The Gospel of Jesus' Wife

[Faith1960]

Because if Christ were married he would be a radically different Christ than which we now know.

Christ - God - having relations with a human woman just sounds too pagan.

It also means that Christ could not live up to his own words in Matt 19:29 about those forsaking everything, including wives, for his (Christ’s) sake. Christ then couldn’t even do that.

It just sounds wrong, and everyone here knows it. But then I once read that that was a benefit of Sacred Tradition: an oddity stands out like s sore thumb.

I mean from an archaeological, or scientific standpoint.

 

[seagal]

Because if Christ were married he would be a radically different Christ than which we now know.

Christ - God - having relations with a human woman just sounds too pagan.

It also means that Christ could not live up to his own words in Matt 19:29 about those forsaking everything, including wives, for his (Christ’s) sake. Christ then couldn’t even do that.

It just sounds wrong, and everyone here knows it. But then I once read that that was a benefit of Sacred Tradition: an oddity stands out like s sore thumb.

Excellent show on this topic recently on Catholic Answers: Jesus the Bridegroom

 

[commenter]

Do you have any first-hand references from King in this regard?

King’s objectivity as a scholar is seriously questionable. Her involvement with A New New Testament affirms her belief that she has the right to add (!) books to the Bible. Since she is not the sole author, I don’t know how much she shares of the extremely hostile language regarding the traditional 27 books, but she must at least be compatible with it. Her involvement with the Jesus Seminar raises issues due to that group’s willingness to bend scholarship to advance ideological ends. Her book on Gnosticism clearly identifies the early Church, its scriptures and definition of orthodox religion, and labeling of other views as heresy as a political power imposed by what she called “Christian emperors”. In her writings on Mary of Magdala, and her article on Frontline, she points to the early Church as having twisted and altered the scriptures to suppress women.

She is not like an agnostic scholar, who carefully gathers data, then draws conclusions based on the data itself. She has an ideological agenda, and looks for data that will support a predetermined conclusion. The secular media and educational establishments support her, because she supports their views.

 

[SPH1]

I mean from an archaeological, or scientific standpoint.

In that case, some say that it cannot be proven that Christ really existed.

 

[patrick457]

King’s objectivity as a scholar is seriously questionable. Her involvement with A New New Testament affirms her belief that she has the right to add (!) books to the Bible. Since she is not the sole author, I don’t know how much she shares of the extremely hostile language regarding the traditional 27 books, but she must at least be compatible with it. Her involvement with the Jesus Seminar raises issues due to that group’s willingness to bend scholarship to advance ideological ends. Her book on Gnosticism clearly identifies the early Church, its scriptures and definition of orthodox religion, and labeling of other views as heresy as a political power imposed by what she called “Christian emperors”. In her writings on Mary of Magdala, and her article on Frontline, she points to the early Church as having twisted and altered the scriptures to suppress women.

She is not like an agnostic scholar, who carefully gathers data, then draws conclusions based on the data itself. She has an ideological agenda, and looks for data that will support a predetermined conclusion. The secular media and educational establishments support her, because she supports their views.

I was actually expecting something from King herself (a quote from her works maybe or something along those lines). So far you’ve just been telling me how bad she is.

 

[dominejesu]

ditto. Jesus wife who he was always married to was his bride and that is the church

 

[patrick457]

Here’s an update.

From Christian Askeland’s Evangelical Textual Criticism blog:

Demotic Gospel of Thomas (April 14th)
Announcement from Leo Depuydt on Jesus’s Wife (April 17th)
Hans-Ulrich Laukamp and the GJW (April 23rd)
Jesus Had an Ugly Sister-in-Law (April 24th)

From Mark Goodacre’s NT Blog:

Jesus’ Wife Fragment Latest: Leo Depuydt responds to Karen King (April 16th)
Karen King is Interviewed About the Jesus Wife Fragment (April 17th)
More Doubts Surface on the Jesus Wife Fragment (April 22nd)
Jesus’ Wife and her Ugly Sister
Illustrating the Forgery of Jesus’ Wife’s Sister Fragment (both April 25th)

By G.W. Schwendner of What’s New in Papyrology:

Christian Askeland, “Jesus had an ugly sister-in-law” (April 24th)
The “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” as a Questioned Document: What Would Simulated Ancient Writing Look Like? (PDF)

From Coptologist Alin Suciu:

Christian Askeland Finds the “Smoking Gun” (April 24th)
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Papyrus. Final Considerations (April 26th)

‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’: Doubts Raised About Ancient Text by Owen Jarus (LiveScience article)

Interview with Caroline T. Schroeder re: Jesus’ Wife Fragment from Anthony Le Donne’s The Jesus Blog

From Andrew Bernhard of gospels.net (all PDF):

The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: A Key to the Patchwork Text
The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: Missing Evidence of Antiquity
The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: Internet Forgery

And Stephen Goranson, Michael Grondin and [Larry Hurtado summing things up](“Jesus’ Wife” Arguments: And the Beat Goes On!).

Y’all have a lot to read.

 

[St_Redemption]

Here’s an update.

From Christian Askeland’s Evangelical Textual Criticism blog:

Demotic Gospel of Thomas (April 14th)
Announcement from Leo Depuydt on Jesus’s Wife (April 17th)
Hans-Ulrich Laukamp and the GJW (April 23rd)
Jesus Had an Ugly Sister-in-Law (April 24th)

From Mark Goodacre’s NT Blog:

Jesus’ Wife Fragment Latest: Leo Depuydt responds to Karen King (April 16th)
Karen King is Interviewed About the Jesus Wife Fragment (April 17th)
More Doubts Surface on the Jesus Wife Fragment (April 22nd)
Jesus’ Wife and her Ugly Sister
Illustrating the Forgery of Jesus’ Wife’s Sister Fragment (both April 25th)

By G.W. Schwendner of What’s New in Papyrology:

Christian Askeland, “Jesus had an ugly sister-in-law” (April 24th)
The “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” as a Questioned Document: What Would Simulated Ancient Writing Look Like? (PDF)

From Coptologist Alin Suciu:

Christian Askeland Finds the “Smoking Gun” (April 24th)
The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Papyrus. Final Considerations (April 26th)

‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’: Doubts Raised About Ancient Text by Owen Jarus (LiveScience article)

Interview with Caroline T. Schroeder re: Jesus’ Wife Fragment from Anthony Le Donne’s The Jesus Blog

From Andrew Bernhard of gospels.net (all PDF):

The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: A Key to the Patchwork Text
The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: Missing Evidence of Antiquity
The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife: Internet Forgery

And Stephen Goranson, Michael Grondin and [Larry Hurtado summing things up](“Jesus’ Wife” Arguments: And the Beat Goes On!).

Y’all have a lot to read.

Wow nicely done. Case closed it seems?

 

[patrick457]

Wow nicely done. Case closed it seems?

Well, the growing consensus is that it’s a fake - that scrap of John’s gospel, which is apparently written by the same hand as the fragment but is in a dialect of Coptic that should have been extinct by the 6th century or later (the date given by the Carbon-14 tests), really dealt a blow to the fragment.

More updates from the usual sources:

From NT Blog.

Laboratory tests can’t always catch modern forgeries - as Harvard Theological Review has (inadvertently) proved
Tentative chronology on Coptic “Jesus Wife” fragment (April 28th)
Jesus’ Wife Fragment Round-up (April 29th)
More evidence of forgery in the Jesus’ Wife Sister Fragment (May 1st)
Jesus’ Wife Fragment Round-up (May 5th)

From Larry Hurtado:

On Fragments & Alleged Forgeries (April 28th)
A Master Hoaxer: Constantine Simonides (April 29th - not exactly related to the fragment, but nonetheless a thought-provoking blog post)
“Jesus’ Wife”: What’s the Story Now? (May 1st)
[The “Jesus’ Wife” Controversy: Scholarship, Publicity, and The Issues](The “Jesus’ Wife” Controversy: Scholarship, Publicity, and The Issues) (May 6th)

The good thing about it is that the media is picking up on the reports concerning the doubts raised about the fragment. Even Dr. King herself is seriously considering the possibility that it is fake: “This is substantive, it’s worth taking seriously, and it may point in the direction of forgery. … This is one option that should receive serious consideration, but I don’t think it’s a done deal.”