{"id":1611,"date":"2012-09-19T12:38:02","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T17:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2012-09-19T13:11:01","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T18:11:01","slug":"before-you-go-out-and-buy-jesus-a-wedding-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/09\/before-you-go-out-and-buy-jesus-a-wedding-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Before You Go Out and Buy Jesus a Wedding Gift…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Reporters are abuzz with the possibility that 2,000 years of Christian tradition could be disregarded because a scrap of papyrus from the 4th century has been found linking the words \u201cJesus\u201d and \u201cmy wife.\u201d Of course, there\u2019s more to the story and actual archaeologists are now weighing in. <\/p>\n

From the Associated Press:<\/p>\n

ROME (AP) \u2014 Is a scrap of papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife authentic?<\/p>\n

Scholars on Wednesday questioned the much-publicized discovery by a Harvard scholar that a 4th century fragment of papyrus provided the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus was married.<\/p>\n

And experts in the illicit antiquities trade also wondered about the motive of the fragment\u2019s anonymous owner, noting that the document\u2019s value has likely increased amid the publicity of the still-unproven find.<\/p>\n

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\nStephen Emmel, a professor of Coptology at the University of Muenster who was on the international advisory panel that reviewed the 2006 discovery of the Gospel of Judas, said the text accurately quotes Jesus as saying \u201cmy wife.\u201d But he questioned whether the document was authentic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about this fragment in its appearance and also in the grammar of the Coptic that strikes me as being not completely convincing somehow,\u201d he said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.<\/p>\n

Another participant at the congress, Alin Suciu, a papyrologist at the University of Hamburg, was more blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s a forgery. The script doesn\u2019t look authentic\u201d when compared to other samples of Coptic papyrus script dated to the 4th century, he said.<\/p>\n

*****************************************
\nOn Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School announced the finding to great fanfare and said King\u2019s paper would be published in January\u2019s Harvard Theological Review. Harvard said the fragment most likely came from Egypt, and that its earliest documentation is from the early 1980s indicating that a now-deceased professor in Germany thought it evidence of a possible marriage of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Some archaeologists were quick to question Harvard\u2019s ethics, noting that the fragment has no known provenance, or history of where it\u2019s been, and that its owner may have a financial interest in the publicity being generated about it.<\/p>\n

King has said the owner wants to sell his collection to Harvard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of really dodgy things about this,\u201d said David Gill, professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk and author of the Looting Matters blog, which closely follows the illicit trade in antiquities. \u201cThis looks to me as if any sensible, responsible academic would keep their distance from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited the ongoing debate in academia over publishing articles about possibly dubiously obtained antiquities, thus potentially fueling the illicit market. He questioned, for example, whether the letter from the German Egyptologist was authentic, and whether Harvard should have contacted Egyptian authorities about the find.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the whole story, go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reporters are abuzz with the possibility that 2,000 years of Christian tradition could be disregarded because a scrap of papyrus from the 4th century has been found linking the words \u201cJesus\u201d and \u201cmy wife.\u201d Of course, there\u2019s more to the story and actual archaeologists are now weighing in. From the Associated Press: ROME (AP) \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,1],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-uncategorized","tag-media"],"yoast_head":"\nBefore You Go Out and Buy Jesus a Wedding Gift...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reporters are abuzz with the possibility that 2,000 years of Christian tradition could be disregarded because a scrap of papyrus from the 4th century has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2012\/09\/before-you-go-out-and-buy-jesus-a-wedding-gift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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