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September 18th, 2012
03:28 PM ET
Newly revealed Coptic fragment has Jesus making reference to 'my wife'By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - A newly revealed, centuries-old papyrus fragment suggests that some early Christians might have believed Jesus was married. The fragment, written in Coptic, a language used by Egyptian Christians, says in part, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife ..." Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen King announced the findings of the 1 1/2- by 3-inch honey-colored fragment on Tuesday in Rome at the International Association for Coptic Studies. King has been quick to add this discovered text "does not, however, provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married," she wrote in a draft of her analysis of the fragment set to appear in the January edition of Harvard Theological Review. The divinity school has posted a draft of King's article to which AnneMarie Luijendijk, an associate professor of religion at Princeton University, contributed. "This fragment, this new piece of papyrus evidence, does not prove that (Jesus) was married, nor does it prove that he was not married. The earliest reliable historical tradition is completely silent on that. So we're in the same position we were before it was found. We don't know if he was married or not," King said in a conference call with reporters.
"What I'm really quick to say is to cut off people who would say this is proof that Jesus was married because historically speaking, it's much too late to constitute historical evidence," she continued. "I'm not saying he was, I'm not saying he wasn't. I'm saying this doesn't help us with that question," she continued. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter In the accounts of Jesus' life in the Bible, there is no mention of his marital status, while the accounts do mention Jesus' mother, father and siblings. The four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - tell the story of Jesus' birth and early childhood then skip to his short, three-year ministry before detailing his death and resurrection. The idea that Jesus was married is not a new one. In other writings about the life of Jesus from antiquity suggest Jesus may have been married to Mary Magdalene, a disciple who was close to Jesus. Author Dan Brown also used the idea of Jesus being married as a jumping off point for the fictional novel "The Da Vinci Code." King dismissed that notion in her call with reporters. “There’s no indication we have that Jesus was married,” said Darrell Bock, a senior research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. “One could say the text is silent on Jesus’ marital status is because there was nothing to say.” Initial dating for the honey-colored fragment by the team of scholars puts the papyrus piece coming out of the middle of the second century. King is referring to the fragment as the "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife" or "GosJesWife" as a short hand for reference, and noting that the abbreviation does not mean this scrap has the same historical weight as the canonical Gospels. Biblical scholars often use the term gospel to refer to a genre of ancient writings featuring dialogue between Jesus and his disciples, King notes in her paper. The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas are just a few of the ancient accounts about the life of Jesus that Christians do not consider canonical. At the conference, King said another professor suggested the fragment could have come from the text of a homily, or sermon, where the writer was using this phrase as a literary device. She told reporters that while she will consider that as a possibility, the fragment is “probably a gospel. Probably from the second century and most close to the Gospels of Mary, Thomas and Philip.” Bock agreed with the notion that the text fragment shared similarities with those gospels, called the Gnostic Gospels, which were the writings of an early outlier sect of Christians. He said the text could be referring to a "gnostic rite of marriage that is a picture of the church and Jesus, not a real wife." But he added, "it’s a small text with very little context. We don’t know what’s wrapped around it to know what it’s saying.” Bock said it’s likely to be a gnostic text if it proves to be authentic. “The whole text needs vetting. She’s doing the right thing to release it and let scholars take a look at,” he said, adding “it’s a little bit like trying to analyze the game in the first quarter.” “It’s a historical curiosity but doesn’t really tell us who Jesus was,” Bock said. “It’s one small speck of a text in a mountain of texts of about Jesus.” CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories The owner of the fragment has been identified by King as a private collector who has asked to stay anonymous. The owner brought the fragment to Harvard have King examine it in December 2011. King then brought it to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Roger Bagnall, the institute's director and an expert on papyrus, examined it and determined it to be authentic, Bangall confirmed to CNN. Ariel Shisha-Halevy, professor of linguistics at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, who was asked to examine the authenticity, according to the draft of the article, told King via e-mail, “I believe - on the basis of language and grammar - the text is authentic. That is to say, all its grammatical ‘noteworthy’ features, separately or conjointly, do not warrant condemning it as forgery.” Little is known about the origin of the text. Because both sides of the fragment have writing on them, King said it could have come out of a book rather than a scroll. "Just like most of the earliest papyri of the New Testament and other literary and documentary papyri, a fragment this damaged could have come from an ancient garbage heap," the King says building on prior research by Luijendijk. King writes "the importance of the 'Gospel of Jesus’ Wife' lies in supplying a new voice within the diverse chorus of early Christian traditions about Jesus that documents that some Christians depicted Jesus as married." The Smithsonian Channel also announced Monday that it will air a special on King's findings on September 30. soundoff (4,539 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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This such a bunch of bunk. CNN obviously has no idea what they are printing. One fragment that is obscure, that no one has ever read, and written by who knows what kind of person will trump thousands of years of tradition. Spare me.
The fact that you claim "tradition" trumps facts says all I need to know.
So were all the other books from the New Testament.
We are still ~20 years from being able to say "thousands" of years.
And Jesus said to them "Take my wife....PLEASE!".....da da da.....ching.
Oh boy! I wonder how these extreme Christians are going to spin this?
Karen King is Jewish right? If I was Israel I would recall all my diplomatic team from the US 😉
Dream away, they would fold the next day from lack of (american) foreign aid.
This proves nothing. It was written a hundred years after Jesus died.
Nice one Butch .. I get it.
So were all the other books of the New Testament.
Josh didn't get it.
Yes, but the newspapers of that time have a photo of the wedding, and how drunk he was that night.
No nude photos?
No one was there – for any of it. At best, it is literature – to describe, after the fact, a lesson for living. The rest is conjecture, at best.
I just heard lighting and thunder
Says you, where you there? No. So you can't say for sure, but there is still (mummifed) wedding cake that says you're wrong.
This is now a MAJOR election issue. The economy just went to #5 on the list.
'Jesus said to them, "My wife ..." '
... is such a pain in the ass.
wow.............
the muslim brotherhood "is" running cnn.............
Probably referencing "his bride" the church, just like in the bible.......people are reaching with this one
That was my first thought too.
Bull****!
Jesus was God made man. Period. He wasn't married, had no brothers and sisters..... Understand it?
Even the Bible mentions brothers.
Come on, think a little. Possible and probable.
"Had no brothers and sisters"
Umm... Matthew 13:55-56: "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?"
=)
If that's the case its no wonder he was as neurotic as he was.
Yesu, You, I and the rest of the entire animal kingdom are God made period.
I think what you meant is that god is man made.
It makes sense that he wasn't married. He did hang around with sinners a lot.
At least it doesn't say "my husband"
Could have been – or be.
My name is Darwin, and I'm saying I told you so.
Married! Now it all comes into focus. He called it prayers, we call it begging.
Mozel tov!!
I think this is my favorite comment on the board. 🙂
"Take....my wife...please"
Turns out the son of God had a wife a dog and 4 kids.
and a mini-cartvan.
Also a riding lawn mower and a car payment.
Sure Jesus had a wife. His wife's name was Paul.
John the beloved, surely.
Oh! I want a like button for this.
Anyone want to kill a few diplomats or burn an embassy over this...oh this has to do with the christian religion, we don"t count
You don't even make sense. If you want to "count" in the way that the radical muslims do, then go burn some embassies and kill some diplomats. You sure you want to take that option?
Yep, you're right. You don't count. Any other questions?
If I do that, can I get Billions of American tax dollars too.
I wouldn't mind knocking off a few ped priests and burning down the vactican.
No, as Christians we understand that Christ doesn't need us to defend him from humiliation. It doesn't do damage to him that men reject and mock him, they always have. He endured mocking, cruelty, and even a horrific death for the sake of others during his time here on on earth. This contrast between Christianity and Islam couldn't be more plain.
Looks like they're going to need another council meeting at Nicaea to rewrite it again.
why? the version they have now (minus all the other books) keeps people just ignorant enough about their true spiritual nature, to control, just fine...
Then what would be running at the race tract