Dead on the Water
Dead on the Water I've seen a number of documentaries about the Dead Sea Scrolls now, but the one that stands out for me is the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls from around 1990, featuring Barbara Thiering's 'pesher' technique of drawing specific references from general ones according to symbolic interpretation. I don't agree with her findings, however. She claims that the scrolls refer to Jesus Christ and John the Baptist as adversaries: the Wicked Priest and the Teacher of Righteousness, respectively. While this sensational thought might attract sponsors for her work, most scholars insist that her sources are all from a century before Jesus was born. It's true that these figures bear an uncanny resemblance, at least within the framework of Hebrew zealots of the period who insisted on strict adherence to the countless laws of Moses and would have viewed anyone, including Jesus, as 'wicked' for dismissing them, but my guess is that both Jesu...