Jesus the Man

Fülszöveg

Jesus was the leader of a radical faction ofEssene priests. He was not of virgin birth: he was a dircct descendant of King David. He did not die on the Cross: drugged into a corna, he was later revived. The many visions mentioned by the Apostles were actual meetings with Jesus as he continued to preach and travel as far as Rome. He married Mary Magdalene, fathered a family, and later divorced. He died sometime after AD64.
This version of Christ's life is not the product of a mind which wants to debunk Christianity. Barbara Thiering is a theologian and biblical scholar. But after over twenty years of close study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospels she has developed a revolutionary new theory. Contrary to previous scholarly opinion, she argues that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the same period as the life of Christ, and she shows from an insight given in the Scrolls that the Gospels of the New Testament were written to be read on two levels. On the surface, for the more... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Jesus was the leader of a radical faction ofEssene priests. He was not of virgin birth: he was a dircct descendant of King David. He did not die on the Cross: drugged into a corna, he was later revived. The many visions mentioned by the Apostles were actual meetings with Jesus as he continued to preach and travel as far as Rome. He married Mary Magdalene, fathered a family, and later divorced. He died sometime after AD64.
This version of Christ's life is not the product of a mind which wants to debunk Christianity. Barbara Thiering is a theologian and biblical scholar. But after over twenty years of close study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospels she has developed a revolutionary new theory. Contrary to previous scholarly opinion, she argues that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the same period as the life of Christ, and she shows from an insight given in the Scrolls that the Gospels of the New Testament were written to be read on two levels. On the surface, for the more literal-minded, are found the magic and miracles, the raising of the dead, the turning of water into wine; but on a deeper level, decoded rather like solving a cryptic crossword, a more reahstic historical account is revealed of the life of Christ and the origins of Christianity.
The current international outcry over the protracted delays in publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls has increased public curiosity about their connection with Christianity. Here for the first time a Christian scholar uses them to offer the layperson a controversial new interpretation of the whole story of Jesus Christ which, while upholding the fundamental faith of Christianity, challenges many of its most ingrained supernaturalist beliefs.
When a television documentary on Barbara Thienng's work was shown on Australian television in 1990, it created a national uproar which spawned a subsequent
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television debate and a book of the debate. Jesus The Man will undoubtedly upset and even outrage those for whom Christianity is immutable and unchallengeable. But for many who have found the rituals of the contemporary church too steeped in medieval thinking, it will provide new insights into Christianity in the context of the 1990s.
Dr Barbara Thiering was born in Australia. After an early deep invlovement with the Church and then frustration with certain of its doctrines, she became interested in the history of religion. She obtained a Ph.D. in theology in 1973. Since 1967 she has taught at the University of Sydney, lecturing in Old Testament, Hebrew and Feminist Theology. For over twenty years she has been involved in research into the Dead Sea Scrolls and she has written a number of academic books. She lives in Sydney and is the mother of three grown children.
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literal events nor were they myth^ traditional legends, T as scholars have often held. Sorriething really did happe^, and what happened ^opens tip a whole new
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