The Gospel of Jesus' Wife

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(Continued from last post)

Line 4 is the center of the controversy, because it explicitly mentions Jesus referring to TAϩIME ta-hime ‘my woman’ (i.e. “my wife”) which is the only word in the fragment that does not have a direct parallel in Thomas, although “women” (N̄.CϨIOME ne-s’hiome) does appear in Saying 114. Ta-hime is a relatively simple construction: the first person possessive article ta- ‘my’ plus the singular feminine noun hime (‘woman’, ‘wife’). The change could have simply been brought - supposing the forger has at least some idea of how Coptic works - by modifying “women” and appending the prefix ta- onto it. Alternatively, any possible forger could have determined the word for “wife” using Crum’s Coptic Dictionary (really the authoritative dictionary of Coptic), which had English, Greek, and Arabic indices in the back - even a person with limited understanding of how Coptic dictionaries are organized could easily have arrived at the pertinent entry.

(5) http://i62.tinypic.com/20pddv6.jpg
s-nashri-mathētēs nai ago
“She will be able to become a disciple to me, and…”

All decipherable words have a parallel in Sayings 55 and 101 of Thomas: http://i59.tinypic.com/2ilnajb.jpg *f-nashri-mathētēs an nai ago / f-nashri-mathētēs nai an ago * (42.26-27; 49.33, 35) The only change is that the third-person masculine singular prefix (ϥ) has been changed to feminine (C), with the word an ‘not’ being deleted. So whereas the original phrase goes literally “he-can-become-a-disciple not to me,” the phrase in GoJW is “she can-become-a-disciple to me.”

He who does not hate his father and his mother
cannot be a disciple to me.
And
(he who does not) hate his brothers and sisters
and take up his cross like me, will not be worthy of me. (55)

He who does not hate his father and his mother like me
cannot be a [disciple] to me.
And
he who does [not] love [his father] and his mother like me
cannot be a [disciple] to me.
For my mother …], but [my] true [mother] gave me life. (101)

(6) http://i60.tinypic.com/2rersjb.jpg
…] ma-re-rome ethoou shaf-e(i)ne …]
“No wicked man brings out… / Let [the] wicked man bring out…”

This line’s closest equivalent comes from Sayings 47 (41.17) and 45 (41.2-3).

Jesus said:
Grapes are not harvested from thorn-bushes, nor are figs gathered from hawthorns,
[f]or they yield no fruit.
[A go]od man brings forth good from his treasure;
a bad man brings forth (http://i59.tinypic.com/13z1xzk.jpg ou ka[kos] r-rome shafeine ebol) evil things from his evil (http://i58.tinypic.com/28rhdea.jpg ethoou) treasure,
which is in his heart, and he says evil things,
for out of the abundance of his heart he brings forth evil things. (45)

Jesus said:
It is not possible for a man to ride two horses or stretch two bows;
and it is not possible for a servant to serve two masters,
unless he honours the one and insults the other.
No one (http://i57.tinypic.com/24gktok.jpg marerome) drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine.
And new wine is not poured into old wineskins, lest they burst;
nor is old wine poured into a new wineskin, lest it spoil.
An old patch is not sewn on a new garment, for a rent would result. (47)

This line is very problematic grammatically. One the one hand, it is possible that the author became over-reliant on Grondin’s text, which renders MAPEPωME (marerome) as “no-man,” and it could be that the he was trying to write “No wicked man brings…” here. Thus, based on the English alone, it would appear one noun phrase (“no man which is wicked,” marerome + ethoou) could simply be exchanged for another (ou kakos r-rome “an evil man”) as the subject of the sentence. However, Coptic grammar does not work the same way as English.

A single infinitive (eine) is modified by two verbal prefixes (mare- and shaf-), which is ungrammatical. The forger didn’t realize marerome had a verbal prefix because Grondin’s translation of marerome (“no man”) would suggest that it is a noun phrase. In reality, it is the negative aorist pre-nominal prefix mare- (Sahidic mere-) combined with the noun rome (“man”). A literal translation would thus be something like, “(Any) man does not.”

The non-definite noun rome (note the absence of the article r- found in Thomas) is modified by ethoou, a simple attributive relative clause. Ordinarily, only a definite antecedent (e.g., p-) may be modified by a relative clause in Coptic; non-definite antecedents (e.g., ou-) are modified by the circumstantial. Ethoou has been moved up a has been moved up a line from 41.3, where it followed the definite (and possessive) antecedent ΠEϤEϩO (pef-eho ‘his treasure’).



Alternatively, one might understand mare- as the injunctive/optative/jussive prefix (“Let the man…”), hence giving the translation “Let the wicked man bring out…” But even then, its being paired with the habitual shaf- in shafe(i)ne “bring” is also grammatically impossible. In this case, the absence of the article r- from rome is also a problem.
 
(Continued)

(7-8) http://i57.tinypic.com/2woyo9w.jpg

…] Anok tishoop nmma-s etbe p-…]
…] ou-hikōn …]

“I am with her on account of …]”
…] image …]

The seventh line comprises of words which have a parallel in Sayings 29 (38.32-33) and 30 (39.4-5), again with the third-person masculine singular suffix -f (ϥ) in the word nmma-f ‘with him’ being altered into the feminine -s (c).

Jesus said:
If the flesh came into existence because of the (etbe p-) spirit, it is a marvel.
But if the spirit (came into existence) because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels.
But as for me, I wonder at this, how this great wealth made its home in this poverty.

Jesus said:
Where there are three gods, they are gods;
where there are two or one, I am with him (http://i60.tinypic.com/2uzza52.jpg anok tishoop nmma-f “I-myself exist with-him”).

Finally, the word hikōn (a loanword from Greek ikōn) occurs seven times in Thomas; in one of these occurrences it is accompanied by the indefinite article ou- (Saying 22, 37.34).

Now here’s a quick rundown of where the parallels can be found in Thomas. I’ll give the saying first, followed by the page and line number of the original Nag Hammadi manuscript (for example, 49.36 means line 36 of page 49), and then the page in Grondin’s pdf interlinear where the passage in question can be found.

Line 1: Saying 101 (49.36 - 5.1 = Grondin pp. 18-19)
Line 2: Sayings 12, 18, 20 (34.25; 36.9; 36.26 = pp. 3, 5)
Line 3: Sayings 81, 110, 114 (47.16-17; 51.5, 18-21 = pp. 16, 20)
Line 4: Sayings 12, 114? (34.27, 30; 51.20? = pp. 3, 20)
Line 5: Sayings 55, 101 (42.26-27; 49.33, 35; pp. 11, 18)
Line 6: Sayings 45, 47 (41.2-3, 17 = p. 10)
Line 7: Sayings 29, 30 (38.32-33; 39.4-5 = p. 7-8)
Line 8: Saying 22 (37.34 = p. 6)

Haven’t you noticed that the writer culled these words from pretty much the same pages in Grondin: pages 3, 5-8, 10-11, 16, 18-20? Really, the only word that does not have a parallel is ta-hime “my wife,” and that’s really this fragment’s only selling point. Without it it’s just a collection of random, slightly altered soundbytes from the Gospel of Thomas.

I suppose one might make a case that perhaps this fragment is someone’s attempt to forge a gospel using Thomas in antiquity. But since this fragment is over-reliant on a particular Coptic copy of Thomas that had been buried since the late 4th century (not to be discovered until 1945), we must assume that the forger used that manuscript. But here’s the catch: the author of the fragment, as I’ve noted earlier, in a number of places betrays his reliance on a particular modern edition of Thomas - Grondin’s Coptic-English interlinear, which was only put together around the late 90s-early 2000s.
 
(Last post in the series)

All in all, I’d even dare say that it is a poor attempt. Now I’m not a professional scholar or anything, but all the forger ever did was string together some bunch of phrases from Thomas while attempting to reverse the original quotes (switching the subjects from masculine to feminine, transforming an affirmative statement into a negative), perhaps in an effort to hide his or her original source.

It’d be like me trying to create a fragment of a ‘lost’ play by William Shakespeare using random quotes from his actual plays.

…] citizens are up, and…]
…] good cheer! He …] is a man, how ?..]
A horse (?) […] in three](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tragedy_of_King_Lear) …]
…] in…]
…] sal[a]m[an]der …] come my gracious …]
…] Thanks, lady, the like to you …] four nights …]
…] ere Carden…]

(following two lines illegible)

…] of the Manc…]

Hey, you know what? Maybe I will claim I’ve found a tiny fragment of a lost play by Shakespeare.
  1. If the typo is proof this was a forgery why isn’t King acknowledging it?
I could rephrase that question. Why hasn’t King responded?
  1. If the dating is as it’s believed, to be a fourth century copy of a second century text, the typo doesn’t matter because they didn’t have computers then. 🤷
Perhaps ‘spelling and grammatical errors’ is more appropriate.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge this and this. The last one sums it up pretty nicely:

The eight lines of GJW recto are derived from the Coptic GTh [Gospel of Thomas], virtually in their entirety, making dependence certain – a highly unusual form of dependence on words more than sense. The compiler has used a “collage” or “patchwork” compositional technique, and this level of dependence on extant pieces of Coptic text is more plausibly attributed to a modern author, with limited facility in Coptic, than to an ancient one. Indeed, the GJW fragment may be designedly incomplete, its lacunae built into it from the outset. It does not seem possible to fill these lacunae with GTh material contiguous to the fragments cited. The impression of modernity is reinforced by the case in line 1 of dependence on the line division of the one surviving Coptic manuscript, easily accessible in modern printed editions. Unless this impression of modernity is countered by further investigations and fresh considerations, it seems unlikely that GJW will establish itself as a “genuine” product of early gospel writing.

Even if GJW were to be accepted as a 4th century Coptic text, Dr King’s claim that it derives from a Greek original from the 2nd century would be impossible to sustain, along with her attempt to reconstruct an original historical context for it. Where a text is so manifestly dependent on another text in translation, it makes no sense to postulate dependence on an earlier original. In my view, however, a 4th century Coptic origin is equally unlikely.
 
All that means is its an old forgery.
Exactly. Supposing the GoJW is actually ‘authentic’ (it really dates from the 4th c. or whereabouts, as King claims it is) it’d contain just as many reliable information about the historical Jesus as any other late apocryphal gospel, as she herself points out. In other words, not much at all.

EDIT: Here’s Grondin himself talking about the issue. gospel-thomas.net/x_gjw.htm
 
This is the Gospel of Jesus’ wife…

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

-Tim-
 
Another ancient papyrus was found…

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-Tim-
 
How was it determined that the 4 Gospels were God inspired texts?
Jimmy Akin talks about this in this video Skip to the 3 minute mark to hear what he says about the criteria they used to accept or reject a particular book. Since one of the criteria is whether or not the writing been used in liturgy since the 1st century, and this so-called gospel of Jesus’ wife wasn’t saved for its edifying text, that should be a clue about it’s authenticity. After all, that fragment is supposed to be from the same era (4th century).
 
Read todays Gospel it is clear that this relationship did not exist or it would of shown in the Gospel reading today - Jesus raises lazarus from the dead. Believe it or don’t believe it your choice.I keep what the church teaches I don’t don’t try to comform it to what I want which takes me away from the truth .Keep in mind he went on to his crucifixion right after this.
 
Right on time. Same old story. Like an old underground newspaper with the headline: “Easter Cancelled. Christ’s Body Found.” Complete with a pair of very recent looking feet sticking out of a platform of dirt about six inches above the ground. I mentioned it to a coworker and she told me she knew the people involved.

🍿🍿🍿

Ed
Jimmy Akin talks about this in this video Skip to the 3 minute mark to hear what he says about the criteria they used to accept or reject a particular book. Since one of the criteria is whether or not the writing been used in liturgy since the 1st century, and this so-called gospel of Jesus’ wife wasn’t saved for its edifying text, that should be a clue about it’s authenticity. After all, that fragment is supposed to be from the same era (4th century).
I’m fairly certain is IS from the 4th century, copied from something
in the 2nd century.
 
If it was so obvious a forgery, it wouldn’t be so controversial.
 
Read todays Gospel it is clear that this relationship did not exist or it would of shown in the Gospel reading today - Jesus raises lazarus from the dead. Believe it or don’t believe it your choice.I keep what the church teaches I don’t don’t try to comform it to what I want which takes me away from the truth .Keep in mind he went on to his crucifixion right after this.
What does the story of Lazarus have to do with whether Jesus was married or not?
 
It shows the relationship between Martha , Mary ,Lazarus and Jesus - you just don’t want to see it.Its there.- Like I said you don’t have to believe it.
 
If it was so obvious a forgery, it wouldn’t be so controversial.
You’re just not understanding. Because it’s old means nothing. Nothing at all. That it’s old is not in question. They can tell if it’s a modern forgery or not just by examining it. But apparently it’s not a modern forgery. I probably could have told you that as if somebody was going to create a forgery today, they would have added more words than just a few out of context letters. But you cannot tell by looking at the document whether or not it contains truth or not. You keep stating that “it’s not a forgery” is if that make it more likely to be accurate. There is no supporting evidence for the statements accuracy, nor do we even know if that’s what he was saying in the first place. Anybody who says that it probably wasn’t referring to the Church or something else rather than an actual wife is stating a very subjective opinion. And likely he’s stating it because either he wants it to be true or because it makes an interesting story. It’s just some words that somebody wrote. Look at all the garbage people write on the internet and everywhere. People were no different in Jesus’s time. If we found a piece of paper on it that stated that the earth was square, we could determine whether it was a modern forgery or not by examining it. But it would make no difference as to when it was written. None at all. It’s false whenever it’s written. If its creating a controversy it is doing so because people feed on controversy and interesting stories, especially ones that question beliefs and create drama ESPECIALLy about Jesus. So re-iterate the points
  1. The document contains the words “my wife” in who knows what kind of context
  2. Even if it could be shown that the document actually refered to Jesus having a wife. WE STILL HAVE NO CLUE WHO WROTE THE DOCUMENT and for what reason they wrote it for (this is really all that needs to be said on the topic. It could have been written by a 16 year old girl who was writing for fun.)
  3. Again, even if it could be proven that they were mentioning an actual wife of Jesus, the document could easily then be discredited as it varies from the very best sources of biographical material about Jesus that we have. Remember that the 4 canonical Gospels are the EARLIEST biographies written by people who KNEW Jesus. It should be very obvious that if he had a wife, it would’ve at least gotten a single mention somewhere, nor did Paul mention it in any of his letters, nor was it passed down in Church tradition by anybody that knew Jesus. We have a single piece of paper, written by somebody which we have no clue about, for whatever reason we do not know, and who’s words we cant even read the 95% of.
There are other Gnostic Gospels which could probably be considered better sources “even though they do suck” which contain many heretical teachings. I would think that these would be more troublesome than a goofy little piece of paper found on the ground. But then again, we know that the Gnostic gospels are not anywhere near as good of sources as the canonical gospels. You should research the criteria that the church used in determining which books would be canonized. They were very strict and had certain unmistakably criteria. The books had to be written close to the scene by those who knew Jesus, and had to be in keeping with what everybody already knew about Jesus through sacredly preserved tradition. I think if you research this you will come away satisfied. It should be VERY OBVIOUS that if Jesus had a wife that it would have been preserved by tradition (why wouldn’t it have?) and/or certainly in the writings. At any rate, I would worry about discrediting the gnostic gospels before I would even think about worrying about this questionable piece of paper. Hope this makes sense 🙂

God Bless:D
 
Read todays Gospel it is clear that this relationship did not exist or it would of shown in the Gospel reading today - Jesus raises lazarus from the dead. Believe it or don’t believe it your choice.I keep what the church teaches I don’t don’t try to comform it to what I want which takes me away from the truth .Keep in mind he went on to his crucifixion right after this.
You’re just not understanding. Because it’s old means nothing. Nothing at all. That it’s old is not in question. They can tell if it’s a modern forgery or not just by examining it. But apparently it’s not a modern forgery. I probably could have told you that as if somebody was going to create a forgery today, they would have added more words than just a few out of context letters. But you cannot tell by looking at the document whether or not it contains truth or not. You keep stating that “it’s not a forgery” is if that make it more likely to be accurate. There is no supporting evidence for the statements accuracy, nor do we even know if that’s what he was saying in the first place. Anybody who says that it probably wasn’t referring to the Church or something else rather than an actual wife is stating a very subjective opinion. And likely he’s stating it because either he wants it to be true or because it makes an interesting story. It’s just some words that somebody wrote. Look at all the garbage people write on the internet and everywhere. People were no different in Jesus’s time. If we found a piece of paper on it that stated that the earth was square, we could determine whether it was a modern forgery or not by examining it. But it would make no difference as to when it was written. None at all. It’s false whenever it’s written. If its creating a controversy it is doing so because people feed on controversy and interesting stories, especially ones that question beliefs and create drama ESPECIALLy about Jesus. So re-iterate the points
  1. The document contains the words “my wife” in who knows what kind of context
  2. Even if it could be shown that the document actually refered to Jesus having a wife. WE STILL HAVE NO CLUE WHO WROTE THE DOCUMENT and for what reason they wrote it for (this is really all that needs to be said on the topic. It could have been written by a 16 year old girl who was writing for fun.)
  3. Again, even if it could be proven that they were mentioning an actual wife of Jesus, the document could easily then be discredited as it varies from the very best sources of biographical material about Jesus that we have. Remember that the 4 canonical Gospels are the EARLIEST biographies written by people who KNEW Jesus. It should be very obvious that if he had a wife, it would’ve at least gotten a single mention somewhere, nor did Paul mention it in any of his letters, nor was it passed down in Church tradition by anybody that knew Jesus. We have a single piece of paper, written by somebody which we have no clue about, for whatever reason we do not know, and who’s words we cant even read the 95% of.
There are other Gnostic Gospels which could probably be considered better sources “even though they do suck” which contain many heretical teachings. I would think that these would be more troublesome than a goofy little piece of paper found on the ground. But then again, we know that the Gnostic gospels are not anywhere near as good of sources as the canonical gospels. You should research the criteria that the church used in determining which books would be canonized. They were very strict and had certain unmistakably criteria. The books had to be written close to the scene by those who knew Jesus, and had to be in keeping with what everybody already knew about Jesus through sacredly preserved tradition. I think if you research this you will come away satisfied. It should be VERY OBVIOUS that if Jesus had a wife that it would have been preserved by tradition (why wouldn’t it have?) and/or certainly in the writings. At any rate, I would worry about discrediting the gnostic gospels before I would even think about worrying about this questionable piece of paper. Hope this makes sense 🙂

God Bless:D
Thanks. Is the GJW a Gnostic ?

I’ve been trying to find more infomation online about how the Gospels and Epistles were chosen and haven’t been able to fnd much. I’ll keep looking. I think you’re right, that if I learned more about the process, this would stop bugging me so much.
 
If it was so obvious a forgery, it wouldn’t be so controversial.
That’s not true. We see that with many topics. One bit of data suggesting the a small possibility the FBI maybe, perhaps, could have killed JFK will get 100 times the media attention than 100 bits of new data pointing towards a less startling conclusion. One picture of an object on Mars that might resemble a smile face will get more media coverage than 100 photos of that same general area that seem to show patterns set by hills and shadows. At any moment there are thousands of biblical research projects going on. Do you think the media give equal coverage to those that seem to support traditional understanding of the Bible?
 
The whole theory is that it was Mary - thats what these people making the claim are implying - the gospel today does not show this type of relatioship between them and as I said he goes on to to his passion just after this.- so when did this marrage happen and why does the Gospel today not reflect this marrage relationship between Jesus and Mary?

I don’t see it - I see the opposite. he is refered to as the teacher - Martha says I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,the one who is coming into the world.”
When she had said this,she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,“The teacher is here and is asking for you.”
There is no implication here at all that they are married.

I don’t know who else they would mean if it was not Mary - and the relationship implied does not appear to be there.

But its up to you I can only say what I see and speak for myself. I am not going to believe a piece of paper with a couple of words over the Gospel of John.And I love the Gospel of John he gets right to it from the very beginning telling us that Jesus is God.

I’m not trying to argue or tell anyone they are wrong I am just stating what I read and see.
 
I’m fairly certain is IS from the 4th century, copied from something
in the 2nd century.
That’s exactly what I meant. It was either from a document that was in circulation at the time but was rejected for the canon, or else they had never seen it before. Either way, that would indicate to me that it’s not authentic as a gospel, even if it is authentically old.
 
That’s exactly what I meant. It was either from a document that was in circulation at the time but was rejected for the canon, or else they had never seen it before. Either way, that would indicate to me that it’s not authentic as a gospel, even if it is authentically old.
Ok, I think we’re using the word “authentic” differently. I meant authentic as in it was a genuine text from the 4th century or a copy of a genuine text from the 2nd century.
 
Ok, I think we’re using the word “authentic” differently. I meant authentic as in it was a genuine text from the 4th century or a copy of a genuine text from the 2nd century.
I’m using the word 2 ways here. It could be (and seems to be) an authentically ancient parchment with authentically ancient writing on it. It also could be (but I wouldn’t bet on it) an authentic gospel written by a true disciple of Jesus. Or some ancient could have just made up the story about Jesus being married because it seemed natural to them that he would be.

I’ll admit it’s confusing but I don’t have another word at hand.
 
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