final wedding." Joseph and Mary had
intercourse, however, even before the initial wedding ceremony.
"Joseph was then in a difficult position: he had committed a
minor breach of the rules, and one option was to 'put Mary away.'
The child would then be classed as illegitimate." Joseph
consulted some priests whose advice was that "he should recognise
the child, and go ahead with the first wedding as if it were the
second, when the woman was normally pregnant anyway. He did so,
and in accordance with the rules, there was no intercourse after
this wedding, treated as a second one [because she was already
pregnant]. This was a straightforward fact, but it was put in
such a way in Matthew's gospel as to give the impression that
there never had been sex." Thus according to Thiering.

      The virgin birth story is "written at the level of a
miracle for those for whom the idea of a virginal conception had
symbolic power, but at the same time it is written in such a way
that those who had special knowledge of the Essene marriage rules
and did not expect the supernatural would understand the real
facts."

      This is pretty much the level of Thiering's text. Just as
the Galilee is transformed to the Dead Sea area, so Jerusalem is
transposed to the settlement at Qumran--the new Jerusalem. By the
time of the Passion, Jesus had married Mary Magdalene. "Jesus had
to marry in order to continue his family line [he was heir to the
Davidic throne], and in his case it was all the more necessary in
order to affirm his legitimacy." At the time of his marriage,
Jesus was 36 1/2 (Thiering is nothing if not precise); Mary was
27. There had previously been a trial marriage, and Mary was
already pregnant (she had conceived in December, 32). Thiering
refrains from describing the couple's "personal emotions"
(although they did hope it would be a boy) because that would
"ventur[e] too far into speculation" and Thiering likes to stick
to demonstrable facts.

      Jesus returned to Qumran to see his pregnant wife and to
celebrate his second wedding to her when he became enmeshed in
the Passion and Crucifixion. At the Qumran temple, the sectarians
kept their treasury. Jesus objected to this: "Here were to be
found 'the tables of the moneychangers.' Qumran had been turned
into a bank.... He overthrew the tables of the moneychangers."

      The Last Supper "was a regular evening meal such as was
held every night by the [Qumran] sectarians." When the Gospels
tell us he then went to the Mount of Olives, they really mean
"the monastery building east of the aqueduct" at Qumran. In a
complicated internecine dispute, Jesus is seized and arrested.

      Pilate then arrives at Qumran for the trial. He is bribed
to condemn Jesus, but "in order to receive the bribe, . . .
Pilate had to become a nominal member [of the sect]. To receive
membership, he went through a token baptism by washing his
hands." Pilate then ordered Jesus' crucifixion, along with two
others.

      "The crosses . . . were set up on a spot that can be
determined exactly. The location lay outside the southern
entrance gate to the Qumran complex, on a line nine yards south
of the south-west corner of the lower vestry." Thiering even
provides us with a photograph of the supposed exact site.

      Jesus did not die on the cross, however. He drank some
"snake poison.. . [that] render[ed] him unconscious." He was
taken down and placed in a burial cave: "Jesus did not die on the
cross. He recovered from the effects of the poison, was helped to
escape from the tomb by friends, and stayed with them until he
reached Rome, where he was present in AD 64. This is not
conjecture."

      The story that he died on the cross is "fiction for the
'babes"'; his post-Easter appearances were nothing less than "the
real flesh and blood Jesus holding an audience with his
ministers." We were meant to understand the text in this way when
it is properly interpreted, according to Thiering.

      Thiering's book is deceptive in that it looks very thick;
if you look at the last page, it is numbered 451. In fact,
however, her story is quite briefly told. Only 160 pages,
including the introduction, are taken up by the text itself. The
remaining nearly 300 pages are consumed by lengthy appendixes
that give the book the feel of weighty scholarship.

      The real mystery is how HarperSanFrancisco, a division of
HarperCollins that is generally known for books of solid
scholarship, decided to publish this volume. The answer doubtless
has something to do with what was on the tables that Jesus
overturned. The publisher has told the bookstores that it is
going to spend $30,000 promoting this book, so they had better
stock it. It will be interesting to see whether this investment
pays off. -- H.S.

_Biblical Archaeology Review - Sept/Oct 92 - pp.69-70._
(Subscriptions and back issues 800-678-5555)

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