Pesher is Hebrew for to explain. One or more of the scribes responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls used it to distinguish an interpretation of a text from the transcription of the text itself. The word pesher or sometimes peshrua was inserted directly into the text to signal the reader that what followed was commentary. Interestingly, the pesher scribe or scribes gave the reader nothing to signal of the end of the commentary.

The pesher interpretation applies prophecy transcribed in the Dead Sea Scrolls to the current events of the time in which the scrolls were written (arguably in much the same way that the prophecies of Nostradamus and the Book of Revelations are sometimes applied to the current events of our times).

The term pesher also refers to the interpretive technique of Barbara Thiering, which she discusses in her books. Dr. Thiering thinks that biblical prophecies along with the more fantastic passages in the Bible are symbolic descriptions of (more mundane) events current to the time in which the documents were written. It is unclear how anyone could be certain of any particular method of extracting the supposed true meaning behind these descriptions; nevertheless, Dr. Thiering claims to have uncovered truths concerning Jesus and the early Christian Church by applying her technique.

Most experts take neither her claims nor her technique seriously.

See also

The comments of the Pesher to Habbakuk – A discussion of pesher commentary in the Dead Sea Scrolls—particularly to the transcription of Habakkuk.

The Pesher Technique – An excerpt from one of Thiering's books.

The New York Review of Books: THE PESHER TECHNIQUE – A discussion between Thiering and a book reviewer.