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 ...’ ”
Evan McGlinn for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/us/historian-says-piece-of-papyrus-refers-to-jesus-wife.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120919#h[CMACMA]Professor Karen L. King, in her office at 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.
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 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 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,” 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.”
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.
