Jesus Had a Wife, Newly Discovered Gospel Suggests

[웃 910]

Jesus Had a Wife, Newly Discovered Gospel Suggests

A Harvard historian has identified a faded, fourth-century scrap of papyrus she calls "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife." One line of the torn fragment of text purportedly reads: "Jesus said to them, 'My wife …'" The following line states, "she will be able to be my disciple."

The finding was announced to the public today (Sept. 18) by Karen King, a historian of early Christianity, author of several books about new Gospel discoveries and the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard Divinity School. King first examined the privately owned fragment in 2011, and has since been studying it with the help of a small group of scholars.

According to the New York Times, King and her collaborators have concluded that the business card-size fragment is not a forgery, and she is presenting the discovery today at a meeting of International Congress of Coptic Studies in Rome.

The fragment, written in Coptic, the language of a group of early Christians in Egypt, has an unknown provenance, and its owner has opted to remain anonymous. Questions about the fragment abound, but scholars say it will nonetheless reignite several old debates: Was Jesus married? If so, was Mary Magdalene his wife? And did he have a female disciple? [Jesus Christ the Man: Does the Physical Evidence Hold Up?]

Scholars say these controversies date to the early centuries of Christianity, but they remain relevant today. In the Roman Catholic Church, for example, women and married men are barred from priesthood because of the model thought to have been set by Jesus.

King has cautioned that the new discovery should not be taken as proof that Jesus was actually married. The text appears to have been written centuries after he lived, and all other early Christian literature is silent on the question of his marital status.

But the scrap of papyrus — the first known statement from antiquity that refers to Jesus speaking of a wife — provides evidence that there was an active discussion among early Christians about whether Jesus was celibate or married, and which path his followers should choose, King told the Times. [What Does the Jesus' Wife Papyrus Say?]

"This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married," she said. "There was, we already know, a controversy in the second century over whether Jesus was married, caught up with a debate about whether Christians should marry and have sex."

The significance of this fragment was known by scholars previously, and then forgotten. When its current owner acquired it in a batch of papyri in 1997 from its previous owner, a German, it came with a handwritten note. The note cited a now-deceased professor of Egyptology in Berlin as having called the fragment "the sole example" of a text in which Jesus claims a wife.

According to the Times, papyrologists and Coptic linguists who have studied the artifact thus far say they are convinced by its genuineness by the fading of the ink on the papyrus fibers and the traces of ink adhered to the bent fibers at the edges. The Coptic grammar, handwriting and ideas represented in the text would also have been nearly impossible to forge.

"It's hard to construct a scenario that is at all plausible in which somebody fakes something like this. The world is not really crawling with crooked papyrologists," Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, at New York University, told the New York Times.

Certain lines of the text resemble snippets from the Gospels of Thomas and Mary, both believed to have been written in the late second century and later translated into Coptic. King surmises that this fragment is also copied from a second-century Greek text.

Further study will be needed to work out the details, but the meaning of the words "my wife" is beyond question, King said. The text beyond "Jesus said to them, 'My wife …'" is cut off.

http://www.livescience.com/23284-jesus-wife-gospel-suggests.html

[bsd058 296]

This whole papyrus seems to be taken from the Gospel of Thomas (GTh), excluding the part about Jesus' wife. This is according to Francis Watson's analysis (http://markgoodacre.org/Watson2.pdf) of Durham University. Stephen Davis (Yale University) agrees with Watson's analysis. Even Bart Erhman is quoted in saying in the Boston Globe that it's "not looking good for authenticity." (http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/09/26/scholars-begin-weigh-gospel-jesus-wife/glyoLo376zYeJhbkpGedGN/story.html)

King, however, against good judgement and scholarship, claims that early Christians believed Jesus was married. Really? You mean the same "Christians" holding to the Gospel of Thomas (GTh) who stated that Christ would turn Mary into a man (Saying 114, GTh) so she could be his disciple? The same "Christians" who despised the mixing of physical and spiritual things as though it's evil (Saying 112 GTh)? Folks, these were Gnostics. They were against the physical realm. They couldn't believe that Christ had a wife. They couldn't believe women were good. That's why Jesus told them he would turn her into a man so she could be a disciple!! Yet, this papyrus states Jesus had a wife.

My conclusion based on analysis by Watson and arguments presented (before the chemical analysis comes out):

Someone probably copied portions of GTh onto a papyrus fragment, changed the context of it (making Jesus state that Mary was his wife instead of turning her into a man), and sold it as authentic. This is, in my mind, the most likely conclusion. The motive being money from the sale to an unsuspecting buyer. It's happened before. The fragment seems to have been written by someone not familiar enough with the Gnostics in order to prevent the type of theological error which would give way to a contradiction in the beliefs of those who actually had GTh. Since the error is so blatant, I don't even see how this could be from the 3rd or 4th century. The Gnostics (people who had GTh) wouldn't have believed this about Mary. If they believed GTh (whoever wrote it) they would have also believed that the idea that Jesus having a wife was preposterous. Therefore, this couldn't even be a true gnostic papyrus. It must be fraudulent. Since Gnostics didn't believe Jesus was married, it probably wasn't even a part of their community. More than likely it is a recent fake, but could be an older fake.

Can't wait to see the chemical analysis.

I've been following this story since before it came out in the news. lol.

Edited September 27, 2012 by bsd058

[TiklingGuy 211]

So do you believe that or do you still believe in Darwin's theory?

[bsd058 296]

So do you believe that or do you still believe in Darwin's theory?

Is your disjunction contradictory so that it can even be meaningful in this context?

What does this have to do with Darwin's theory of evolution?

[TiklingGuy 211]

Is your disjunction contradictory so that it can even be meaningful in this context?

What does this have to do with Darwin's theory of evolution?

I was asking the OP, sorry didn't care to read your previous post.

[bsd058 296]

I was asking the OP, sorry didn't care to read your previous post.

It's still irrelevant.

You might want to read my post, if you have time. It could give you some insight into how people expose fake manuscripts.

There is a link to a report by Francis Watson. It's the .pdf referred to in the post.

Have a good one.

Edited October 1, 2012 by bsd058