Dispirited

This question, of course, arises in the context of the current debate over the authenticity of a purportedly fourth-century papyrus fragment in Coptic which has Jesus saying “my wife …” The existence of this fragment, which is being called The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, was announced by Professor Karen L. King of Harvard Divinity School here with an accompanying draft of her article cautiously advocating authenticity available here.  Since then the biblioblog world has been buzzing with a number of scholars casting serious doubt on the fragment’s authenticity.  For a summary of the latest information see here and here.

Of course, as Karen King made very clear in her original article, even if the fragment were authentic this does not prove anything about the marital status of the historical Jesus.  All we can infer is that some fourth-century Christians (and if the original composition was as early…