The Gospel of Jesus' Wife Discovery
Flying under the new wire for sometime was the 2012 discovery that Jesus was married while he lived on earth. This is not all startling to some, after all, Jesus was human, a mere man with the normal desires and temptation, one presumes. Why not? What would be wrong with this? I suppose, many would feel it might violate some beliefs or have a problem with Jesus making love to his wife. Why? Love is what Jesus promoted.
In any case,it was a Harvard professor, Karen King, that announced the discovery of an ancient Coptic (old Egyptian writing) gospel text on papyrus that contained the phrase, "Jesus said to them, My wife...". It seemed like it was just in a conversation, as in, "My wife did this or that" kind of thing.
Immediately, the experts were divided as to the authenticity. Many thought it was an immediate fraud, while others, were skeptical. Yet, the Harvard Review defended the discovery as a breakthrough and even recently published an article attested to the papyrus' age. Harvard did not publish how the age of the papyrus was determined. This kept the wider scholarly audience guessing. However, the New York Times was given access to the studies and just last month stated that it was very likely what was found is real and ancient and NOT a modern forgery.
Okay, so now we know. Jesus, the Son of God, was married. Did he have kids?
But, wait! A few weeks ago, a Coptic expert from Indiana University and others truly believe the Gospel of Jesus' Wife was a fraud and modern forgery. As the experts looked through the various online links that Harvard provided to promote their renowned discovery in the religious world (would the fact that Jesus was married change the way you thought of him? His teachings? God?) that led the expert of The Gospel of John that was copied in 1924. ALmost immediately, like a revelation, the Gospel of Jesus' Wife fragment was suspect having the same identical line breaks as the 1924 publication. The fragment also had a similar dialect that was not used after 6th century.
When Harvard's School of Divinity hailed the discovery that Jesus was married, their papyrus tests showed the papyrus had an age somewhere between the 7th and 9th centuries. Since the dialect was not used after the 6th century, well before the papyrus, it was obvious it was a fraud. Harvard faced a great embarrassment. Duke University and the University of Hamburg further confirmed it- the Jesus' Wife discovery was a hoax.
The papyrus containing the Jesus wife revelation is real and the writing ink was soot based because spectroscopy tests would be unable to date the ink. Karen King is no doubt so embarrassed. She had received the ancient papyrus writing from an anonymous source to conduct research. Hmm, you would think that a professor with such intelligence would at least be "suspect" about the source of the papyrus. Even lesser educated people would be suspicious, especially about a topic like this.
What about Harvard as a respectable institution. They immediately jumped on the bandwagon about this renowned discovery and simply took the word of its professor. Even the New York Times, another well respected publication, said it was real without really knowing it. They simply looked at what Harvard had given them-that was flawed-and bought believed the same lie and fraud.
Makes you wonder about any university or news organization. To date, none of the biblical writings mankind has ever mentions a wife for Jesus. While it is a hoax, what if it was true? Would it change anything?