Originally a respected New Testament scholar, Barbara Thiering turned to producing a variant of the Jesus Christ – Mary Magdalene theory in her 1992 book, Jesus The Man: A New Interpretation From The Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Doubleday, 1992 and San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992), proposing that Jesus Christ married twice – once to Mary Magdalene, who divorced him – and fathered three children; and that Jesus Christ was 70 years old when he died, possibly in France.