Jesus and his Wife?

A tiny, fourth century business card size piece of papyrus, written in Coptic, and unveiled by Harvard Divinity School historian Karen L. King contains the phrase “Jesus said to them, my wife…”

This raises two questions. First, is it genuine and second, if it is genuine, what does it mean?

Several experts in papyri and the Coptic language appear to believe the fragment is genuine. The probability that it is genuine is at least high enough to convince the Harvard Theological Review to publish King’s paper about the papyrus.

On the down side is the fact that the owner wants to remain anonymous and is apparently trying to sell a large segment of his collection to Harvard University. The anonymous owner has offered to donate the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, as King calls it, to Harvard if they make the purchase.

The fragment also hasn’t be dated yet so the jury on whether it’s genuine or not is still sort of out. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s assume it is genuine. What does it mean?

Well, not a whole lot actually. There is already a known tradition among Gnostic Christians that women in general, and Mary Magdalene in particular, played a more prominent role in Jesus’ ministry than the misogynistic Paulist variety of Christianity will admit to. The idea that Jesus and Mary were husband and wife isn’t new either.

The most you can say about this fragment is it demonstrates that at least some Christians in the fourth century accepted the idea that Jesus was married. That doesn’t make it true. Imagine how misled about reality someone discovering a video 2,000 years from now containing the speeches from the recent Values Voter Summit or Republican convention would be.