Carsten Peter Thiede
Encyclopedia
Carsten Peter Thiede was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 archaeologist and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 scholar. He was also a member of PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

 and a Knight of Justice in the Order of St John. Thiede often advanced theories that conflicted with the consensus of academic and theological scholarship. He taught as Professor of New Testament Times and History at the Staatsunabhängige Theologische Hochschule (STH) in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

 and at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev   is a university in Beersheba, Israel, established in 1969. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has a current enrollment of 17,400 students, and is one of Israel's fastest growing universities....

 in Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....

, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Born in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

, Thiede studied Comparative Literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...

 and History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 there before procuring a German National Scholarship Foundation Research Fellow position at Queen's College
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...

 at Oxford University in 1976, where he attained a Blue for volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, which he had played in the German Volleyball Premier League
Confédération Européenne de Volleyball
Confédération Européenne de Volleyball is the continental governing body for the sport of volleyball in Europe. Its headquarters are located in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.- Profile :...

.

In 1978, he became a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, where he drew inspiration from his fellow "comparativist", George Steiner
George Steiner
Francis George Steiner, FBA , is an influential European-born American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, translator, and educator. He has written extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the impact of the Holocaust...

. Drawn to the subject of early Christianity
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....

 because of his background as a linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 and his expertise in medieval Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

, the study of the origins of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 came to form his life's work.

Thiede was best known for his interpretation of some of the Greek Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...

 fragments, including the identification of the small 7Q5
7Q5
Among the Dead Sea scrolls, 7Q5 is the designation for a small papyrus fragment discovered in Qumran Cave 7. The significance of this fragment is derived from an argument made by Jose O´Callaghan in his work ¿Papiros neotestamentarios en la cueva 7 de Qumrân? in 1972, later reasserted and expanded...

 papyrus fragment as a fragment of the Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...

. He supported O’Callaghan
Joset O’Callaghan Martínez
Dr. Josep O'Callaghan Martínez, SJ was a Spanish Jesuit Catholic priest, papyrologist and Biblical scholar. He is known for his identification of the 7Q5 papyrus of Qumran with a text of Mark 6, 52-53.- Biography :Born in Tortosa, Tarragona, Spain in 1922, he joined the Jesuits on October 29, 1940...

’s controversial claims that several papyrus fragments from Qumran
Qumran
Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia...

 Cave 7 are actually Christian New Testament texts from pre AD 70.

In December 1994, Thiede redated the Magdalen papyrus
Magdalen papyrus
The "Magdalen" papyrus was purchased in Luxor, Egypt in 1901 by Reverend Charles Bousfield Huleatt , who identified the Greek fragments as portions of the Gospel of Matthew and presented them to Magdalen College, Oxford, where they are cataloged as P. Magdalen Greek 17 and whence they have their...

 together with former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph and current editor of The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...

, Matthew d'Ancona
Matthew d'Ancona
Matthew d'Ancona is a British journalist. A former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he was appointed editor of The Spectator in February 2006, a post he retained until August 2009.-Early life:...

, which bears a fragment in Greek of the Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

,
to the latter part of the 1st century on palaeographical grounds
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...

; this too provoked much debate and was highly publicised, most notably with a front page headline in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

. He was often accused of being a popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...

 writer.

In The Quest for the True Cross, also co-written with d'Ancona
Matthew d'Ancona
Matthew d'Ancona is a British journalist. A former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, he was appointed editor of The Spectator in February 2006, a post he retained until August 2009.-Early life:...

, Thiede argued that the Titulus Crucis
Titulus Crucis
Titulus Crucis is a piece of wood, claimed to be a relic of the True Cross, kept in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Christian tradition claims that the relic is half of the cross's titulus and a portion of the True Cross...

 could in fact be part of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

' cross, based on his palaeographic study of the writing, though it is considered to be a medieval forgery by many scholars. Thiede is also noted for research into early Christianity
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....

, as well as Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

 and Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...

.

For the last seven years of his life, Thiede worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority
Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservation, and promotes research...

 repairing damage to the Dead Sea Scrolls and excavating the biblical location of Emmaus
Emmaus
Emmaus was an ancient town located approximately northwest of present day Jerusalem...

. A devout Anglican who was ordained priest in 2000, he was also Chaplain to Her Majesty's Forces
Royal Army Chaplains' Department
The Royal Army Chaplains' Department is an all-officer corps that provides ordained clergy to minister to the British Army.As of 2007, there are about 280 serving regular chaplains in the British Army; these can belong to either one of several Christian churches, or to the Jewish faith, although...

 in spite of being a German citizen. He died in Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...

suddenly at the age of 52 from a heart attack.

English bibliography

  • Simon Peter: From Galilee to Rome (1988) ISBN 0310515610
  • The Heritage of the First Christians (1994) ISBN 0-7459-2544-8
  • The Jesus Papyrus (1994) ISBN 978-0385-48898-3 (also published as Eyewitness 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 0-2810-5508-4
  • Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence of the Risen Christ (2005) ISBN 0-8264-6797-0
  • Jesus: Man or Myth? (2006) ISBN 0-7459-5147-3

External links

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