Carsten Peter Thiede

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The Revd. Prof. Carsten Peter Thiede MA OCF KStJ (8 August 1952 – 14 December 2004) was a German New Testament scholar, widely recognized as a pioneer in his field. Also a member of PEN and a Knight of Justice in the Order of St John, Thiede often advanced theories that challenged orthodox academic and theological scholarship based on thorough scientific analyses. He taught as Professor of New Testament Times and History at the Staatsunabhängige Theologische Hochschule (STH) in Basel and at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel.

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 textual criticism of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the identification of the 7Q5 papyrus as a fragment of the Gospel of Mark [1]. He supported O’Callaghan’s controversial claims that numerous portions of the Qumran scrolls from Cave 7 are actually Christian New Testament texts from pre AD 70. This theory, attacked and supported by many theologians, became a highly discussed 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.[2]

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.

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  1. ^ Information on the fragment including Thiede's theory
  2. ^ Description of the Titulus Crucis

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