Scientists: Scroll that mentions Jesus' wife genuine

**Retz** · April 16th, 2014 09:28 AM

WASHINGTON, United States - An ancient piece of papyrus that contains a mention of Jesus' wife is not a forgery, according to a scientific analysis of the controversial text, US researchers said Thursday, April 10.

The fragment is believed to have come from Egypt and contains writing in the Coptic language that says, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" Another part reads: "She will be able to be my disciple."

Its discovery in 2012 caused a stir. Since Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, it renewed long-running debates over celibacy and the role of women in the church.

The Vatican's newspaper declared it a fake, along with other scholars who doubted its authenticity based on its poor grammar, blurred text and uncertain origin.

Never before has a gospel referred to Jesus being married, or having women as disciples.

But a new scientific analysis of the papyrus and the ink, as well as the handwriting and grammar, show that the document is ancient.

"No evidence of modern fabrication ("forgery") was found," the Harvard Divinity School said in a statement.

The palm-sized fragment likely dates to between the 6th and 9th centuries, and could have been written as early as the second century CE (common era), said the study results published in the Harvard Theological Review.

Radiocarbon dating of the papyrus and a study of the ink using Micro-Raman spectroscopy was done by experts at Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"The team concluded the papyrus' chemical composition and patterns of oxidation are consistent with old papyrus by comparing the GJW (Gospel of Jesus' Wife) fragment with a fragment of the Gospel of John," said the study.

"Current testing thus supports the conclusion that the papyrus and ink of GJW are ancient."

Source: Scientists: Scroll that mentions Jesus' wife genuine

Scientists: Scroll that mentions Jesus' wife genuine

**Ry_Tower** · April 16th, 2014 09:55 AM

Hindi nga lang conclusive yan. Kasi limited eh, hindi pa alam kung sino nagsulat. Mas mahirap pa kasi data before kesa ngayon. Kahit magsulat ka nanag kasinungalingan, marami na kasi data na maaring makita nang future generations to invalidate. Eh mga ganayang manuscripts and writings, very far and between. IMHO lang naman.

**dcph172** · April 16th, 2014 01:22 PM

Agreed. The scroll might be real, but whats written is harder to prove. However, wala naman masama kung may asawa si jesus. It doesnt make him a lesser jesus in my eyes.

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**niky** · April 16th, 2014 03:04 PM

Not a surprising discovery. We already know there were a lot of gnostic sects that had different ideas about the life and times of Jesus Christ. This could be from some suppressed sect whose other writings and documents were destroyed by the early Catholic Church.