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| 'Jesus's wife' papyrus is likely a fake, Harvard professor now says |
| 2016-06-21 |
| [Al Ahram] A Harvard professor who caused a huge splash when she unveiled a small fragment of papyrus that she said referred to Jesus being married now says it's likely a forgery. Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King presented the piece of papyrus in Rome in 2012. The fragment, written in Coptic, includes the phrase, "Jesus said to them, My wife." Right from the beginning, it sparked controversy and debate among scholars. Doubts about its authenticity were raised almost immediately. King said it is more likely than not that the fragment is a modern forgery. She cited an investigative article published last week on the website of The Atlantic magazine that raised questions about the owner of papyrus, Florida businessman Walter Fritz. The Atlantic also was the first to report her concession that the papyrus is likely a fake. "If you ask me today which direction am I leaning more toward -- ancient text or a modern forgery -- based on this new evidence, I'm leaning toward modern forgery," King told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. The Atlantic found inconsistencies in Fritz's story about how he came to acquire the papyrus and in a document he gave to King purporting to authenticate it. "This evidence does make a difference in judging whether it was a forgery or not, and it pushes the evidence toward it being a forgery," King said. A valid telephone number could not be found for Fritz. In an email sent to the AP on Monday, Fritz included a letter he sent to The Atlantic in which he denied forging, altering or manipulating the papyrus or its inscription. Mark Goodacre, a professor of religious studies at Duke University, said doubts about the fragment were raised within hours of King showing the text at a conference in Rome. "When you show something like that to people who spend their entire lives staring at these things, a lot of them could straightaway tell there was something fishy about it," Goodacre said. He said he credits King with having "a lot of guts" to acknowledge that she was likely duped. King said she has always maintained that the fragment wasn't evidence about whether Jesus was married. "It's at most a part of the early Christian story about should Christians marry, and so on and so forth," she said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 Did Mary of Magdala clan have beacoup cavalry + warriors??? IMO iff Jesus as a "descendant/heir of David" [Saul?] had political, ethnic, + familial right to claim the throne of Judea, by extension his relatives should have had some kind of potent military arm to back his claim up - ditto as per the Magdalene whose clan's own alleged claim to the throne of David helped justify or validate's Jesus'??? This was occurring at time when the so-called Zealots were gaining in numbers + influence which would decades later manifest itself in open armed rebellion agz Rome. my two cents. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2016-06-21 21:17 |
| #11 #1 LOL. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2016-06-21 21:08 |
| #10 Some religious scholars believe he was married to Mary Magdeline. She was the only woman known to travel with him. They believe the story where he turned water into wine at the wedding where his mother was ordering the servants around was his wedding. I don't know, I wasn't invited. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2016-06-21 19:36 |
| #9 Maybe the biggest clue that it was a forgery was thar it said "on June 21, 32 AD, Jesus said ..." |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2016-06-21 16:07 |
| #8 Well, if he had a wife to keep him from doing crazy things, he'd probably wouldn't have ended on a cross. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-06-21 16:03 |
| #7 LOL AreACee |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-06-21 16:00 |
| #6 A coy dealer of antiquities A lay scholar, if you please Came upon a papyrus From the land of Osiris To set sacred hearts to seize. Why is it, he sadly asked That poor Jesus was said to be tasked To a life full of omen Without a fine woman In whose light he would have gladly basked? |
| Posted by: JHH 2016-06-21 15:15 |
| #5 Archaeologists claim an enlargement Of ancient Arabian parchment Reveals ball and chain Behind Allah, quite plain, Concealed in a black sack-like garment. |
| Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 2016-06-21 11:04 |
| #4 Taxpayer money was involved. Clawback her salary. RICO Harvard. Treble damages. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-06-21 09:21 |
| #3 Its like when someone suggests a different possibilty for let's say ancient Egypt and the pros say "oh, but we have this inscription that says ......". Like the ancients never engaged in propaganda. And I'm not talking about aliens did it and similiar crap |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2016-06-21 09:12 |
| #2 Wonder what the 'findings' will be when only the fiction section of libraries are unearth two thousand years from now. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-06-21 09:05 |
| #1 Incomplete translation. It actually reads: "Jesus said to them, 'take my wife, please'". |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2016-06-21 07:24 |