Not convinced. Heck of a date range they have there...
That would seem to be a fairly important detail. The churches are
usually more interested in arguing as to whether or not Paul was
married. Everyone pretty much agrees that Jesus was not. I think that it
is probably going to take a lot more than one piece of paper.
David
"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it
costs when it's free
"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it
costs when it's free."*---P. J. O'Rourke*
On 4/12/2014 12:56 AM, [email protected] wrote:
*Questions persist after testing of âEUR~Jesus WifeâEUR^(TM) papyrus*
David Gibson ("RNS," April 10, 2014)
A year and a half after unveiling a slip of papyrus that she dubbed
âEURoeThe Gospel of JesusâEUR^(TM)s Wife,âEUR? Harvard Bible scholar
Karen King on Thursday (April 10) released the results of long-delayed
testing on the controversial fragment that appear to show it is not a
modern forgery.
But a host of questions remain, with some experts still wondering
whether it is a fake and others questioning the value of the tests.
Still others are asking whether the âEURoegospelâEUR? and its
suggestion that Jesus could have had a flesh-and-blood wife have any
bearing on Christian doctrine.
King said she feels vindicated because the tests show the fragment,
which is about the size of a business card, and the writing on it are
ancient and therefore authentic.
âEURoeIâEUR^(TM)m hoping now that we can turn away from the question
of forgery and talk much, much more about the historical significance
of the fragment and precisely how it fit into the history of
Christianity and questions about family and marriage and sexuality and
Jesus,âEUR? King told reporters.
Those theological questions have indeed stirred controversy since King
presented the fragment at a conference in Rome in September 2012, and
continued to do so in the wake of this latest announcement.
âEURoeNearly every scholar believes that Jesus was unmarried. So do
I,âEUR? the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author of a new
book on Jesus, wrote on the website of America magazine, a Catholic
weekly. âEURoeMy faith,âEUR? Martin added, âEURoedoes not rest on his
being unmarried âEUR" but my reason tells me that he was.âEUR?
Martin listed some of the reasons Jesus was likely not married âEUR"
one, it would be odd for the accounts of his life not to mention a
wife if he had one, and the newly discovered papyrus was written
centuries after the original Gospels.
The fragment consists of just eight lines and 33 words of an
interrupted conversation likely snipped from a larger papyrus.
At two points Jesus speaks of his mother, his wife and a female
disciple, one of whom may be identified as âEURoeMary,âEUR? though
itâEUR^(TM)s not clear if she would be Mary Magdalene, as some
speculate, or another Mary. When the disciples discuss whether Mary is
worthy, Jesus states that âEURoeshe can be my disciple,âEUR? an
intriguing statement that might challenge Catholic doctrine about
women as priests.
King has stressed that the fragment does not prove that Jesus was
married, and she says the text is not in fact focused on that issue.
âEURoeThe main topic of the fragment is to affirm that women who are
mothers and wives can be disciples of Jesus âEUR" a topic that was
hotly debated in early Christianity as celibate virginity increasingly
became highly valued,âEUR? King explained.
But beyond the debates over faith and history, the latest news about
the papyrus continued to prompt questions about its validity. Not
everyone was satisfied with the answers.
âEURoeThe papyrus fragment seems ripe for a Monty Python sketch,âEUR?
Leo Depuydt, an Egyptologist at Brown University, writes in a
blistering rebuttal to King. His analysis is in one of a series of
articles on the papyrus published in the new edition of the Harvard
Theological Review.
Depuydt also continues to maintain that the Coptic language used in
the papyrus contains âEURoea couple of fatal grammatical blundersâEUR?
that render it âEURoepatently fake.âEUR?
Critics also say the fragment violates the âEURoetoo good to be
trueâEUR? rule of biblical archaeology: that if a relic emerges that
seems to address exactly the concerns of a modern audience âEUR" such
as sex and women in Christianity âEUR" then skepticism is warranted.
They point to other outstanding issues as well:
The testing indicates that the papyrus could be as recent as 859,
which is 400 years later than King first thought and much later than
the accounts from the New Testament;
Tests on the composition of the ink showed that it was of a type used
between 400 B.C. and as late as A.D. 800, a very wide window;
While the ink appears to be of a type and pattern used by ancient
writers, the ink itself could not be tested without destroying the
papyrus;
The language Jesus uses about a wife could be metaphorical and may
indicate he was referring to the church as his bride, not a real woman.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, King acknowledged those criticisms
but said they did not affect the validity or import of the fragment.
She said the later dating did not matter too much because she has
always believed the writing was copied from a much earlier document,
probably from the second or third century. She said an analysis of the
writing showed it falls in the range of the papyrus itself, and she
said there are other examples of similar grammatical errors in other
ancient writings.
âEURoeThereâEUR^(TM)s a limited amount of takeaway you can do from
something that small,âEUR? she said.
King also acknowledged that the uncertain sourcing of the document was
unfortunate but could not be helped. The owner of the fragment remains
anonymous; he only told her that he bought it and five other papyri in
1999 from a collector who said he acquired them in what was then
communist East Germany in 1963.
King said Thursday that Harvard Divinity School has the papyrus and
that over the weekend the owner âEUR" who will not reveal his identity
âEUR" wrote her an email proposing that it remain there on permanent
loan. Harvard is considering the idea, she said.
King originally unveiled the papyrus at a scholarly conference in
Rome, the VaticanâEUR^(TM)s backyard, as it were, and by dubbing it
the âEURoeGospel of JesusâEUR^(TM)s WifeâEUR? she practically
guaranteed the kind of viral coverage that the discovery received.
But she said she was still surprised at the public fascination with
the topic and did not account for how quickly the media
âEURoewaveâEUR? would run with the story before all the testing and
deliberation could take place. Her original research article on the
fragment was put on hold, as was a Smithsonian Channel documentary,
which will now air with updated information.
âEURoeMy intent from the beginning was to do this in a responsible
way,âEUR? King said. But, she continued, âEURoeIâEUR^(TM)m not sure
itâEUR? âEUR" the controversy âEUR" âEURoecould have been avoided,
actually.âEUR?
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