ROME
Vatican Insider
A recently discovered scrap of papyrus dating back to the 4th century, presented at a conference in Rome, makes reference to Jesus having a wife
Andrea Tornielli
Rome
A piece of papyrus written in Sahidic, a Coptic dialect of Lower Egypt, has rekindled the Jesus marriage debate. Professor Karen King of Harvard Divinity School presented the scrap of papyrus at a conference in Rome. It reads: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife ….’”.This is the first and only explicit reference to Jesus having a wife, the New York Times reported.
In her study, which will be published in the Harvard Theological Review in January 2013, Professor King warned that this finding does not constitute definitive proof of Jesus having been married, although everything indicates that the fragment is genuine: various experts have excluded the possibility of the text having been added later on, to an ancient piece of papyrus. The fragment is small, it only measures 4 by 8 centimetres and only bits of longer sentences are legible.
Professor King stated: “It is not evidence, for us, historically, that Jesus had a wife,” but it highlights that the question of his possible marriage and his sexuality were often the subject of intense debate. The writing on the papyrus suggests the text was written in the second half of the 4th century. But its contents could have been copied form a 2nd-century Greek text. There could be a link with between this text and other texts of the time, known as the Gospels of Thomas and Mary – texts which were born out of a Gnostic context.
As is known, the Church only recognises the “canonical” Gospels of Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as authentic texts. These date back to the 1st century: Matthew and John were apostles while Mark and Luke were followers of Peter and Paul. Although the common belief is that ecclesiastical authorities imposed the canonical gospels over other texts which were rejected as “apocryphal”, this is not quite true. The canonical gospels were the most widespread among Christian communities, which recognised the apostolic origin of these texts and thus their link with eye witnesses of Jesus’ life. So the canonical gospels were canonical well before they were actually defined as such. A fragment discovered in the Vatican Library by Ludovico Muratori proves that these gospels were being read and venerated as far back as the year 157.
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