Gospel of Jesus’ Wife? – Beware the Sound of One Hand Clapping

I once remarked on the History Channel documentary, “Banned from the Bible”: “Just when we think that the very last word on biblical scholarship has been said, the landscape changes, and usually in completely unexpected ways. Sometimes we really think we’re on to something, and then somebody comes along and debunks it all… It means that it’s an ongoing mystery as well as an incredible detective saga.”
It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that out of the blue we have a new “gospel,” or what purports to be a gospel. It’s only a small fragment, but the few lines scribbled across it (in ancient Coptic) are stunning, for they make the earliest direct reference to Jesus having had … A WIFE. And that wife would of course by Mary Magdalene. Voilà! Instant headlines!  
As soon as the find was announced, the media and the blogosphere came alive with the news. Who could doubt it now? After all, the parchment had been trotted out by an eminent scholar at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Karen King, whose peer-reviewed article on the subject has been provisionally accepted for publication in Harvard Theological Review. So, let’s all hail the greatest discovery since peanut butter! Or is it? 
My favorite professorial adage these days is this: Beware the sound of one hand clapping. In other words, no matter how convincing something seems, it’s vital to recognize that whatever the argument, there’s bound to be an argument to the contrary that’s just as convincing. 
Sure enough, almost the instant the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” was announced, the nay-sayers came round, intent on being the first to officially and convincingly debunk the find as a modern forgery. What, then, is the casual observer to think, when trained scholars are hopelessly divided? The first principe is pretty simple. Don’t form hasty conclusions. Carefully weigh the arguments on both sides, and try, as much as possible, not to “have a horse in the race.” So, let’s summarize the proverbial pros and cons of the new find…

PROS:

The papyrus has been authenticated by New York University.

The language and grammar has been determined authentic by a Hebrew University professor.

Most forgeries are much longer; this contains too little to have been faked.

No less a scholar than Elaine Pagels has found the reference to Jesus’ wife remarkable.

CONS:

It surfaced anonymously, and its “provenance” (place of origin) is unknown.

It appears to parrot the Gospel of Thomas (4^th century), suggesting that it may have been deliberately copied.

The text appears to be a “patchwork” of words and phrases.
Neither the parchment nor the ink has yet been dated.

The mystery should be solved easily enough by radio carbon dating of the papyrus and the ink, right? Unfortunately, even that will amount to “one hand clapping.” Why? Let’s assume that testing proves the antiquity of both. But modern forgers are pretty sophisticated. It’s not at all hard to acquire a scrap of old parchment and then copy some interesting words on it. But how do you forge ancient ink? Simple. Just burn some other scrap of ancient parchment, and you now have authentically ancient carbon powder – the main ingredient for your fake “ink.” So, in other words, even if the dating tests “confirm” the find, we’ll never really know the truth? That’s about the size of it. 
There is, however, another angle to all of this. Whether or not the papyrus is a fake, it’s true that ancient records refer to a whole line of “descendants,” or “heirs” of Jesus, who ruled the early churches in the east for generations, even while the western church was growing in Rome. While these “heirs” were thought to have been the offspring of Jesus’ brother James, is it much of a stretch to imagine that they included Jesus’ own offspring, via Mary Magdalene? This is not DaVinci Code speculation. It’s much more sound, and invites a fresh look into the eastern/ authentically Jewish origins of Christianity, prior to being overwhelmed by Greek and Roman authorities in the west. 
The “family” of Jesus still needs to be addressed and researched, and the excitement generated by this tiny scrap of papyrus – authentic or not – is a step in the right direction. 
For more, read Blood Kin of Jesus, by Kenneth Hanson.