Was Jesus, the Lord and Savior of the Christian world, married? It's a question that's been debated by biblical scholars almost since the time he died. Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity with Harvard's School of Divinity, recently submitted a scholarly paper about a piece of papyrus written in a Coptic language common in southern Egypt in the very early ages of Christianity. Dr. King, who is 58, specializes in Coptic literature and is an expert and prolific author in her field.
On the papyrus was a written reference to Christ's wife. Two phrases seem to imply his marital status, and the fact that he considered women to be his equals. The first phrase states, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" and the text cuts off. The second phrase written is, "She will be able to be my disciple," giving her equal status among the other disciples.
Conventional Christianity has historically denied that he was married, and the Roman Catholic Church has always insisted that women and married men cannot obtain the priesthood because to do so would go against the way He lived.
Dr. King received the small scrap of papyrus from a private collector, which can be viewed at this link, who told her he'd obtained it from a German collector. When Dr. King first received it, she was skeptical about its origins, but upon further inspection, she came to believe the piece was quite old. She took the artifact to colleagues in New York who specialized in ancient papyrus texts and the three of them examined it extensively. King stated that in the southern Egyptian Coptic dialect, the two words, "My wife" are not a colloquial for anything else. They are not symbolic. She said, "These words can mean nothing else."
Of course, she still remains cautious because the text was probably written a couple of centuries after Christ's death. But when you think about it, the entire Bible as most Christians know it today, was also written centuries after his death.
So, who's right? Are the Coptic verses a hidden truth that the Roman Catholic Church has sought to stamp out? After all, early church leaders chose which texts to include in the Bible and which to exclude, based on their own biased beliefs. Because of this, many skeptics and Christians believe the Coptic verses tell a different and truer story about the Savior, while the Holy Bible is cherry picked. Regardless of all this, no one will ever know the truth.
Aside from carbon dating, which would destroy the document, there is really no sure-fire method of dating the piece. However, the piece will be examined using spectroscopy, which will determine its chemical composition, so they can more accurately find out its age.
Dr. King is presenting her findings on Tuesday to the International Congress of Coptic Studies. The discovery is tantalizing, especially for those who speculate about whether the Son of God lived a life of celibacy or if he took a wife, as would have been the custom of the time.
Image: Egyptian Rosary with Coptic Cross by Silar / Wikimedia
©2012 Reno Berkeley for Gather News. Berkeley can be found on Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 22
Timothy 2:11-14
"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner."
1 Corinthians 14:34-38
"women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church."
I blame Saint Augustine for some of this, a couple hundred years after Jesus was dead. Sexuality is not evil, it is only when we allow ourselves to victimize others in pursuit of our gratification that we become criminal. Original sin is the stupidest doctrine ever imagined by human minds.
Jews in the year zero would not have considered sexuality evil. Adultery was grounds for stoning, sure. But sex in itself was fine, if performed within marriage. Was Jesus married? quite possibly, but of course after he was deified by the early church, it was no longer okay to think about him in bed with anyone. silly stuff.
Original sin the stupidest doctrine ever? Jesus would not even be necessary if were not for original sin. You are clearly not a Christian if you think it was imagined by human minds.
Some early Coptic "Christians" taught that Jesus was a prophet and not a God. The Doctors of the Church were crucial in fighting heretics. Today we take heresy as fact and treat Doctors of the Church as liars or accuse them of hiding things.
I guess I'm the only one that finds it weird that God would have sexual relations with his own creations.
I believe Jesus served a higher purpose and was not as susceptible to human urges as we are. Luke 2:42-51 clearly shows that Jesus was serious about his mission.
St. Augustine was an awesome dude, as plainly evidenced by St. Augustine's prayer (paraphrased):
God grant me chastity, but not yet.
"Original sin the stupidest doctrine ever? Jesus would not even be necessary if were not for original sin. You are clearly not a Christian if you think it was imagined by human minds."
Bingo, guilty as charged. :)
No offense to the Institute of marriage, or denial of the sex instinct, but I think the good Lord had considerably larger fish to fry.
If you thought, said, wrote the Beatitudes, in one stroke adding the element of mercy to the concept of law, you'd copyright, you'd take credit. It's what you do and it's the best you'll ever do. But the man who did record it took care to say it was a record of Anothers' words. No explanation even comes close to explaining that act better than the fact it is simply true.
Argue his divinity? That's your problem. His existence? Your own confirms it.
his divinity is unreal in my view, as well as in the view of Thomas Jefferson, but I don't have a need to argue such points. I certainly am not going to recruit any atheists.
If one takes into consideration the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene, his anti-female prejudice may be more apparent in the way he approaches Mary when she is relating certain teachings she received from Jesus that the rest of the apostles did not.
Finally, Christ was a Rabbi and by Jewish tradition, Rabbis were indeed expected to not only marry, but have many children. The practice of abstinence is almost entirely isolated to Peter's Church.
If Jesus was married, it really shouldn't come as a shock nor should it challenge anyone's faith. Christ's message remains the same, regardless.
The Christian Religion, does not teach that which is contrary to the wellbeing and self preservation of religion it's self. Therefore, it has always been the position of Chritianity, for it's followers to not question that which is questionable, but only to believe that all things in the Bible are of Gods' words, wishes or commands and as such, are unchallengable. This is certainly as closed minded of a position, as any organization comprised of intelligent reasoning people, can be required to assume. Albeit, it has been accepted and mostly adhered to, by the Christian community for over two thousand years. Many of those who have challenged or questioned the validity of all or parts of the Bible have been criticized to the point of personal embarrassment and thereby self imposed silence.
Most Biblical Scholars and Religious Historians have taken the position, that many more canons (text/books) were excluded from the Christian Bible than were included. This was done as a result of the early Christian Church deciding what was good for followers of the Christian faith to believe and what was not good nor necessary for their welfare. The unfortunate consequences of the exclusions being, that many of the originally written Biblical Canons were either discarded and loss to the world or were destroyed at the behest of the Church. This occurred, when the Canons were being translated from ancient Aramaic writings into what was to become the Christian Bible. As such, only a few sections, pages or scraps of the excluded Canons have been found. Being only small portions of written text, none can be 100% verified as being authentic. Although, all such parts and parcels are viewed by historical scholars as being from the original Canons. {aka: Lost Scriptures of the Bible}.
IMO: Whether the man called Jesus was the son of God, a religious prophet, the founder of Christianity, a married man or a combination thereof, is not really an issue for debate, but for each individual to decide for him/herself.
Very good article, Thank you.