Jesus was married, papyrus shows (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR; ABC News via Yahoo News

ABC News reporting on authentic papyrus referring to Jesus's wife (abcnews.com)

Gospel of Jesus's Wife: "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...' " and "she will be able to be my disciple" written in the Coptic language of Egypt, the fragment contains the phrases.

 

In 2012 [a year of revelations], the discovery of a tattered papyrus fragment rocked the biblical studies community after some alleged its text proved that Jesus was married.

 

Now tests show the fragment is not only likely legitimate -- it's also very old.

 

The controversial fragment known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries, and could possibly date back as early as the second to fourth centuries, according to a newly published study in the Harvard Theological Review.

Of course my rabbi son was married

The fragment -- which contains the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife'" -- first came to light several years ago.
 
Harvard University Divinity Professor Karen L. King, who announced the fragment's existence at a conference in 2012 [declared by the Vatican to be "fake"..."probably" (NY Times)], was quick to point out that the fragment does not prove that Jesus had a wife. [See below as the eminent religious scholar Princeton University Professor of Religion Elaine Pagels weighs. See also as Bart D. Ehrman (author of How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee), Mark Jordan, and King discuss the god's marriage.]

 

Jesus was not Nordic but African

"The main topic of the fragment is to affirm that women who are mothers and wives can be disciples of Jesus -- a topic that was hotly debated in early Christianity as celibate virginity increasingly became highly valued," King said in a statement.

 

The document first came to King's attention in 2011. She had it examined by Roger Bagnall, director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Bagnall's initial findings were that the fragment was ancient, which lead to more testing.

From Harvard University:

Wait, my lord God made love and everything?!

Over the past two years, extensive testing of the papyrus and the carbon ink, as well as analysis of the handwriting and grammar, all indicate that the existing material fragment dates to between the sixth and ninth centuries CE. None of the testing has produced any evidence that the fragment is a modern fabrication or forgery. More

Mary Magdalene's Secrets (Discovery and other new documentaries)

 
Prof. Elaine Pagels
Robert Siegel, All Things Considered (NPR.org, Sept. 19, 2012)

Revelations (timedoesnotrest)

When the existence of the papyrus was announced in 2012, another scholar of early Christian texts, Princeton's Elaine Pagels was on NPR to saying that the papyrus suggests that at the time it was written "apparently, there were stories going around that [Jesus] may have been" married.
 

More Revelations (Elaine Pagels)

"[It] may also suggest that Jesus is using a symbolic language as he is in other Gospels that we know of from the second century, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Philip," Pagels told All Things Considered. LISTEN

Does it matter if Jesus was married?
(BDE) Professors Dr. Karen King, Dr. Bart Ehrman, and Dr. Mark Jordan address the question, "Does it matter if Jesus [St. Issa] was married?"

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