Posted on 09/18/2012 11:20:37 AM PDT by Red Badger
Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies today.
King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the existence of the ancient text at the congress’ meeting, held every four years and hosted this year by the Vatican’s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. The four words that appear on the fragment translate to “Jesus said to them, my wife.” The words, written in Coptic, a language of Egyptian Christians, are on a papyrus fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches.
“Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim,” King said. “This new gospel doesn’t prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry, but it was over a century after Jesus’ death before they began appealing to Jesus’ marital status to support their positions.”
Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York City, believes the fragment to be authentic based on examination of the papyrus and the handwriting. Ariel Shisha-Halevy, a Coptic expert at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, considers it likely to be authentic on the basis of language and grammar, King said. Final judgment on the fragment, King said, depends on further examination by colleagues and further testing, especially of the chemical composition of the ink.
One side of the fragment contains eight incomplete lines of handwriting, while the other side is badly damaged and the ink so faded that only three words and a few individual letters are still visible, even with infrared photography and computer photo enhancement. Despite its tiny size and poor condition, King said, the fragment provides tantalizing glimpses into issues about family, discipleship, and marriage that concerned ancient Christians.
King and colleague AnneMarie Luijendijk, an associate professor of religion at Princeton University, believe that the fragment is part of a newly discovered gospel. Their analysis of the fragment is scheduled for publication in the January issue of Harvard Theological Review, a peer-reviewed journal.
King has posted a preliminary draft of the paper, an extensive question-and-answer segment on the fragment and its meaning, and images of it, on a page on the Divinity School website.
The brownish-yellow, tattered fragment belongs to an anonymous private collector who contacted King to help translate and analyze it. The collector provided King with a letter from the early 1980s indicating that Professor Gerhard Fecht from the faculty of Egyptology at the Free University in Berlin believed it to be evidence for a possible marriage of Jesus.
King said that when the owner first contacted her about the papyrus, in 2010, “I didn’t believe it was authentic, and told him I wasn’t interested.” But the owner was persistent, so in December 2011, King invited him to bring it to her at Harvard. After examining it, in March King carried the fragment to New York and, together with Luijendijk, took it to Bagnall to be authenticated. When Bagnall’s examination of the handwriting, ways that the ink had penetrated and interacted with the papyrus, and other factors confirmed its likely authenticity, work on the analysis and interpretation of the fragment began in earnest, King said.
Little is known about the discovery of the fragment, but it is believed to have come from Egypt because it is written in Coptic, the form of the Egyptian language used by Christians there during the Roman imperial period. Luijendijk suggested that “a fragment this damaged probably came from an ancient garbage heap like all of the earliest scraps of the New Testament.” Because there is writing on both sides of the fragment, it clearly belongs to an ancient book, or codex, and not a scroll, she said.
The gospel of which the fragment is but a small part, which King and Luijendijk have named the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife for reference purposes, was probably originally written in Greek, the two professors said, and only later translated into Coptic for use among congregations of Coptic-speaking Christians. King dated the time it was written to the second half of the second century because it shows close connections to other newly discovered gospels written at that time, especially the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Philip.
Like those gospels, it was probably ascribed to one or more of Jesus’ closest followers, but the actual author would have remained unknown even if more of it had survived. As it stands, the remaining piece is too small to tell us anything more about who may have composed, read, or circulated the new gospel, King said.
The main topic of the dialogue between Jesus and his disciples is one that deeply concerned early Christians, who were asked to put loyalty to Jesus before their natal families, as the New Testament gospels show. Christians were talking about themselves as a family, with God the father, his son Jesus, and members as brothers and sisters. Twice in the tiny fragment, Jesus speaks of his mother and once of his wife — one of whom is identified as “Mary.” The disciples discuss whether Mary is worthy, and Jesus states that “she can be my disciple.” Although less clear, it may be that by portraying Jesus as married, the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife conveys a positive theological message about marriage and sexuality, perhaps similar to the Gospel of Philip’s view that pure marriage can be an image of divine unity and creativity.
From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether they should marry or be celibate. But, King notes, it was not until around 200 that there is the earliest extant claim that Jesus did not marry, recorded by Clement of Alexandria. He wrote of Christians who claimed that marriage is fornication instituted by the devil, and said that people should emulate Jesus in not marrying, King said. A decade or two later, she said, Tertullian of Carthage in North Africa declared that Jesus was “entirely unmarried,” and Christians should aim for a similar condition. Yet Tertullian did not condemn sexual relations altogether, allowing for one marriage, although he denounced not only divorce, but even remarriage for widows and widowers as overindulgence. Nearly a century earlier, the New Testament letter of 1 Timothy had warned that people who forbid marriage are following the “doctrines of demons,” although it didn’t claim Jesus was married to support that point.
In the end, the view that dominated would claim celibacy as the highest form of Christian sexual virtue, while conceding marriage for the sake of reproduction alone. The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, if it was originally written in the late second century, suggests that the whole question of Jesus’ marital status only came up over a century after Jesus died as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage, King said. King noted that contemporary debates over celibate clergy, the roles of women, sexuality, and marriage demonstrate that the issues were far from resolved.
“The discovery of this new gospel,” King said, “offers an occasion to rethink what we thought we knew by asking what role claims about Jesus’ marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy, and family. Christian tradition preserved only those voices that claimed Jesus never married. The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife now shows that some Christians thought otherwise.”
Maybe I’m a layman, and just read what is written, but isn’t the church supposed to be a like a bride, for Christ? Why wouldn’t He then refer to the church as “my wife, the church”?
/simplest explanation is usually the one that is right
Well, the main point is that Jesus’ mission here on earth was not to get married and sire a genetic line of descendants. This would be a detraction from the real reason He came here.
His mission was to be a sacrifice for all so that jew and gentile alike could inherit eternal life if they believe in Him, and be adopted into God’s family.
God’s need for human sex to accomplish things is nonexistant. He had the power to become flesh, He has the power to make all peoples part of His family without them having to be part of His personal genetic dynasty.
It would mean he was wrong all the time....
:)
1) Had Jesus married, it would not have been a sin. So, a claim that he was married would not detract from his sinless nature. (Not that I believe he was married—I don’t.)
2) The Bible repeatedly talks about the church (the body of believers) as being the bride of Christ. Remember, we’re reading someone’s translation of this scrap into English. Bride and wife mean the same thing. Had the translator chosen bride instead of wife “Jesus said: my bride” it wouldn’t be controversial to most Christian’s ears at all, as most would interpret it as a reference to the church.
3) There are thousands of “early christian” manuscripts floating around that are obvious fake/uninspired even to non-experts. There’s no reason to think this scrap didn’t come from a similar fake/uninspired manuscript unless it can be proven otherwise (in other words, finding a copy of the manuscript in its entirety so it can be analyzed).
Me too. My schedule is booked. I'll try to fit it in however. Maybe we should look at outsourcing our rioting on days we are busy?
There are probably some well qualified offshore companies that could handle our individual rioting needs at a reasonable price.
Ten bucks says the end result will be about Jesus referring to the church as his “Bride” - but some doofus is trying to gin up publicity by creating a “controversy”.
Ten bucks also says that IF jesus was married his wife was well past puberty.
King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the existence of the ancient text at the congress’ meeting, held every four years and hosted this year by the Vatican’s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. The four words that appear on the fragment translate to “Jesus said to them, my wife.” The words, written in Coptic, a language of Egyptian Christians, are on a papyrus fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches.
I'll bet Mormons are ecstatic over the news!
Related thread:
Was Jesus Married?
Occam’s Razor............
It's of no value for telling us anything about Jesus and the original disciples--it may shed light on what some divergent quasi-Christian group in Egypt thought 300 years later.
“...is the Church”?
“...is those who hear the Word and do it”?
See, at this point, we don’t know.
Where did you think the line “Take my wife... Please” come from?
My personal view on this is that knowing his mission and his destiny he would not have wanted to put a wife through the horror of being widowed by the Crucifixion. Nor would he have wanted to muddle the message about us all being Redeemed Children of the Father by leaving actual blood descendants behind to stir controversy.
(I’m more worthy than you, as I’m a blood descendant of the Savior).
Muslims always get into spitting matches about who is blood descended from their prophets from what I’m told.
ROTFL!
The entire quote in its context was “Jesus said, ‘Take my wife, please!’”
Add to that, on the cross, He turns familial responsibility of His mother over to John, so that she would have someone to provide for her. He doesn't mention anyone taking care of a wife. Mary Magdalene, whom many "scholars" seem to list as the front runner in the wife category was standing right there. John 19:25-27
The entire quote in its context was “Jesus said, ‘Take my wife, please!’”
“Take my wife........please”............
GMTA!..............
My faith is based on a very personal salvation experience.
It is not rooted in the details of the church teachings or "belief". Same for things like the Shroud of Turin, the exact locations of sites like tombs, etc.
While I find them interesting, and I seek to learn more, I am strong in my faith in my Lord.
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