Former Reports of Jesus’ Marital Status Strongly Questioned by Vatican Newspaper

Reports that a 4^th century papyrus suggested that Jesus was married have been rendered false.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, expressed its disbelief in the cryptic message today in an article titled “At any rate, a fake.” Authors, Alberto Camplani, Coptic scholar, and Editor Giovanni Maria Vian, who are both experts in early Christianity, question the fragment’s authenticity and the lack of archaeological attribution upon purchase, according to the AP.

The article continued to criticize Harvard for contacting the media about its incredulous findings, considering the outcome to be “clamorous.”

Karen King, a professor of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the finding last week at an international congress on Coptic studies in Rome. The text, written in Coptic and probably translated from a 2nd century Greek text, contains a dialogue in which Jesus refers to “my wife,” whom he identifies as Mary.

However, in a paper on her discovery, King clearly states that this “does not provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married.”  Instead, it provided “direct evidence that claims about Jesus’ marital status first arose over a century after the death of Jesus in the context of intra-Christian controversies over sexuality, marriage, and discipleship.”

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com