Thiess, Johann O., a German doctor of theology, was born Aug. 15, 1762, at Hamburg. F<ir a number of years he lectured at the University of Kiel, retir- ing in 1805. He died Jan. 7, 1810. He wrote, //((»(/- buck d. neueren bes. deutschen u. pj-otesf. Literat. d. Theol. (Leips. 1795-97, 2 vols.) : — Neuer hit. Commentar iiber diis iV. T. (pt. i, ii, Bie Evangel.der Apostel und Jesus [Halle, 1804-6]): — Vorlesungen iiber die Moral (Gera, J810): — Fundainenta Theol. Christ. Crifico-do/pnalicce (Lips. 1792) : — .4 Commentary on 2 Thess. ii, 1-12 and John X, 12-16 (Kiel, 1809):— 6Vier die bibl. und kirchl. Meinung von der Kwigkeit der Hijllenstrafen (Hamb. 1791) : — Ueber die Magier und ihren Stern (ibid. 179-1) : — Einleiluiig in die neiiere Gesch. der Religion, der Kirche ?/. der theol. Wissenschaften (ibid. 1740, 1796; Sleswick, 1797), etc. See Winer, Handb. der theol. Literatur, i, 6, 172, 237, 290, 294, 358, 478, 555, 580, 857, 868; ii, 31, 59, 92, 125. 126, 331, 360, 366; Furst, Bibl. Juduica, iii, 422. (B. P.)
Thietmar, a noble Saxon belonging to the family of Waldeck, and related to the imperial house, was born July 25, 976. In 989 he became canon of St. Maurice, and in 1002 provost of Waldeck, wliich his grandfather had fomided. In 1009 he was made bishop of Merse- burg, and in 1018 he died. He wrote a chronicle, with the purpose of transmitting to his successors in the bish- opric a history of Jlerseburg ; but the work grew into a history of the German State and of the neighboring Ger- manic and Slavonic countries. It is the most important of accessible sources for the time of the later emperors, since its statements cover almost the whole of the 10th century, and are largely the reports of what the author himself saw aud knew. The book is deficient in point of literary excellences, but is characterized by abun- dance of matter and truthfulness of spirit. It is as im- portant for the illustration of manners and customs in the da\'s of the Saxon emperors as for the statement of historical events.
Literature. — Lappenberg's preface to Mon. Germ. Hist. vol. iii of Scriptt.; Giesebrecht, in Ranke's Jahrhb. II, i, 156-163, and Gesch. der Kais. i, 746, 780; ii, 517, 547 sq. ; Wattenbach, Geschichtsquellen Detitschlands ini Mit- telalter, p. 181 sq. ; ]Maurenbrecher, Be Hist. Decimi Str culi Scriptt. (Bonn, 1861) ; Lappenberg. ed. of Thietmar's Chronik in Mon. Germ. Hist, iii, 733-871. See also Hall. .4 llgem. Lit.-Zeitung, 1849, Nos. 204-206.— Herzog, Real- Eiiri/klop. s. V.
Thieves, The Two, on the Cross (Matt, xxvii, 38-44; Mark xv, 27; Luke xxiii, 39-43 ; comp. John xviii, 40). The men who under this name appear in the history of the crucifixion were robbers (Xycrai) rather than thieves (/cXtTrrni), belonging to the lawless bands by which Palestine was at that time and after- wards infested (Josephus, A7it. xvii, 10, 8; xx, 8, 10). Against these brigands every Koman procurator had to wage continual war (Josephus, War, ii, 13, 2). The
parable of the Good Samaritan shows how common it was for them to attack and plunder travellers even on the high-road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke x, 30). It was necessary to use an armed police to encounter them (xxii, 52). Often, as in tlie case of Barabbas, the wild robber life was connected with a fanatic zeal for freedom wliich turned tlie marauding attack into a popular insurrection (Mark xv, 7). For crimes such as these the Romans had but one sentence. Crucifixion was the penalty at once of the robber and the rebel (Josephus, War, ii, 13, 2).
Of the jjrevious history of the two who suffered on Golgotha we know nothing. They had been tried aud condemned, and were waiting tlieir execution before our Lord was accused. It is probable enough, as the death of Barabbas was clearly expected at the same time, that they were among the (TvcrramarrTai who had been imprisoned with him, and had taken part in the insurrection in which zeal, and hate, and patriotism, and lust of plunder were mingled in wild confusion.
They had expected to die with Jesus Barabbas (q. v.). They find themselves with one who bore the same name, but who was described in the superscrip- tion on his cross as Jesus of Nazareth. They could hardly fail to have heard something of his fame as a prophet, of his triumphal entry as a king. They now find him sharing the same fate as themselves, con- demned on much the same charge (Luke xxiii, 5). They too would bear their crosses to the appointed place, while He fainted by the way. Their garments would be parted among the soldiers. For them also there would be the drugged wine, which He refused, to dull the sharp pain of the first hours on the cross. They catch at first the prevailing tone of scorn. A king of the Jews who could neither save himself nor help them, whose followers had not even fought for him (John xviii, 36), was strangely unlike the many chieftains whom they had probably known claiming the same title (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 10, 8), strangely unlike the " notable prisoner" for whom they had not hesitated, it would seem, to incur the risk of bloodshed. But over one of them there came a change. The darkness which, at noon, was beginning to steal over the sky awed him, and the divine patience and silence and meekness of the sufferer touched him. He looked back upon his past life, and saw an infinite evil. He looked to the man dying on the cross beside him, and saw an infinite com- passion. There, indeed, was one unlike all other " kings of the Jews" whom the robber had ever known. Such a one must be all that he had claimed to be. To be forgotten by that King seems to him now the most ter- rible of all punishments; to take part in the triumph of his return, the most blessed of all hopes. The yearning prayer was answered, not in the letter, but in the spirit. To him alone, of all the myriads who had listened to him, did the Lord speak of Paradise (q. v.), waking with that word the thoughts of a purer past and the hopes of an immediate rest. But its joy was to be more than that of fair groves and pleasant streams. "Thou shalt be vitk me." He should ije remembered there.