Posted on 04/18/2014 6:24:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Did Jesus have a wife? According to Karen L. King, an academic from Harvard, the answer might exist in the fragment of an ancient Coptic manuscript. On this slip of papyrus, Jesus is quoted as saying “my wife,” and because of that, King notes, “this fragment seems to be the first case where we have a married Jesus who appears to be affirming that women who are mothers and wives can be his disciples.”
This story broke in 2012 and was immediately qualified by protests from other academics, who claimed the textual fragment King cited was likely a forgery. These protests arose not because King asserted that Jesus had a wife or that mothers and wives could be disciples but because the text King cited was likely bogus.
However, just in time for Holy Week this year, the pesky “Jesus wife” fragment has reemerged, this time with a verification of the fragment’s authenticity and, with it, a possible vindication for King’s claims. At least that’s what the headlines suggest.
Excited newspapers and websites speculate that if the text is actually authentic, might King’s claims about a married Jesus also be true? Before answering that question, we should add some qualifiers. First, King herself clarified that she never intended to present the fragment as evidence that Jesus was married, but merely as evidence that some Christians may have believed that he was. Second, the fragment’s authenticity, even if it were established, would not mean its provenance is the same as that of the canonical Gospels. King claims her tests show it was written four to eight hundred years after the New Testament texts.
One would think these qualifiers would defuse any controversy, but that hasn’t been the case. Sensational stories have incessantly raved that Jesus had a wife, meaning he likely had sex, thus presenting us with a juxtaposition of two realities that perennially vex and stimulate the culture: religion and human sexuality.
To add more heat to the fire, observers have insinuated that if Jesus was married, it proves he was not who the Church claims him to be. The Church’s privileged authority to interpret Christ’s identity and mission therefore collapses. The Church must have been either misguided about Jesus or, worse, guilty of an intentional hoax. This last possibility has fueled pulp-fiction dreams for decades, from Irving Wallace’s The Word to Hugh Schonfield’s The Passover Plot to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. You would have thought the culture had exhausted this pipe dream by now, but evidently not. The rabbit hole only grows longer.
All of that said, what’s most problematic about this controversy is that it centers on an uncontroversial question. Christians readily agree that Jesus was and is married, and the Church has always presented him this way. However, the real controversy is about who, precisely, his spouse is — and that question has nothing to do with a papyrus fragment.
The texts of the New Testament, which are far older than the “Jesus wife” fragment, make the extraordinary claim that Jesus of Nazareth speaks and acts in the person of the God of Israel. This is the reason the Gospel of Mark testifies that those who encountered Christ were “amazed and afraid,” and it was for this reason that the charges of blasphemy were leveled against him, accusations that led to his torture and execution. The New Testament authors suggest that Jesus’ claim to divinity was vindicated by the extraordinary event of his resurrection from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth simply is the God of Israel, who has come to his people in a manner that took all of Israel, indeed all of the world, by surprise.
The purpose of this extraordinary revelation was to effect reconciliation between God and the people he had chosen as his own. This relationship is identified in the Old Testament as that of a covenant, and the best way to understand this covenant is to look at it as a kind of marriage between God and his people. Or to say it another way, God’s purpose throughout history was to marry his people.
We see this intention throughout the Biblical narrative. It’s evident in the erotic poetry of the Old Testament Song of Songs. It’s clear in the prophecies of the Book of Hosea, in which God desires reconciliation with an estranged wife. The New Testament uses nuptial imagery in presenting Christ as the long-anticipated bridegroom and the Church as a transformed bride, reconciled to her spouse. Finally, in the Book of Revelation, all things come to their fulfillment in the wedding feast of Christ and the Church.
In other words, Jesus, the God of Israel, has a wife. She is just not the kind of wife we might expect. Her identity becomes clear only once we understand who Jesus of Nazareth was and is. Only then do we see that he married the Church, the people of God.
We don’t need an centuries-old fragment to reveal Jesus’ wife, for we can meet her today wherever the Church resides.
— Father Stephen Grunow is the CEO of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.
Amen to your post # 36.
That is true...Problem is many are taught that getting baptized is accepting Jesus...And many are taught that eating the Eucharistic wafer is accepting Jesus...And many are taught that doing good works is accepting Jesus...And many are taught that just by being a member of the club is accepting Jesus...
And I’ve realized that in our disagreements we are not helping Him with the mission He entrusted to us as his disciples.
Yes we are...
Yes we are...Those of us who read and believe what God told us to do are doing just that...
2Ti_3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti_4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
While we, here in this physical realm, disagree over doctrine, as long as we dedicate ourselves to Him and follow his teachings, we will go home to Him. We are all Christians, and if He has the grace to forgive us our sins, then I suspect that he will forgive us of our doctrinal differences.
Why would you think that??? That's not at all what Jesus tells us...
1Ti_1:3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
Rom_16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Eph_4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
1Ti_1:3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
1Ti_4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Doctrine is ever so important...If we are not united in doctrine, we are not united...
I believe that all of us who accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord, will be welcomed by Him into heaven.
Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Rom_10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This is a doctrine...This is the correct doctrine...
Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem;
Creatorem caeli et terrae.
Et in Jesum Christum,
Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum;
qui conceptus est
de Spiritu Sancto,
natus ex Maria virgine;
passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus;
descendit ad inferos;
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;
ascendit ad caelos;
sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis;
inde venturus est
iudicare vivos et mortuos.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum;
sanctam ecclesiam catholicam;
sanctorum communionem;
remissionem peccatorum;
carnis resurrectionem;
vitam aeternam. Amen.
In English:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and born of the Virgin Mary,
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
he will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen
They pre-dated the Catholic church...
Ed
As are Christians in Red China, Africa and Muslim countries.
The Church, everywhere, consisting of Believers, is being persecuted.
Ed
We need to concentrate on what unites us in following Jesus. In this world, Christianity is under attack from all sides, we cannot focus on debating the equivalent of how many angels can sit on the head of a pin” amongst ourselves while ignoring the assault of secular humanism, Islam and the realm of evil.
I have had people on FR tell me that I am ‘damned to hell’ because I do not believe exactly as their minister and congregation believe, because “it is the only correct interpretation of Jesus’ words.” That is what I see as destructive to Christian unity.
Should we as Christians focus on denominationalism and the separation it brings or do we focus on what unites us? I think it is what unites us.
Whether I am right or wrong, will be up to Jesus to decide.
The non-Catholic born again believers on FR focus on what unites us and that's salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
I don't have a clue where most of the other born again believers I know best go to church, nor do I care.
The primary ones who make it about church affiliation are the Catholics with their (for the most part) bragging about their church and constant harping trying to find out the denominational affiliation of anyone not Catholic.
Unfortunately, those whom I’m referring to as ‘my congregation/minister only’ have been Protestant. There are those on both sides, Protestant and Catholic, who say ‘our way is only way’.
I figure that you and I shall continue to our “separate” focus on the unity of all who follow Jesus.
In closing, I quote Thomas Campbell: “. . .the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things. . .”
“In essentials of [Christianity], Unity; In non-essentials, Liberty; and in all things, Charity.”
I don't have a problem with that definition.
Since I was saved, I never held to any other.
I wonder if the evidence of the fragment being a composition mechanically and not very grammatically bringing different sources together to create a composite meaning, -- was addressed by the recent evaluation.
Amen.
“Or to say it another way, God’s purpose throughout history was to marry his people...It’s evident in the erotic poetry of the Old Testament Song of Songs.”
Gee, Father, do you think you could *get* more homoerotic?
Amen and Amen! Those who put their faith in some “church” will be sorely disappointed.
Without Christ’s death on Good Friday, there could be no resurrection on Sunday. Have a Blessed Easter.
And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:3)
Come hither, I will show thee the Lamb's wife. And carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,descending out of heaven from God. (Revelation 21:9)
And the spirit and bride say, Come. And let him that hearth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17)
The bride of Christ is the heavenly City Jerusalem. That is who the Bible says the bride is. It is not "the Church". The wedding hasn't even taken place yet (Revelation 19). The Catholic "Church" wants us to believe that she is the bride. See Revelation 17 for who she is, drunken with the blood of the saints.
For the most part my observations as well. Have a joyful Resurrection Day!
Nothing has changed.
Agrred...
Almost.
.. wherever the C church resides.
Stated it perfectly!
There's no accounting for taste.
1 Corinthians 11:17-19
17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
It was addressed LONG ago...
Other translation place a difference word here:
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