Papyrus Referring to Jesus***8217; Wife Is More Likely Ancient Than Fake, Scientists Say
A faded fragment of papyrus known as the ***8220;Gospel of Jesus***8217;s Wife,***8221; which caused an uproar when unveiled by a Harvard Divinity School historian in 2012, has been tested by scientists who conclude in a journal published on Thursday that the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.
Skepticism about the tiny scrap of papyrus has been fierce because it contained a phrase never before seen in any piece of Scripture: ***8220;Jesus said to them, ***8216;My wife...***8217; ***8221; Too convenient for some, it also contained the words ***8220;she will be able to be my disciple,***8221; a clause that inflamed the debate in some churches over whether women should be allowed to be priests.
Harvard scholar, Karen L. King, presented the papyrus as a fragment of a fourth-century gospel at an international conference of Coptic scholars this month in Rome.Vatican Says Papyrus Referring to Jesus***8217; Wife Is Probably FakeSEPT. 28, 2012
Professor Karen L. King, in her office at Harvard Divinity School, held a fragment of papyrus that she says contains a reference to Jesus' wife.Coptic Scholars Doubt and Hail a Reference to Jesus***8217; WifeSEPT. 20, 2012
A historian at The Harvard Divinity School has identified this ancient piece of papyrus as the first known piece of writing to reference a wife of Jesus.A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus***8217; WifeSEPT. 18, 2012
The papyrus fragment has now been analyzed by professors of electrical engineering, chemistry and biology at Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who reported that it resembles other ancient papyri from the fourth to the eighth centuries. (Scientists at the University of Arizona, who dated the fragment to centuries before the birth of Jesus, concluded that their results were unreliable.)
The test results do not prove that Jesus had a wife or disciples who were women, only that the fragment is more likely a snippet from an ancient manuscript than a fake, the scholars agree. Karen L. King, the historian at Harvard Divinity School who gave the papyrus its name and fame, has said all along that it should not be regarded as evidence that Jesus married, only that early Christians were actively discussing celibacy, ***, marriage and discipleship.
***8220;I took very seriously the comments of such a wide range of people that it might be a forgery,***8221; Dr. King said in an interview this week. She said she is now very confident it is genuine.
It is very unusual to test the ink and papyrus of a fragment so small ?this one is 4 by 8 centimeters ?because it can damage the item, papyrologists say. The authenticity and dates of other famous fragments were determined by paleographers examining the handwriting.
The “Jesus’s Wife?papyrus was analyzed at Columbia University using micro-Raman spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of the ink. James T. Yardley, a professor of electrical engineering, said in an interview that the carbon black ink on this fragment was “perfectly consistent with another 35 or 40 manuscripts that we’ve looked at,?that date from 400 B.C. to A.D. 700 or 800.
At M.I.T.’s Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Timothy M. Swager, a chemistry professor, and two students used infrared spectroscopy to determine whether the ink showed any variations or inconsistencies.
“The main thing was to see, did somebody doctor this up??Dr. Swager said in an interview. “And there is absolutely no evidence for that. It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible.?br />
More here:
A faded fragment of papyrus known as the ***8220;Gospel of Jesus***8217;s Wife,***8221; which caused an uproar when unveiled by a Harvard Divinity School historian in 2012, has been tested by scientists who conclude in a journal published on Thursday that the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.
Skepticism about the tiny scrap of papyrus has been fierce because it contained a phrase never before seen in any piece of Scripture: ***8220;Jesus said to them, ***8216;My wife...***8217; ***8221; Too convenient for some, it also contained the words ***8220;she will be able to be my disciple,***8221; a clause that inflamed the debate in some churches over whether women should be allowed to be priests.
Harvard scholar, Karen L. King, presented the papyrus as a fragment of a fourth-century gospel at an international conference of Coptic scholars this month in Rome.Vatican Says Papyrus Referring to Jesus***8217; Wife Is Probably FakeSEPT. 28, 2012
Professor Karen L. King, in her office at Harvard Divinity School, held a fragment of papyrus that she says contains a reference to Jesus' wife.Coptic Scholars Doubt and Hail a Reference to Jesus***8217; WifeSEPT. 20, 2012
A historian at The Harvard Divinity School has identified this ancient piece of papyrus as the first known piece of writing to reference a wife of Jesus.A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus***8217; WifeSEPT. 18, 2012
The papyrus fragment has now been analyzed by professors of electrical engineering, chemistry and biology at Columbia University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who reported that it resembles other ancient papyri from the fourth to the eighth centuries. (Scientists at the University of Arizona, who dated the fragment to centuries before the birth of Jesus, concluded that their results were unreliable.)
The test results do not prove that Jesus had a wife or disciples who were women, only that the fragment is more likely a snippet from an ancient manuscript than a fake, the scholars agree. Karen L. King, the historian at Harvard Divinity School who gave the papyrus its name and fame, has said all along that it should not be regarded as evidence that Jesus married, only that early Christians were actively discussing celibacy, ***, marriage and discipleship.
***8220;I took very seriously the comments of such a wide range of people that it might be a forgery,***8221; Dr. King said in an interview this week. She said she is now very confident it is genuine.
It is very unusual to test the ink and papyrus of a fragment so small ?this one is 4 by 8 centimeters ?because it can damage the item, papyrologists say. The authenticity and dates of other famous fragments were determined by paleographers examining the handwriting.
The “Jesus’s Wife?papyrus was analyzed at Columbia University using micro-Raman spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of the ink. James T. Yardley, a professor of electrical engineering, said in an interview that the carbon black ink on this fragment was “perfectly consistent with another 35 or 40 manuscripts that we’ve looked at,?that date from 400 B.C. to A.D. 700 or 800.
At M.I.T.’s Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Timothy M. Swager, a chemistry professor, and two students used infrared spectroscopy to determine whether the ink showed any variations or inconsistencies.
“The main thing was to see, did somebody doctor this up??Dr. Swager said in an interview. “And there is absolutely no evidence for that. It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible.?br />
More here:
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