Carsten Peter Thiede

Carsten Peter ThiedeOCF KStJ(8 August 1952 – 14 December 2004) was a German archaeologist andNew Testamentscholar. He was also a member ofPENand appointed a Knight of Justice of theOrder of St John.He taught as professor of New Testament times and history at the Staatsunabhängige Theologische Hochschule (STH) inBaseland at theBen-Gurion University of the NegevinBeersheba,Israel.He often advanced theories that conflicted with the consensus of academic and theological scholarship.

Early life and career

Born inWest Berlin,Thiede studiedcomparative literatureandhistorythere before procuring a German National Scholarship Foundation Research Fellow position atQueen's CollegeatOxford Universityin 1976, where he attained aBlueforvolleyball,which he had played in theGerman Volleyball Premier League.

Fragment 5 from Cave 7of the Qumran Community in its entirety

In 1978, he became a senior lecturer in comparative literature atGeneva,where he drew inspiration from his fellow "comparativist",George Steiner.Drawn to the subject ofearly Christianitybecause of his background as alinguistand his expertise inmedieval Latin philology,the study of the origins ofChristianitycame to form his life's work.

For a number of years into the early '90s Thiede worked with various broadcasting companies, includingBBC RadioandERF,and as an editor at theBrockhauspublishing company.

New Testament work

Thiede was best known for his interpretation of some of the GreekDead Sea Scrollsfragments, including the identification of the small7Q5papyrus fragment (illustration) as a fragment of theGospel of Mark.^[1]He supportedO’Callaghan’s controversial claims that several papyrus fragments fromQumranCave 7 are actually Christian New Testament texts from pre AD 70.

In December 1994, Thiede redated theMagdalen papyrustogether with former deputy editor ofThe Sunday Telegraphand later editor ofThe Spectator,Matthew d'Ancona,which bears a fragment in Greek of theGospel of Matthew,to the latter part of the 1st century onpalaeographical grounds;this too provoked much debate and was highly publicised, most notably with a front-page headline inThe Times.By attempting to make his material more accessible to the general public he was often accused of being apopular sciencewriter.

Carsten Thiede initially wrote an article in the academically peer-reviewedZeitschrift für Papyrologiein regards to his dating of the papyrus to the last third of the first century. He improved upon his research and published the results in his book titledEyewitness to Jesusin 1996. Thiede was able to date the Magdalen papyrus containing a portion of Matthew's Gospel to 66 CE using more advanced papyrological techniques and comparative analysis with a document dated to 66 CE (P. Oxy 246 II).

InThe Quest for the True Cross,also co-written withd'Ancona,Thiede argued that theTitulus Cruciscould in fact be part ofJesus' cross, based on his palaeographic study of the writing,^[2]though it is considered to be a medieval forgery by many scholars.^[3]Thiede is particularly noted for his research intoearly Christianity,notablyPeterandPaul.

For the last seven years of his life, Thiede also worked for theIsrael Antiquities Authorityrepairing damage to the Dead Sea Scrolls and excavating the biblical location ofEmmaus.A devout Anglican who was ordained priest in 2000, he was alsoChaplain to Her Majesty's Forcesdespite being a German citizen. He died inPaderbornsuddenly at the age of 52 from a heart attack.

Selected English bibliography

Simon Peter: From Galilee to Rome(1988)ISBN 0-310-51561-0
From Christ to Constantine: The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church(1991)ISBN 9781563642005
The Heritage of the First Christians(1994)ISBN 0-7459-2544-8
The Jesus Papyrus(1994)ISBN 978-0-385-48898-3(also published asEyewitness to Jesus(1996)ISBN 0-385-48051-2)(Co-author Matthew D'Ancona)
Rekindling the Word: In Search of Gospel Truth(1996)ISBN 1-56338-136-2
Jesus: Life or Legend(2001)ISBN 0-7459-3895-7
The Dead Sea Scrolls(2001)ISBN 0-7459-5050-7
The Quest for the True Cross(2002)ISBN 0-312-29424-7
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity(2003)ISBN 1-4039-6143-3
The Cosmopolitan World of Jesus: New Light from Archaeology(2004)ISBN 0-281-05508-4
Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence of the Risen Christ(2005)ISBN 0-8264-6797-0
Jesus: Man or Myth?(2006)ISBN 0-7459-5147-3

References

^Information on the fragment including Thiede's theory
^"Description of the Titulus Crucis".Archived fromthe originalon 2018-08-01.Retrieved2007-09-29.
^Byrne, Ryan; McNary-Zak, BernadetteResurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The James Ossuary Controversy and the Quest for Religious RelicsThe University of North Carolina Press (15 Aug 2009)ISBN 978-0-8078-3298-1p.87[1]

External links

Short biography in the Telegraph
Highly critical review of Thiede'sRekindling the Word: In Search of Gospel,1995originally published in theJournal of Higher Criticism

[1] Information on the fragment including Thiede's theory

[2] "Description of the Titulus Crucis".Archived fromthe originalon 2018-08-01.Retrieved2007-09-29.

[3] Byrne, Ryan; McNary-Zak, BernadetteResurrecting the Brother of Jesus: The James Ossuary Controversy and the Quest for Religious RelicsThe University of North Carolina Press (15 Aug 2009)ISBN 978-0-8078-3298-1p.87[1]

[1]

[2]

[3]