So, a few days ago news agencies started talking about a scrap of paper that appears to make mention of Jesus’ wife. Yes, that Jesus. Here’s a link to the New York Times article: A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife
The details are basically this: it appears to be a scrap of paper from the fourth century, smaller than a business card, written in Coptic from “an unknown province.” Anyone who knows anything about textual criticism should already be rolling their eyes. If you don’t know much about textual criticism and you’re wondering why people are rolling their eyes, I’ll tell you why. The fourth century would make it fairly recent in terms of biblical scraps, and being from “an unknown province” means it can’t be attributed to a particular tradition or region. The Coptic is also at play a little, but it’s not as important. This lower its veracity significantly. Though, as anyone really worried we were about to find out Jesus was actually married?
On the funnier side of discovering ancient heresies, Wes Magruder, over at New Methofesto, tried to get #IfJesusHadAWife trending on Twitter. It never did trend, but some funny tweets were had. Here are some examples:
“What – you think you’re God’s gift?!” #IfJesusHadAWife
— Wes Magruder (@wesmagruder) September 18, 2012
“What do you mean you don’t know when you’re coming back?” #ifJesushadawife
— Tim Jenkins (@thetimjenkins) September 18, 2012
“Honey, could you turn me a glass of wine?” #IfJesusHadAWife
— Quinn Mattfeld (@qbermensch) September 18, 2012
…sometimes over heard during fights by the neighbors. “!well I am sorry I am not perfect!” #IfJesusHadAWife
— Jeremy Chenevert (@jeremychenevert) September 19, 2012
@cmreport #ifJesusHadAWife You can bet he would have been wrong at least once.
— Matt Swaim (@mattswaim) September 19, 2012
#IfJesusHadAWife he would have died for her.Oh wait, that’s right…he did.ow.ly/1OvR8B
— Kristin Bird (@ymKBird) September 19, 2012
#ifJesusHadaWife could you imagine being her second husband? Sure, you make more money, but…
— James Hunt (@JasTHunt) September 20, 2012
Also, Tony Jones’ blog posted one of my tweets: If Jesus Had a Wife…
