Ancient fragment references 'wife of Jesus'

Sile

Oh boy

"An ancient scrap of papyrus makes explicit reference to Jesus having a wife, according to a renowned expert in Christian history.

Harvard divinity professor Karen King unveiled the 4th-Century Coptic script at a conference in Rome."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19645273

Edit: Another very cool bit: "According to Ms King's research team, the text also quotes Jesus as telling his followers that Mary Magdalene is worthy of being his disciple.

This, in turn, casts new doubt on the long-held belief that Jesus had no female disciples, and raises issues about Mary's biblical role as a sinner, they said."

Sile

Here's the Harvard page, which gives the Coptic and it's translation, as well as a link to King's draft paper:

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty-research/research-projects/the-gospel-of-jesuss-wife

Beej

Reminds me of the "James, Brother of Jesus Ossuary". The current opinion of that box is that it is a forgery or not exactly proved as related. My only concern about these bits of archaeology is that people missuse them to justify something that isn't exactly found. But pottery shards + legend = science sometimes. I guess you either accept this as science or you accept it as gamesmanship. Eiher way, it's nice to see that the game is being played in the way that seeks to change the past, because it's obvious we have been dealing with some discrepencies for many hundreds of years. Impermanance even exists in the history of the past, it seems.

Sile

King's draft paper gives a lot of attention to the forgery issue; including the thought that, since the material itself withstood testing and does indeed seem to be 4th C., someone could have just penned on an existing blank fragment. They think that not to be the case, now, though; further test results on the ink itself are pending:

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/sites/hds.harvard.edu/files/attachments/faculty-research/research-projects/the-gospel-of-jesuss-wife/29813/King_JesusSaidToThem_draft_0917.pdf