Harvard Theological Review Passes On Silly ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ Fragment
via Harvard Theological Review Rejects “Jesus’ Wife” » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog:
The rumor is that Harvard Theological Review is now declining to publish Karen King’s paper available here as a draft pdf on the Coptic fragment she calls the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.” It’s a rumor that appears to be true, as New Testament scholar Craig Evans writes:
Is the Coptic papyrus, in which Jesus speaks of his “wife,” a fake? Probably. We are far from a “consensus,” but one scholar after another and one Coptologist after another has weighed in pointing out serious problems with the paleography, the syntax, and the very troubling fact that almost all of the text has been extracted from the Gospel of Thomas principally from logia 30, 101, and 114. I suspect the papyrus itself is probably quite old, perhaps fourth or fifth century, but the oddly written or painted letters on the recto side are probably modern and probably reflect recent interest in Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The decision of the editors of Harvard Theological Review not to publish Karen King’s paper is very wise. Perhaps we will eventually learn more about who actually produced this text.
The ultimate source is apparently the great Harvard scholar Helmut Koester.
The academic world is quickly becoming skeptical about the ancient provenance of this fragment. Perhaps more interesting and of more enduring significance than the fragment itself is the role the internet has played in the debate. We have had a draft of King’s paper, photos of the fragment itself, and serious and measured responses from leading scholars all made available to the public, along with the typical professional hysteria in the media and amateur hysteria in the blogosphere.
*****
Related at PJ Lifestyle:
Sadly, this is about the only place we’ll see this story.
It didn’t take but five minutes of digging into Prof. Karen King’s academic career to confirm that she is a goddess-worshipping, feminist, new-agey whack-job. That settled the issue right there for me at least. Just google her and dig the titles of her published works and the courses she teaches. Headline-chasing fruitcake.
For the professor, it’s probably a feminist thing. For the media, it’s an attempt to cash in on the popularity of religious pseudohistory. Secrets of the Templars and all that.
Remember “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail?” Said Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a bunch of kids, they became the Merovingians, bloodline secretly controls everything and is protected by the Priory of Sion, etc., etc. I think we’re in the same territory with this “discovery.”
Personally, I think Jesus came from a UFO – but that’s just because I watch the History Channel a lot.
Jesus gave sight to the blind? Aliens.
History Channel has gone down hill badly. Still, it’s usually better than what’s on the networks.
Has no one caught the logical fallacy here?
Even if both the papyrus AND the writing on it are sufficiently ancient,
that still does not mean that the message contained in the writing is true!
People have been telling whoppers and fairytale since the beginning of time.
Ramses the second lied through his teeth about “winning” the battle of Kadesh
when he barely got away with his skin. 1300 BC. Pliny the Elder passed on the legend about elephants being mortally afraid of mice 77 BC.
It will take a lot more than one questionable scrap of papyrus to “prove” or “disprove” anything about what is, at bottom, a matter of faith, and therefore invulnerable to mere facts anyway.
What we have here is a failure to communicate in a truthful fashion. The Vatican has invested twenty centuries in perpetuating a doctrine that is part truthful, part fable, and mostly agrandizing the authority and structure of the Papacy. Ms King is apparently looking at a two thousand year old Glass Ceiling and seeing a mirror.
Consider the age old phrase, something was lost in translation, as enhanced by the post modern “Spin”.
And the visionary who wants ‘equality’ for things which are similar, but can never be exactly ‘equal.
A pox on both their houses.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
I’m willing to have an open mind to the idea that Jesus had a wife as in my mind it does not undermine the most basic concept of who Jesus was – but anyone seeking to convince me of that idea had better have equally compelling proof.
A piece of papyrus dating from about three centuries or so after the events described, with disjointed and incomplete sentences expressing incomplete thoughts, all on material about the size of a business card….well, it just ain’t cutting it.
Quote from Scott:
“A piece of papyrus dating from about three centuries or so after the events described, with disjointed and incomplete sentences expressing incomplete thoughts, all on material about the size of a business card….well, it just ain’t cutting it.”
I don’t know for sure, but it crosses my mind that this Original Document is brought to us by the same Black-Ops team that produced Obama’s hawaiian birth certificate.
Can’t wait for Black Ops 2, MW3 was the first COD I played, but I’m slowly catching up and Black Ops 2 looks great!