THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A newly-uncovered ancient papyrus shows that some early Christians believed that Jesus was married, a Harvard professor told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies.
Karen King, an expert in the history of Christianity, said the text contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to "my wife," whom he identifies as Mary.
Ms King says the fragment of Coptic script is a copy of a gospel, probably written in Greek in the second century.
Ms King helped translate and unveiled the tiny fragment at a conference of Coptic experts in Rome. She said it doesn't prove Jesus was married but speaks to issues of family and marriage that faced Christians.
Four words in the 1.5-by-3-inch fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Ms King said. Those words, written in a language of ancient Egyptian Christians, translate to "Jesus said to them, my wife," King said in a statement.
Ms King said that in the dialogue the disciples discuss whether Mary is worthy and Jesus says "she can be my disciple."
Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was unmarried even though there was no reliable historical evidence to support that, Ms King said. The new gospel, she said, "tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage."
"From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry," she said, "but it was over a century after Jesus's death before they began appealing to Jesus's marital status to support their positions." » | Source: agencies | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Video courtesy of Harvard Divinity School »
WELT ONLINE: Papyrus-Fund – Jesus heiratete Maria Magdalena: "Jesus sagte zu ihnen, 'meine Frau’", heißt es auf einem Papyrus, der jetzt in Rom vorgestellt wurde. Der Text aus dem 4. Jahrhundert könnte die Debatte um Frauen im frühen Christentum befördern. » | Von Berthold Seewald | Mittwoch, 19. September 2012
