The Lead

UPDATED:

A new text recently discovered seems to indicate that Jesus referred to himself as having a wife. From a Harvard Divinity School press release:

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's 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 ancient 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's death before they began appealing to Jesus's marital status to support their positions."

A draft of King's paper is here.

Q and A is here

UPDATE:

Comments (11)

[a flippant remark before anyone gets serious]

Did anyone else read the headline as intro to a joke?

"Jesus said to them 'Take my wife...PLEASE!'"

;-p

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | September 18, 2012 6:00 PM

Love it JCFisher! Wish I had thought of it when writing the headline!

Posted by Ann Fontaine | September 18, 2012 6:54 PM

Wait, does this mean he was straight? All that "disciple I love the most" stuff is confusing enough as it is for us simple lay folk.

Posted by Howardparr | September 18, 2012 7:20 PM

What it means is that this is just another funky Gnostic text. (Yes, I know I'm a killjoy.)

Posted by C. Wingate | September 18, 2012 8:06 PM

My brother, writing on FB:

When Jesus said, "Take my wife, please," he was asking the usher to find her a seat. The disciples didn't understand, thought it was a joke.

Posted by John B. Chilton | September 18, 2012 8:24 PM

Maybe the Harvard prof simply misread the text: the last letter should be an "i" instead of an "e." Maybe Jesus just had connectivity issues.

The local news solemnly reported this story this morning, starting off with the announcement that there was new evidence Jesus was married and ending with "The Vatican has not issued a statement," and the Today Show's introduction assured us that this papyrus "has set off a huge debate."

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 19, 2012 7:14 AM

Oh, and I loved this quote from King: "Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim..." As opposed to all the reliable historical evidence concerning the rest of his biography, I suppose?

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 19, 2012 7:22 AM

Wait a minute. Jesus is the bridegroom and the church is the bride of Christ. So this is saying he came back and they got married?

Posted by John B. Chilton | September 19, 2012 7:51 AM

I can't help but crack up whenever the "was Jesus married" question comes up, amused by the idea that for the early followers of Jesus, his marital status must have been embarrassing. A unmarried Jewish male in his thirties??? Poor Mary! What did she do to deserve such a fate?!!!

Posted by Kurt Wiesner | September 19, 2012 8:00 AM

John, that's it! He was talking about the Church! Mystery solved...

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 19, 2012 9:28 AM

I happened to watch a TiVoed episode of the Daily Show from last week, and he poked fun at the idea that the two words "my wife" we're taken as proof of anything, supplying a couple of examples of other possible readings: "My wife, if I ever marry, will have to love Thai food" and "My wife? No, I'm not married."

Posted by Bill Dilworth | September 25, 2012 12:18 PM

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