Barbara Thiering argues that Jesus was part of the Essene community, born in Qumran, an illegitimate child.
Barbara Thiering, Jesus the Man (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), 68-69
Mary, Joseph and Jesus were real people, members of a religious movement with high ideals and strict practices. They lived out a real human life in interaction with it and with its historical development. . . . Jesus was born, not in Bethlehem, but in the building about a kilomtre south of the Qumran plateau. He was born there because at the time of his birth he was officially classed as an illegitimate child.