Thoughts On the "Gospel of Jesus' Wife"

In 2012, there was a ancient document released, that has since be titled "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife," which (to no one's surprise) has written in it, "Jesus said, 'My wife...'" However, the text was quickly written off by modern scholars, and especially Catholics, as being a forgery written on ancient papyrus. Naturally, there has been debate over the years as to whether or not Jesus actually had a wife, and such a topic has gained popularity because of its novelty and impact on the Scriptures.

The front of the fragment. Image from the Huffington Post

But quite recently, the document was proven to be, in fact, very old, and not a forgery by any means. Naturally, there were two sorts of responses: First, those that still denied it, and then second, those that essentially said "See! It's genuine!" One such response captured my attention on Facebook's "trending" section, which showed an article from the Huffington Post titled "'Gospel of Jesus' Wife' Papyrus Is Ancient, Not Fake, Scientists And Scholars Say." (See link below for full article) But what caught my attention was the secondary post that followed on the news site's Facebook page, which said "Early Christians may have believed Jesus was married." I at first misread it, thinking it said "Early Christians believed Jesus was married," though reading it again, realised the addition of the words that showed it was possibility, not certainty. Nevertheless, after reading multiple articles on the story, from varying viewpoints and thoughts, I believe the big picture is being profoundly missed. Essentially, the argument from atheists, and even professing Christians is this: "If this is indeed from that time period, then this means Jesus had a wife."



But first let me answer a question right off the bat: Do I believe it is genuinely from that age? Yes, I do. I see no reason to doubt that it came from around or before the 9th century, nor that there are, in fact, earlier documents that state even clearer that Jesus had a wife. With that said, do I believe that Jesus had a wife? No. Allow me to put forward a very simple example of why this is the case: Let's say I wrote on a piece of paper a note to a friend of mine concerning recent politics. The letter goes as follows: "I was wondering if you had any new information on the recent election? With all the events happening lately, it's as though Americans have no rights anymore, because of the constant growth of government." I then mail it off, but it gets lost in the mail, and is never seen again. A thousand or so years later, someone dug this document up and observed it. They then bring it to a lab to determine its age, and find that the document is a thousand or so years old. The problem with the document is that it is very old, and torn, and they only hold a piece of the document, and much of the ink has worn away. And so the note instead reads, very vaguely, "...Americans have no rights... constant growth of government." Then great debate breaks out because of this newfound document. One side holds to their original belief that America was founded as a free nation, where people had more rights in this nation than most do in other nations. The other side determines that, based on the document, early Americans had no rights whatsoever, and the nation was most likely founded by Indians who enslaved the pilgrims, and America was actually a communist nation, and was so for a few hundred years. The document is indeed old, and says just that. It says "...Americans have no rights..." and even mentions the growth of their government. Naturally, this is absurd, and it can be proven as such by the larger and more proven documents of history, as well as understanding that the original context is missing. The same applies to this document which supposedly has the possibility of proving that Jesus had a wife. Firstly, the more proven documents (also known as the Scriptures) mention no such thing, and secondly, the context of this document is completely unknown. Not only these points, but the fact that there were false teachers alive (and thriving) in the era of the apostles, long before this document came on the scene. Such false teachers taught many things, and it is no doubt possible that they taught that Jesus had a wife. Very much like the example I gave, where there are, in fact, documents in the world that state clearly that communism is a very good thing. There are those who claim that America's government is already communist, and those that claim it isn't. The point being that there is no ground on which one can state that this proves Jesus had a wife. Not only this, but the Scripture makes very clear that He was not married, not just by the fact that It fails to mention such a thing, but also that such a fact would have quite in the impact. Christ being God must never be belittled to being just an average Joe who really was the exact same as you and I. Christ does have a figurative bride, the church, though even this is a mere picture of what the greater and more glorious reality is in what Christ did for the church. There is therefore no reason to worry about this being a genuine document. I am sure it most likely is, and care not in the least of its validity. Because God has already established His Word, the Scriptures, and we need not seek out new revelation when the Scripture is a written, proven and deep revelation already given to us, in which one could study the whole of their lives, and still only scratch the surface.





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/jesus-wife_n_5124712.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063