"Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls" by Barbara Theiring

[fadedrose]

I first heard of this book in a review in the magazine, "Biblical Archeology" many years ago. The review therein panned it, but I think because they didn't want to upset their Christian readership.

I first heard of Dr. Theiring and her theory on the Discovery Channel and watched with my mouth open. It was close to a religious holiday and wondered if the audience would put up with it.

The book was pretty much banned in the US - put out by Harper SF, I think. It can still be bought at Amazon or another old book site.

Dr. Theiring translates the gospels from original Greek. Her findings are astonishing. I have my hardback copy and guard it. I think the old lady is on to something.. Don't know about now, but there used to be a couple of web sites about the book...

[hlthe2b]

1. Well, there might be one or two others who've read it, but...

I'm betting most, like me, have not and will likely never find a copy. Why not tell us what her findings are?

[Angry Dragon]

5. When I search for books that are hard to find

I use Alibris.com........world wide search for hard to find books

[fadedrose]

7. Amazon link to books

One thing, Jesus survived the crucifixtion.. He eventually ended up in France. He was married, had a daughter...knew Paul...and the parables are stories that were more or less hard to understand were information for the followers of Jesus all over the Mediterranean.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=thiering+barbara&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=3020781681&ref=pd_sl_43mxlstuyp_b

Sort of like Holy Blood Holy Grail, but more so.

Dr. Theiring was quite old in '96 when I saw her on TV, and her web sites aren't quite as informative as they were, if they are hers..

She says that the characters in the gospels were actually historical figures whose names are in, dam, what's the guys' name who wrote all about Jewish history during the Roman occupation...? Ohhh,,,he changed his name...Josephus?

An interesting list (I read a good many of these, long time ago):

http://www.thewildhunt.com/thegreen/myth_christian_jewish.shtml

[dflprincess]

2. Could you give us a clue as to what some of the findings are?

BTW the Dead Sea Scrolls are currently on display at the St. Paul Science Museum.

[fadedrose]

9. She claims that Qumron is where Crucifixion took place, not Jerusalem

Some Jews were angry because the Romans had put in THEIR choice of a High Priest at the Temple, and they would not accept him.

So they packed up and moved to the caves in Qumron and that's where the travel in the Gospels takes place and that's why scholars have a hard time with the geography in the Gospels.

[TrogL]

3. It's apparently a Jesus bloodline thing similar to 'Holy Blood Holy Grail' and Brown's stuff

Books of this sort tend to be awash in logical fallacies.

Google is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_bloodline

[fadedrose]

14. The long hard road to nonbelief...

I'd given up on Catholicism because of the Albigensians (sp) and how the pope made people say the rosary and when they didn't, he had them killed and stoled their land...this and other crap like this in Christian origins, when everybody was under the pope.

Anyways, I tried at first to read only Catholic material. So I got a book called "A Marginal Jew" by John P. Meier and figured I'd get my head on straight again. The books lists every heretic and critic of Catholic theology and Jesus' Catholic history. None of Meier's apologies were convincing. But I'm grateful to him for supplying me with all their names and their writings. I read almost all of them and they were more convincing than Meier. So much for Meier, never bothered to get his Vol II.

But I believe in Something, but don't know what. Anybody else feel this way?

[rug]

15. The Pope killed people for not saying the rosary?

[librechik]

4. from wikipedia, the nutshell:

"Professor Barbara Thiering's reinterpretation of the New Testament, in which the married, divorced, and remarried Jesus, father of four, becomes the "Wicked Priest" of the Dead Sea Scrolls, has made no impact on learned opinion. Scroll scholars and New Testament experts alike have found the basis of the new theory, Thiering's use of the so-called "pesher technique", without substance."<2>

The pesher technique, roughly is the idea that ancient words have hidden meanings known to initiates, but to naives mean something different, i.e., "miracles" which she claims were mere myths.

Makes sense to me--you might also enjoy the John Allegro Dead Sea Scroll books, which cover the same territory, but from the actual translator (Allegro) of the scrolls.

[fadedrose]

11. I read a couple of his - one about mushrooms (drugs)

and everybody was under the influence..this was so so many years ago. I'd forgotten all about it.

[kimmerspixelated]

6. Recently there have been ads on DU for something similar

stating that the original bible was definitely in greek(Konin?) and that 666 was a number/name,(since that's the way they identified people), and insinuated the person was well known, but although I didn't buy the book to answer the tease, the gist is that it was a person from those ages, already past, NOT part of the future prophecy, which blows the rapture ready crowd's minds, I bet... Also, something about HELL not mentioned in that original text as well??? Interesting, no matter what.

[zazen]

8. I read her books in the early 90s--great to see someone else bring it up

Just because she was marginalized by mainstream scholars of religion doesn't mean her ideas are implausible.

But bring it up now and people assume you're part of the Da Vinci Code marketing cult or something. Some of us considered these theories well before Dan Brown made a mint off of versions of it.

Here's her web site:

http://www.peshertechnique.infinitesoulutions.com /

The web design is dreadful, but it includes some thought-provoking information. I think people should reject her conclusions based on other scholarly evidence and analysis rather than knee-jerk assumptions that she's some conspiracy theory nut.

[fadedrose]

12. If you were a Christian scholar who made big bucks depending on

what church you were lucky to be employed by - I'm sure that knocking Theiring's studies would be foremost on your list. I agree with you that most stuff coming out now is based on Theiring and other's studies. She said that the ONLY way to translate and get the right translation was using Greek, and that ANYONE who knew Greek would come to the same conclusions.

Geza Vermes, a "trusted" scholar, introduced her cautiously but very respectfully on the Discovery program..

She's also listed as a member of the JESUS SEMINAR..



(I read enough of this stuff to turn me from ALL religion and now I read fiction - mysteries, etc. Nobody knows nothin, after all is said and done)

[RagAss]

10. Jesus is anything you want him to be. The comedy comes with disagreement among scholars.

[fadedrose]

13. If my memory serves me right, Allegro thought he was a mushroom...

or something like that...