(Image Credit: Independent)
A Harvard scientist claims that a fragment of an ancient papyrus seemingly mentioning Jesus’ wife is authentic following a series of tests.
The text, which is written in Coptic, contains dialogue where Jesus refers to ‘my wife’.
Karen King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, states in the Harvard Theological Review that the papyrus is almost certainly of ancient origin. The fragment, which has some legible lines on the front and on the back, contains the words: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …. She will also be my disciple.”
The existence of the papyrus was first announced by King in 2012 in Rome at the International Coptic Congress, where she dubbed it ‘The Gospel Of Jesus’ Wife’, which caused great controversy.
Professor King does stress however that the text does not necessarily prove that Jesus had a wife, but possibly suggests that the ancient christians wrote about this possibility.
“This gospel fragment provides a reason to reconsider what we thought we knew by asking what the role claims of Jesus’s marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy, and family.”
Read the entire article here at The Independent.
