What does Dr. Thiering claim about the two levels on which the Gospels were written?
Dr. Thiering claims the Gospels were written on two levels: one level for ordinary believers who need miracles to strengthen faith, and another level accessible only to her through the Dead Sea Scrolls, conveying the real meaning she extracts from the Qumran texts.
Les explains that Thiering, a scholar at the University of Sydney committed to studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, claims the Gospels were written on two levels. One level was for ordinary people who do not know better and need such material to enhance their ability to believe. The reality, she says, was written on another level that only she can pull out of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From her Qumran comparisons, she concludes the Qumran sect was the Judaism out of which Christianity came, identifies the Teacher of Righteousness as John the Baptist, and makes his opponent, the Wicked Priest/man of the lie, Jesus. She also says the virgin birth story was written at the level of a miracle for those for whom a virginal conception had symbolic power. Les notes this is a book review, not the view of Biblical Archaeology Review, and that they do not agree with it.