Was Jesus Married ?

[Woody]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/us/historian-says-piece-of-papyrus-refers-to-jesus-wife.html?_r=2

Photograph by Karen L. King

A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: September 18, 2012 228 Comments

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

E-mail

Share

Print

Single Page

Reprints

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

Enlarge This Image

Evan McGlinn for The New York Times

Professor Karen L. King, in her office at The Harvard Divinity School, held a fragment of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a reference to Jesus' wife.

National Twitter Logo.

Connect With Us on Twitter

Follow @NYTNational for breaking news and headlines.

Twitter List: Reporters and Editors

Readers’ Comments

Share your thoughts.

Post a Comment »

Read All Comments (228) »

The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”

The finding was made public in Rome on Tuesday at an international meeting of Coptic scholars by the historian Karen L. King, who has published several books about new Gospel discoveries and is the first woman to hold the nation’s oldest endowed chair, the Hollis professor of divinity.

The provenance of the papyrus fragment is a mystery, and its owner has asked to remain anonymous. Until Tuesday, Dr. King had shown the fragment to only a small circle of experts in papyrology and Coptic linguistics, who concluded that it is most likely not a forgery. But she and her collaborators say they are eager for more scholars to weigh in and perhaps upend their conclusions.

Even with many questions unsettled, the discovery could reignite the debate over whether Jesus was married, whether Mary Magdalene was his wife and whether he had a female disciple. These debates date to the early centuries of Christianity, scholars say. But they are relevant today, when global Christianity is roiling over the place of women in ministry and the boundaries of marriage.

The discussion is particularly animated in the Roman Catholic Church, where despite calls for change, the Vatican has reiterated the teaching that the priesthood cannot be opened to women and married men because of the model set by Jesus.

Dr. King gave an interview and showed the papyrus fragment, encased in glass, to reporters from The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Harvard Magazine in her garret office in the tower at Harvard Divinity School last Thursday. She left the next day for Rome to deliver her paper on the find on Tuesday at the International Congress of Coptic Studies.

She repeatedly cautioned that this fragment should not be taken as proof that Jesus, the historical person, was actually married. The text was probably written centuries after Jesus lived, and all other early, historically reliable Christian literature is silent on the question, she said.

But the discovery is exciting, Dr. King said, because it is the first known statement from antiquity that refers to Jesus speaking of a wife. It provides further evidence that there was an active discussion among early Christians about whether Jesus was celibate or married, and which path his followers should choose.

“This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married,” Dr. King 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.”

Dr. King first learned about what she calls “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” when she received an e-mail in 2010 from a private collector who asked her to translate it. Dr. King, 58, specializes in Coptic literature, and has written books on the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary of Magdala, Gnosticism and women in antiquity.

The owner, who has a collection of Greek, Coptic and Arabic papyri, is not willing to be identified by name, nationality or location, because, Dr. King said, “He doesn’t want to be hounded by people who want to buy this.”

When, where or how the fragment was discovered is unknown. The collector acquired it in a batch of papyri in 1997 from the previous owner, a German. It came with a handwritten note in German that names a professor of Egyptology in Berlin, now deceased, and cited him calling the fragment “the sole example” of a text in which Jesus claims a wife.

The owner carried the fragment to the Divinity School in December 2011 and left it with Dr. King. She said she was initially suspicious, but it looked promising enough to explore. Three months later, she carried the fragment in her red handbag to New York to show it to two colleagues, both papyrologists: Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, at New York University, and AnneMarie Luijendijk, an associate professor of religion at Princeton University.

[olger]

NO, NOT YET!! (Revelation 22:17; John 3:29).

GOSH !!

[Gail]

[Woody]

[Gibs]

I think I'll vote for this as His Bride,

MR No. 1224 - The Church is the Bride of Christ

"God calls the church His body. The church is the bride, the Lamb's wife. God is the Father of the family, the Shepherd of the flock. But a mere outward connection with any church will not save a man. It is personal faith in a personal Saviour which brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. This truth Christ plainly teaches in the sixth chapter of John."-- Ms 121, 1899, p. 17.

There won't be man and wife in Heaven and I can not see that Jesus got with a woman and not father a child. If he did then the Father has a grandson or grand daughter. Not likely do any think?

1Jo 4:4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

[M. T. Cross]

Its gotta be a fake orchestrated by the Devil himself.

[phkrause]

Its gotta be a fake orchestrated by the Devil himself.

Most definitely EC

[JoeMo]

It's amazing to me that this kind of bovine excrement can cause such a stir. Like that book (or movie) from a few months ago talking about how Jesus was the megalomaniac illegitimate son of a Jewish girl who was raped by a Roman soldier. I don't think morphing Jesus into something besides what scripture says He is helps or hinders anyone's faith. We either believe Jesus is who scripture says He is (Son of God) or we believe He isn't. I have much more respect for a non-believer than I do for someone who believes the c-rapp on a single isolated piece of parchment no bigger than a postage stamp. Let's believe the "Da Vinci Code" or "Angels and Demons"! Was Dan Brown a fiction writer or a messenger from God? Should I start a separate topic? (Please say no!)

[M. T. Cross]

The thing is this. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Does it really matter in the over all picture and meaning of his message? Do you know what time he relieved himself? Do we know if he prefered red grapes over green or if he was allergic to bee's? Does it matter?

[Alchemy]

To a female of His time on Earth? No.

To His Church? Very soon.

[JoeMo]

MT,

The only way it would have mattered is that, if He was married, it would have been really tough on His family; especially if He had kids. IMO, His death and return to heaven would be a prime reason for Him not to marry, assuming He had foreknowledge of what He was facing (I believe He did).

As far as for us in this day and age, it doesn't matter much - it matters about as much as whether or not Adam had a belly-button. What should matter to Christians is "was Jesus truly the Son of God; and was He truly the all-encompassing Sacrifice for the sins of the world?" I vote yes.

[phkrause]

Besides JoeMo, if he had been married, the Bible would've mentioned that little detail! Don't we think??

[Gibs]

To consider Christ tottally a human as we are can not be as His Father was God. Yes He was a man like unto us and taking no power to overcome but what can be ours as He made it so.

But the thing of it is of this question, for Him to mate with mankind would have been a no no because then the offspring would not have been as we are altogether either.

I'm sure it was not in the plan and Jesus never did anything but what was the Fathers Will. If He had of, wouldn't Satan have pounced on that with all "4 feet" so as to speak?

Mercy me!

1Jo 4:4 ¶ Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

[M. T. Cross]

Besides JoeMo, if he had been married, the Bible would've mentioned that little detail! Don't we think??

That depends of course on a number of things. From my view it is important to remember that the Roman Catholic church held on to control of the Bible for a long time. Could they have removed any mention of Christ being married in order to justify their stance of priests being unmarried? Originally they were allowed to marry till the church started to lose money over it.

As Joe points out it may well be that Jesus never got married because it would have been very hard on his family. On the flip side it would have completed his human experience. It would have made it easier to look at him as a being that faced the same problems as the rest of us and still was able to do what he reportedly did.

Who knows though? I still don't think it makes much of a difference other than some historical intrest.

[JoeMo]

There are probably a lot of things about Christ that are not mentioned in the Bible. We are missing 18 years of his life (from the time He was 12 until He was 30). John's gospel tells us that Jesus did many more things; and the world wouldn't have room for the books that could be written.

A little off-topic; but the Bible never mentions a triune God or a Trinity (although it is implied). Nonetheless, I accept it as truth because of experience.

As I said previously; I don't necessarily believe that Jesus was married; but I gotta agree with MT that whether or not He was married is not an issue we need to worry about. It is an interesting thought that marriage could have enriched His human experience... I don't worry about it though - He's always my Lord and my big Brother.

[Alchemy]

No.

We need to remember that the name Jesus was pretty common, so there isn't any reason to believe it's Jesus Christ of the New Testament.

[Q.E.D.]

No, Jesus was not married.

Q.E.D.

[stinsonmarri]

Is this important to our soul salvation. We should be talking about what is happing now to get read for YASHUA'S coming. If it is not in the Bible why talk about it. Jesus may have married but not YASHUA THE SON OF ELOHIM.

Blessings...

stinsonmarri

[Gustave]

No.