Jesus the Man (book)
Cover of the first edition
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| Author | Barbara Thiering |
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| Language | English |
| Subject | Jesus |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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1992 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 509 |
| ISBN | (paperback edition) |
| Preceded by | The Gospels and Qumran |
| Followed by | Jesus of the Apocalypse: The Life of Jesus after the Crucifixion |
Jesus the Man: New Interpretations from the Dead Sea Scrolls is a book written by the Australian biblical scholar and theologian Barbara Thiering. It was first published by Doubleday in 1992 with the title, Jesus & The Riddle of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Unlocking The Secrets of His Life Story.
Using a technique that the author calls "pesher", she purports to have uncovered evidence in the Gospels themselves that effectively contradicts the story they narrate of Jesus and his mission. She calls this story the "surface meaning" of the Gospels, which is "for 'babes'", in contrast to the hidden meaning. Using this method, Thiering believes she has discovered, among other things, that Jesus was a member of the Essene community, that he survived the crucifixion, and that he married twice.
The book was a bestseller, and has been several times reprinted. Its argument has been widely rejected by the scholarly community.
The central thesis of the book is that "Jesus was the leader of a radical faction of Essene priests. He was not of virgin birth. He did not die on the Cross. He married Mary Magdalene, fathered a family, and later divorced. He died sometime after AD 64". From the New Testament gospels and Dead Sea Scrolls, Thiering constructs a new history of early Christianity which she contends was hidden in pesher coding. Thiering finds that the biography of Jesus hidden in the New Testament shows him to have been born in Qumran, an Essene community beside the Dead Sea, in March, 7 BC. Robert E. Van Voorst summarizes Thiering's account of the life of Jesus as follows:
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