“Jesus said to them, my wife…”

On September 18, 2012, the Harvard Divinity School issued a press release. They're announcing the discovery of a gospel fragment written on ancient papyrus in the Coptic language. Among the few readable lines on this fragment are the following: "Jesus said to them, my wife."

There are several points we need to be clear on in our discussions about this discovery. First, this is not a silly hoax or a ploy to attain notoriety. This fragment of a lost gospel has already been studied by serious scholars here in the United States and in Europe. They have found it authentic to the era and see no signs of fakery.

Second, it dates back between the years 150 and 200. This is well into the third generation after the time of Jesus. It cannot stand for us as an eyewitness account. It also cannot be dismissed as the idle musings of a later generation because the author could have recorded an accurate oral tradition; although that is unlikely. We simply do not know.

Third, Professor Karen King of Harvard University is being completely truthful when she says: "Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim."  None of the New Testament authors talk about Jesus marital status, one way or the other. None of the non-biblical historical sources that have been discovered so far comment about his marital status. Once again we simply do not know.

To the best of my recollection, Prof. King is also correct in stating that the earliest texts proclaiming Jesus as single or celibate come to us from about the year 200 and the hand of Clement of Alexandria. This question was seriously debated during the era we are talking about and the newly discovered fragment simply represents the other side of that debate.

Here is a link to the actual news release on the Harvard website; there is a video on this webpage you can click on and watch. [Click Here]

And here is a link to some questions and answers about the fragment. [Click Here]