Carsten Peter Thiede

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Born in West Berlin, Thiede studied Comparative Literature there before procuring a German National Scholarship Foundation Research Fellow position at Queen's College at Oxford University in 1976.

In 1978 he became a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at Geneva, where he drew inspiration from his fellow "comparativist", George Steiner. Drawn to the subject of early Christianity because of his background as a linguist and his expertise in medieval Latin philology, the study of the origins of Christianity came to form his life's work.

Thiede was best known for his interpretation of some of the Greek Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, including the identification of the small 7Q5 papyrus fragment as a fragment of the "Gospel of Mark" [ [http://members.aol.com/egweimi/7q5.htm Information on the fragment including Thiede's theory ] ] . He supported O’Callaghan’s controversial claims that several papyrus fragments from Qumran Cave 7 are actually Christian New Testament texts from pre AD 70. This theory, both rejected and supported by various theologians and historians, became a highly controversial issue.In December 1994, Thiede's redating of the Magdalen papyrus, which bears a fragment in Greek of the "Gospel of Matthew," to the latter part of the 1st century on palaeographical grounds also provoked much debate. He was often accused of being a Popular science writer.

In "The Quest for the True Cross", Thiede argues that the Titulus Crucis was part of Jesus' cross. [ [http://www.s8int.com/page40.html Description of the Titulus Crucis] ]

For the last seven years of his life, Thiede worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority repairing damage to the Dead Sea Scrolls and excavating the biblical location of Emmaus. His sudden death at the age of 52 from a heart attack in Paderborn shocked friends and colleagues who fondly recalled his genius for companionship.

English bibliography

* "Simon Peter: From Galilee to Rome" (1988) ISBN-10: 0310515610
* "The Heritage of the First Christians" (1994) ISBN 0-7459-2544-8
* "The Jesus Papyrus" (1994) ISBN 978-0385-48898-3 (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

References

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/24/db2402.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/24/ixportal.html Short biography in the Telegraph]
* [http://www.depts.drew.edu/jhc/theide.html Highly critical review of Thiede's "Rekindling the Word: In Search of Gospel," 1995]
* [http://www.british-israel.ca/Interview.htm Interview with "Good News"]
* [http://trushare.com/30NOV97/NO97CARS.htm 1997 Interview with the Prayer Book Society]
* [http://www.breadofangels.com/7qenoch/rebuttals/cpthiedeorigins/index.html Critical review of Thiede's "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity"]