Book description
In her controversial 1992 bestseller Jesus the Man, Barbara
Thiering first showed how the pesher method of 'decoding' two separate
levels of meaning found in the Dead Sea Scrolls could be used by
applying it to the Gospels, and presented a completely new historical
interpretation of the life of Jesus Christ. Now, in a new work of
remarkable research and scholarship, she sets out to unravel the
mysteries that have long surrounded the elusive complexities of the
Book of Revelation. 'It was not,' she writes, 'about vision and
apocalypse, but about the profoundly important history of the
Christian movement from AD 1 to AD 114.'
In Jesus of the Apocalypse, Barbara Thiering presents a new
and significant view of the development of Christianity from the time
of the crucifixion until the second century AD. She argues that Jesus
was no solitary preacher appearing suddenly on the shores of Lake
Galilee: he was a central figure in a major political movement to
overthrow the pagan Roman empire. Although crucified, he did not die
on the cross, and he, and subsequently his sons, took an important
role in the evolution of the new underground religion which was
developing out of Judaism.
With detective-like perseverance Theiring unfolds the mystery of
words, meanings and places that have been allowed to pass
unchallenged, including a radical new interpretation of such mystical
themes as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, the seven seals. the
Beast whose number is 666, the Great Harlot clothed in scarlet and
purple. In so doing, she provides an absorbing and enlightening
background to a period that has so often been seen more through the
implications of scripture than the facts of history.
Dr Barbara Thiering was a lecturer at the University of Sydney's
Divinity School for 22 years until she recently retired. She has
published widely on this subject, for which she has an international and
controversial reputation. Her books include Jesus the Man, Jesus of the
Apocalypse and The Book That Jesus Wrote. She lives in Sydney and has a
grown family.
