It is a Sunday and since I do not post much on religious subjects….what better day to break that streak that on a Sunday? Amen and pass the news!
In the past 50 years or so there have been many little known “gospels” being located in isolated places around the world…….stuff like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library of scriptures that have all but been forgotten…..
We have found the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth and on and on….but the one that has caused the most violent of responses to its content is the one that gives an alternative to the story we are told in Sunday school…….the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife……
Since Harvard University professor Karen King first reported in 2012 her discovery of what appears to be an ancient papyrus in which Jesus is suggested to have a wife, the authenticity of the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” has been the subject of much claim and counterclaim. Even the very ink is hard to test because the papyrus scrap is so small. But now LiveScience is reporting that new ink research conducted at Columbia University suggests the document is not a forgery and could indeed date back to ancient times, though researchers aren’t revealing more until their peer-reviewed findings are published. King isn’t saying much, either, though she did write in a letter in the Biblical Archaeological Review that “when discussions and research are ongoing, I think it is important, however difficult, to stay open regarding the possible dates of the inscription and other matters of interpretation.”
Meanwhile, new documents have surfaced perhaps countering the argument that the person who sold the Coptic-language papyrus to the anonymous person who passed it on to King wasn’t in fact in possession of it. King said last year that the anonymous owner provided her with a photocopy of the contract for the sale of six “Coptic papyrus fragments, one believed to be a Gospel,” from the German in question, Hans-Ulrich Laukamp, dated Nov. 12, 1999, and signed by both parties. A LiveScience reporter has since found seven signatures on five publicly available and notarized documents belonging to Laukamp, which at least provides the opportunity to verify the authenticity of his signature. The British Museum, meanwhile, is in possession of a Syriac-language manuscript dating from AD570 that is said to be a copy of an older document suggesting Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife, reports news.com.au. (This book claims Jesus had two kids with Mary Magdalene.)
I am sure that this will be debated until the cows come home……with no real accurate conclusion…..personally, I cannot see a Jewish guy in his 30s back in the day that was unmarried…..would have been a source of friction in the society……of course what do I know….I was not there…..and neither was anyone else I know……
Will we ever know the truth?
In Saner Thought 
Perhaps, we might find out in the latest Hello magazine. 🙂
There are 70+ “gospels,” and they paint such an astonishingly diverse picture that it really does lend itself to a conclusion that “Jesus” was nothing but a sun god myth which found fertile soil in the northern diaspora. In two of the Infancy Gospels he slaughters dragons… yes, real dragons, a whole family of them living in a cave.
If you think about it terms of “historical fiction”, then the deviation starts to make more sense.
For countless centuries, mankind has been telling itself stories of historically influential figures (real or imagined) and tales inspired by persons/events. Familiarity and relate-ability have always been important to story telling. What was a more relatable than tales taken from a familiar religion? That’s why so many stories about Jesus “borrow” from past mythological persons. Most writers want to put their own spin on familiar stories. In that way, Gospels are like different takes on Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Robin Hood, or even vampires & zombies
Even today, you still see “Mary & Joseph” characters birthing babies on TV shows around Christmas. Battlestar Galactica was a re-working of Mormon myths. For that matter, check out NBC’s summer series, Aquarius. You could easily claim it’s mythologizing a semi-religious figure in his own right, Charles Manson.
This is what we do. We tell stories and the truth, if any, gets replaced with something more interesting.
Those are the two most important words; Historical Fiction.
Well, we might find the truth, if we ever find or invent an actual Tardis….
Otherwise, and more to the point, why does it matter? At all? It’s just more mental masturbation for archaeologists with not enough to do… Or, is that just Sunday Snark?
Who knows, indeed….
gigoid
I still cannot verify anything in the Bible/Torah historically….I have tried but nothing fits…..have a good Sunday…..chuq
No, gigoid it is the Sunday shank…grin
If you will note, PBS is filled with programs showing “New Evidences” that have been discovered here and there that, if proven, will change some of the traditional concepts people have held about their religious beliefs for ages on end.
Now there are even more “Sources” appearing all over the place purporting to have evidence to show that one thing or another that we have always believed might not be exactly the way we were taught to believe them …. blah, blah, blah!
You know what I think? I think there is something at work in the world that would dearly love to sow confusion and doubt among believers and I think a lot of this “New Evidentary” stuff fits that agenda really nicely.
My advice? “Hold fast to the faith and pay no attention to disputes and disputations and fables and endless geneaologies and realize that the God we serve is not a God of confusion.
Thanx John…have a good Sunday….chuq
There will be a “truth” that non-believers find and the other “truth” that the believers and their leaders will hold fast to.
If one really wishes to find the truth of Jesus, get out of the new testament for a minute or two and into the old or Torah if you will.
God, the Jewish Messiah is not human but a three being Spirit.
One has no need for a wife or husband in the next world?
Husband and/or wife is a convince in this corrupt world.
Yes, the Law of Three.
Forgotten.
I’m sure Jesus got more than his fair share of tail. Most guys who just look like Jesus get lots of action, never mind if they had the VIP father Jesus did.
Good point…..I mean those guys did not have bow to social convention as we do today…
Mankind is not supposed to know everything but one thing is certain — if there is a Judgment day all the wisdom of this world will be made foolishness in the sight and presence of the Divine. So, what is the point of discussing or arguing stuff that is a matter of faith and well beyond comprehension by a physical mind that issues forth from matter (Tissue)(Flesh)(Brain Cells).