Papyrus text stirred up debates among religion scholars over the wife of Jesus

Alleged Fragment of Jesus Christs’ Speaking

In September of 2012, at a conference in Rome, a fragment of papyrus discovered by archeologists caused serious debates. The artifact, that dates back to I—VIII centuries of Our Era, is a piece of a papyrus on which allegedly a fragment of Jesus’ speech is written in Coptic language that contains such words as “my wife” and “she can be my disciple.”

Radiocarbon analysis did not help the scientists to establish the date when the papyrus was made and the text was written, but it is known that the author was not personally acquainted with Jesus and the document was created after the 1st century of Our Era.

Some historians thought it was possible to interpret these words as a proof that Christ had a wife. But another group of scientists, led by Karen King from HarvardDivinitySchool, refuted their assertion.

King believes that the text on a piece of papyrus refers to the role of a female in Early Christian society. It is known that Christ was followed by many women; they believed wholeheartedly that this teaching was true and earnestly confessed it.

In the conditions of that society, such female behaviour certainly stirred up public attention. It is possible, that this very problem is addressed in the papyrus fragment.

Professor of Egyptology Leo Depuydt of BrownUniversity even believes that the artefact is an apparent forgery made a few centuries ago. The text contains many mistakes, which is uncharacteristic of the chroniclers and the Copts in general, he points out.

This gives the ground for assertion that it was written by a student, who was not very good in spelling and grammar, and, probably, he or she was “pretending” to be a Copt. Furthermore, the words “my wife” are written in a special bold type, which is not characteristic for other Coptic texts.

Moreover, the words on the papyrus are quite similar to the words of the Gospel of Thomas which is not acknowledged according to the teaching of the Universal Councils: thus, it sheds more doubts on the authenticity of the document.

In all times there were provocateurs of those times, according to scientists, and now we may suppose that this text was used to come as a bombshell and to cause havoc among the Christians.

http://old.archeo-news.ru/2014/04; ARCHEOLOGY. NEWS OF THE WORLD OF ARCHEOLOGY.