A scrap of ancient papyrus no larger than a credit card may provide evidence that Jesus was married and might even have had a family.
The faded fourth-century fragment could undermine centuries of Church teaching on clerical celibacy and whether women can be priests. Its existence was disclosed by a Harvard historian and has already triggered fierce scholarly debate.
Containing just eight lines, the document, which measures 3.1 by 1.6ins, includes the words, “Jesus said to them, my wife”, and the sentence: “She will be able to be my disciple”.
Written in the ancient Egyptian Coptic language, it also includes the phrases, “My mother gave to me life” and, “Mary is worthy of it”. The latter is likely to be seized upon as evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
The finding was announced by Karen King, a professor of church history in Harvard’s divinity school, at an international congress on Coptic studies in Rome.
She believes the script is probably a copy of a gospel written in Greek in the second century AD and that while it does not conclusively prove that Jesus was married, it shows that there was discussion of the question as early as the fourth century. Its precise meaning is now the subject of international academic conjecture, but its authenticity has not been disputed.
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