Claims about Jesus being married are becoming as farcical as claims about Obama being foreign.
Granted, this latest claim has more of a patina of credibility because it stems from research conducted by Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen L. King. Except that when one reads beyond the sensational headlines, Professor King’s findings about Jesus being married become about as persuasive as Donald Trump’s findings about Obama being foreign.
In any event, this latest, greatest story being sold is based entirely on King’s interpretation of some scribbling in Coptic on a shred of centuries-old papyrus (the size of a credit card), which allegedly reads, in material part, as follows:
Jesus said to them, ‘My wife … she will be able to be my disciple.’
That’s it. Eureka?! Hallelujah?!
To be fair to the professor, most media reports are deliberating distorting her findings to provoke interest. For here is how she summarizes the true, but less sensational, nature of what she found:
This fragment, this new piece of papyrus evidence, does not prove that (Jesus) was married, nor does it prove that he was not married. The earliest reliable historical tradition is completely silent on that. So we’re in the same position we were before it was found. We don’t know if he was married or not…
What I’m really quick to say is to cut off people who would say this is proof that Jesus was married because historically speaking, it’s much too late to constitute historical evidence. I’m not saying he was, I’m not saying he wasn’t. I’m saying this doesn’t help us with that question.
(CNN, September 19, 2012)
But, even with all of her qualifications, her findings are inherently flawed because neither she nor anybody else even knows the origins of this piece of papyrus. Not to mention that it is dated centuries after the New Testament was allegedly written – with its four gospels purporting to account for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ containing nary a mention of a wife.
For surely, given all of the variations/discrepancies in the gospels, you’d think at least one of the authors (namely, Mathew, Mark, Luke, or John) would’ve included this rather seminal fact about Jesus … if he were married, no? Never mind that there have been more scholarly tomes written about Mary Magdalene, the woman to whom he was allegedly married, as a favorite disciple or a repentant whore than as his wife.
It is possible, however, that he was portrayed as celibate in the gospels to comport with prevailing efforts to marginalize the role of women in the church – efforts that have persisted ever since. But, if so, such an Original Lie (by omission) would clearly make a mockery of everything else that purports to be the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Not that any of this means anything; after all, faith, by definition, is the willing suspension of belief in the existence of things that are clear to see. And nothing demonstrates this quite like enduring faith in Catholicism despite clear and convincing evidence that, far from being celibate as professed, many Catholic priests are just closeted homosexuals or predatory pedophiles in religious garb.
So even if Professor King could somehow prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Jesus was married, it would hardly matter to devout Christians, for whom belief in the story of Jesus as a celibate holy man is, well, an article of faith.
But, as I alluded to above, specious claims about Jesus being married are nothing new. Here, for example, is how I commented, in part, on the findings of dilettante explorer and movie director James Cameron in this respect over five years ago:
Cameron regaled the assembled press corps – as only a movie director could – by telling them about the ‘huge’ findings his team of forensic scientists (think CSI) made after examining anew several caskets (in which dry bones were kept, not ones in which bodies were buried) that were discovered in a cave just outside Jerusalem 27 years ago. He then proclaimed that these caskets are etched with letters that his team has determined, scientifically, spell the names of ‘Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria, Mariamne [his wife] (thought to be Mary Magdalene’s real name), Joseph and Matthew…’
Never mind that Cameron has no way of authenticating these findings unless he takes a titanic leap of faith by relying on samples from the fabled Shroud of Turin, which is purported to be the cloth that covered Jesus when he was placed in his tomb. Or, better still, samples from one of the many alleged descendants of Christ – like The Expected One, Kathleen McGowan – who Da Vinci author Dan Brown spawned after he popularized the myth of a very consummated marriage between the Son of God and Mary Magdalene…
(“Tomb of Jesus Found … or Is this the Work of the Devil,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 27, 2007)
Amen.
Related commentaries:
Tomb of Jesus…
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