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Gospel of Jesus' Wife
Papyrus fragment of questionable authenticity
The Gospel of Jesus' Wife is a forged 4th century papyrus fragment with Coptic text that includes the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...'". The text received widespread attention when first publicized in 2012 for the implication that some early Christians believed that Jesus was married.
The fragment was first presented by Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen L. King,[1][2][3] who suggested that the papyrus contained a fourth-century Coptic translation of a gospel likely composed in Greek in the late second century.[4] Following an investigative Atlantic article by Ariel Sabar published online in June 2016,[5] King conceded that the evidence now "presses in the direction of forgery."[6]
The fragment's provenance and similarity to another fragment from the same anonymous owner widely believed to be fake further supported a consensus among scholars that the text is a modern forgery written on a scrap of medieval papyrus.[7]