"Gospel of Jesus' Wife" Papyrus - Likely a Forgery
Original photograph © Karen L. King
“A hotly contested, supposedly ancient manuscript suggests Christ was married. But believing its origin story [...] requires a big leap of faith.”
A June 2016 article in The Atlantic magazine reports on the latest findings concerning a scrap of papyrus said to contain words spoken by Jesus in which he mentions "my wife". This latest update by reporter Ariel Sabar puts in doubt the authenticity of the artifact.
Four years ago, in September 2012, more than 300 scholars met in Rome. At this academic meeting, Karen King from Harvard University announced that she had come upon an ancient piece of papyrus on which a scribe had written the words, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" and other references that seemed to indicate that Jesus may have been married, possibly to Mary Magdalene.
The audience was stunned and erupted into applause.
The euphoria didn't last long. Within days, several scholars expressed doubts about the papyrus' authenticity, citing grammatical anomalies and plagiarism, among others.
Ariel Sabar wondered why no one had conducted an in-depth investigation into the papyrus chain of ownership, and set out to discover how the artifact came to be.
He spent months digging for information and interviewing people involved in the papyrus origins. In the end, he wrote an article detailing his investigation.
Now, Karen King, the scholar who originally presented the papyrus as authentic, has reversed her position:
“In response to Sabar’s findings about the artifact’s provenance, Harvard University scholar Karen King stated that the new information “tips the balance towards [the papryus being a] forgery.””
Further reading:
September 2012 - Smithsonian Magazine, The Inside Story of a Controversial New Text About Jesus.
November 2012 - Smithsonian Magazine, UPDATE: The Reaction to Karen King's Gospel Discovery.
June 2016 - Atlantic Magazine, The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus' Wife.
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