Editing Edwin R. Thiele

{{Short description|American archaeologist and professor (1895–1986)}}
{{tone|date=September 2016}}
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| birth_place        = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1986|04|15|1895|09|10}}
| death_place        = [[St. Helena, California]]
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| resting_place      = [[Berrien Springs, Michigan]]
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| education          = [[Andrews University|Emmanuel Missionary College]]
| alma_mater         = [[Andrews University|Emmanuel Missionary College]]<br />[[University of Chicago]]
| occupation         = Archeologist, Scholar, Missionary
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| notable_works      = ''The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings''
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{{Seventh-day Adventism}}
'''Edwin Richard Thiele''' (10 September 1895 – 15 April 1986) was an [[United States of America|American]] [[Seventh-day Adventist]] [[missionary]] in [[China]], [[editing|editor]], [[Archaeology|archaeologist]], writer, and scholar of the [[Old Testament]]. He is best known for his chronological studies of the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]] and [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]].

== Biography ==
Thiele was born and raised in [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]], on September 10, 1895. He graduated from [[Andrews University|Emmanuel Missionary College]], which later became [[Andrews University]] in 1960, in 1918 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in ancient languages. After two years of work as home missionary secretary for the East Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, he left in 1920 for mission service in China. During his 12 years in China, he was an editor and manager for the [[Signs of the Times Publishing Association|Signs of the Times Publishing House]] in [[Shanghai]].

After returning to the United States, Thiele studied archaeology, obtaining a Master of Arts degree from the [[University of Chicago]] in 1937. He then joined the religion faculty of Emmanuel Missionary College while continuing his doctoral work at the University of Chicago. He obtained a PhD in biblical archaeology in 1943. His doctoral dissertation, ''The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel'',<ref>{{Cite book|last=MVT|url=http://archive.org/details/E.r.ThieleTheChronologyOfTheKingsOfJudahAndIsrael1944|title=E.R. Thiele, The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel (1944)|language=English}}</ref> was later expanded and published as ''[[The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings]]''<ref>Edwin Thiele, ''The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings'', (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951;  2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). {{ISBN|0-8254-3825-X}}, 9780825438257</ref> which became widely regarded as an important work on the chronology of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah#Divided Monarchy|Hebrew kings]].<ref>Thiele's chronology is accepted in several recent study Bibles, and is the chronology used for the Hebrew monarchs in the ''Cambridge Ancient History'' (T. C. Mitchell, "Israel and Judah until the Revolt of Jehu (931-841 B.C.)" ''CAH'' 3, Part 1, p. 445). Thiele's chronology with the slight modifications of Leslie McFall, ("A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles," ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 148 [1991], pp. 3-45) is accepted in Jack Finegan's influential ''Handbook of Biblical Chronology'', rev. ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), p. 249. See also, in the notes below, the list of scholars who accept his date for the beginning of the divided kingdom.</ref> He traveled extensively throughout the [[Middle East]] in the course of his research.

Later Thiele also authored a popular book on Christianity, ''Knowing God''.<ref>Thiele, Edwin R., ''Knowing God,'' Southern Publishing Association, 1979</ref> After his death, his widow Margaret completed his study of the [[Book of Job]] entitled ''Job and the Devil''.<ref>Thiele, Edwin R. and Thiele, Margaret R., ''Job and the Devil'', Southern Publishing Association, 1988.</ref>

From 1963 to 1965 he served as Professor of Antiquity at Andrews University. After retiring from teaching in 1965, he moved to California, where he continued to write. He died in [[St. Helena, California]], in 1986. He is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in [[Berrien Springs, Michigan]].

== Reception of chronological work ==
Thiele's chronological reconstruction has not been accepted by all scholars.<ref>'Not all scholars are convinced by this solution, and commentators on the prophetic books often accept that dates can only be approximate.', McConville, G. (2002). Exploring the Old Testament, Volume 4: The Prophets (viii). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.</ref><ref>'Despite that fact of scholarly dedication, neither Thiele's carefully argued University of Chicago dissertation, nor anyone else's, has achieved as yet universal acceptance.', Kaiser, W. C. (1998). A history of Israel : From the bronze age through the Jewish Wars (293). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.</ref> Nonetheless, the work of Thiele and those who followed in his steps achieved acceptance across a wider spectrum than that of any comparable chronology; as Assyriologist [[Donald Wiseman|D. J. Wiseman]] (1993) wrote, "The chronology most widely accepted today is one based on the meticulous study by Thiele."<ref>Donald J. Wiseman, ''1 and 2 Kings'' in ''[[Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries]]'' (Leicester: Intervarsity, 1993), 27.</ref> More recently in 2010, Leslie McFall asserted that "Thiele's chronology is fast becoming the consensus view among Old Testament scholars, if it has not already reached that point."<ref>Leslie McFall, "The Chronology of Saul and David," ''Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society'' 53 (2010) 215, n. 101.</ref>

Although criticism has been leveled at numerous specific points in Thiele's chronology,<ref>'but his harmonizing approach has not gone unchallenged, especially because of the many shifts in the basis of reckoning dates that it requires (e.g., Jepsen 1968: 34–35)—shifts which were unlikely in actual practice.', Freedman, D. N. (1996). Vol. 1: The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (1006). New York: Doubleday.</ref> his work has won considerable praise even from those who disagree with his conclusions.<ref>'Driver described Thiele's system as an "important work, which comes very near to, if it does not actually reach, a final solution of the problem of the dates of the kings of Israel and Judah."4  Leslie McFall writes that "Even a critic of Thiele's system who accused him of manipulating variable factors to achieve his goal of fitting the biblical evidence into Near Eastern history and who described his work as "more a study in numerical ingenuity than in scholarly research" had to admit that "Thiele's assumption is validated by the results achieved: inner consistency and harmony and conformity with the fixed dates of ancient Near Eastern history." "', McFall, Leslie, 'A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles', Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 148. 1991 (589) (4). Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary.</ref> On the other hand, even scholars sharing Thiele's religious convictions have sometimes maintained that there are weaknesses in his argument such as unfounded assumptions and assumed [[circular reasoning]].

<blockquote>In his desire to resolve the discrepancies between the data in the Book of Kings, Thiele was forced to make improbable suppositions ... There is no basis for Thiele's statement that his conjectures are correct because he succeeded in reconciling most of the data in the Book of Kings, since his assumptions ... are derived from the chronological data themselves ...<ref>{{Cite book|last=Galil|first=Gershon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QkgEaWG0_j4C&q=Temple|title=The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah|date=1996-01-01|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-10611-6|language=en}}</ref><ref>'The numerous extrabiblical synchronisms he invokes do not always reflect the latest refinements in Assyriological research (cf. E.2.f below). In many cases, he posits an undocumented event in order to save a biblical datum (e.g., the circumstances surrounding the appointment of Jeroboam II as coregent; Thiele 1983: 109).', Freedman, D. N. (1996). Vol. 1: The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (1006). New York: Doubleday.</ref></blockquote>

In response to the "circular reasoning" criticism, Kenneth Strand has pointed out several archaeological finds that were published after Thiele produced his chronology and that verified Thiele's assumptions or conclusions as against the chronological systems of other scholars such as [[William F. Albright|Albright]] that were posited before Thiele's work.<ref>Kenneth A. Strand, "Thiele's Biblical Chronology As a Corrective for Extrabiblical Dates," '' Andrews University Seminary Studies'' 34 (1996) 295-317.</ref>

Despite the various criticisms Thiele's methodological treatment remains the typical starting point of scholarly treatments of the subject,<ref>'Thiele's work has become a cornerstone of much recent chronological discussion (cf. De Vries IDB 1: 580–99; IDBSup: 161–66);', Freedman, D. N. (1996). Vol. 1: The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (1006). New York: Doubleday.</ref> and his work is considered to have established the date of the division of the Israelite kingdom.<ref>'Following Thiele's revolutionary work, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings,3 a consensus has emerged that the kingdom under Solomon divided at his death in 931 B.C.4 This date must be the starting point for any chronological reconstruction of previous events.', Merrill, Eugene H, 'Fixed Dates in Patriarchal Chronology', Bibliotheca Sacra Volume 137. 1980 (547) (237). Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary.</ref><ref>Finegan, ''Handbook'' p. 249.</ref><ref>[[Gershon Galil]], ''The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah'' (Leiden: Brill, 1996), p. 14.</ref><ref>McFall, "Translation Guide," p. 33-34.</ref><ref>T. C. Mitchell in ''Cambridge Ancient History'', "Israel and Judah until the Revolt of Jehu," pp. 445-446.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Finkelstein|first1=Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lu6ywyJr0CMC&dq=Finkelstein+%2522Bible+Unearthed%2522+931&pg=PA131|title=The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts|last2=Silberman|first2=Neil Asher|date=2002-03-06|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-2338-6|language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==
* ''[[The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings]]''
* [[Old Testament: Timeline]]
* [[Historicity of the Bible]]
* [[Valerius Coucke]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiele, Edwin R.}}
[[Category:Andrews University alumni]]
[[Category:American biblical scholars]]
[[Category:American Seventh-day Adventists]]
[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Chicago]]
[[Category:Old Testament scholars]]
[[Category:University of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:Andrews University faculty]]
[[Category:People from St. Helena, California]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American archaeologists]]
[[Category:Historians from Illinois]]
[[Category:Historians from California]]