There
is always far too much money floating around for passing off a fake. No wonder it attracts so much skilled
effort. Yet it is truly unfortunate that
they also use the platform to attempt to write history. I consider it likely that Jesus was married
as almost a given in his milieu. I am
not assured that it was ever the Mary Magdalene as she was a clear leader in
her own right. These women or men are
just too rare for been simply his wife as well.
Far
too much purported material is finding its way onto the internet that is now
simply made up and passed as creditable.
This will continue to plague us.
For
now though this piece of papyrus is surely a fake and has no value.
'Gospel
of Jesus's Wife' Looks More and More Like a Fake
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor |
May 02, 2014 06:38pm ET
The "Gospel of
Jesus's Wife," a papyrus written in Coptic and containing text that refers
to Jesus being married, is looking more and more like it is not authentic,
research is revealing.
A growing number of
scholars have denounced the business card-sized papyrus as a
fake, with recent op-eds appearing in The Wall Street Journal and on CNN.
Meanwhile, Harvard University, which announced the papyrus'
discovery, has fallen silent on
the artifact, not responding to requests for comment on new developments
suggesting the find is a forgery.
The discovery of the Gospel of Jesus's
Wife was first announced
by Karen King, of Harvard University, in September 2012. Its owner, who
reportedly gave the papyrus to King, has insisted on remaining anonymous, and
King has not disclosed the person's identity. [Read Translation of
Gospel of Jesus's Wife Papyrus]
The fragment contains the
translated line, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife …'" and also refers to
a "Mary," possibly Mary Magdalene. If authentic, the papyrus suggests
some people in ancient times believed that Jesus and Mary
Magdalene were married.
At the time of the
discovery, King tentatively dated the papyrus to the fourth century A.D.,
saying it may be a copy of a gospel written in the second century in Greek.
Recent radiocarbon dating suggests that the papyrus may date to between the
sixth and ninth centuries A.D.
Live Science
investigation
Documents provided by the
anonymous owner published in an essay by King recently in Harvard Theological
Review say that the Gospel of Jesus's Wife was purchased from Hans-Ulrich
Laukamp in 1999 and he, in turn, obtained it in Potsdam, in what was East
Germany, in 1963.
A Live Science
investigation published last week
revealed that Laukamp was co-owner of ACMB-American Corporation for Milling and
Boreworks in Venice, Florida. The man listed as representative of Laukamp's
estate in Sarasota County, Florida, Rene Ernest, said that Laukamp didn't own
this papyrus, didn't collect antiquities, didn't have an interest in old things
and was living in West Berlin in 1963 — as such, Laukamp couldn't have reached
Potsdam across the Berlin Wall to purchase this papyrus.
Laukamp died in 2002.
Axel Herzsprung, who was
another co-owner of ACMB-American Corporation for Milling and Boreworks, also
said Laukamp didn't own this papyrus and didn't collect antiquities.
Additionally, since the
investigation was published, Live Science has been in contact with an agency in
Berlin that issues permits for the exportation of antiquities. Representatives
of that agency said they could find no record that a papyrus like this had been
exported from their office. It's possible that the Gospel of Jesus's Wife
papyrus was exported from elsewhere in Germany or from the European Union.
More evidence appears
Just recently, Christian
Askeland, a research associate with the Institut für Septuaginta-und biblische
Textforschung in Wuppertal Germany, revealed new information that casts further
doubt on the papyrus' authenticity. His work is set to be published in the journal Tyndale Bulletin and
is currently posted on a
blog.
Askeland analyzed a
second papyrus that, according to documents published in the Harvard
Theological Review, was also purchased by the anonymous owner from Laukamp. It was presented to
Harvard as a papyrus believed to be genuine.
This second papyrus,
which has writing on two sides, includes text from the Gospel of John — and is
a fake, writes Askeland, its lines being copied from a papyrus published in
1924. In addition, the researcher notes this papyrus has similar handwriting
and ink to the Gospel of Jesus's Wife, making it likely that the Jesus's wife papyrus is
also fake.
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