Pesher

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Pesher is an approach to Biblical interpretation, found most notably in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is based on reading scriptural prophecies as allegorically referring to one's present situation. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls interpreted biblical prophesies addressing the Babylonians to actually refer to the Romans, since for the community which wrote them, the Romans were a real and present source of oppression, the Babylonians distant and irrelevant to their lives. Similarly, they also interpreted a number of biblical prophesies to refer to the founder of their own community (the Teacher of Righteousness) and his archrival (the Wicked Priest).

There are two main types of pesher. One type is a verse-by-verse commentary, in which successive verses of a single biblical book (or portion of a biblical book) are interleaved with commentary. The other type takes a thematic or topical approach, in which individual verses or passages are drawn from many different books.

Pesher has similarities and differences with midrash, a genre of later Jewish biblical commentaries. Scholars are divided on what the precise relationship between midrash and pesher is.

Barbara Thiering has attempted to link pesher to the New Testament, in conjunction with her idiosyncratic approach to textual interpretation. Her approach has not found favour with the wider scholarly community, however.

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