![]() In the 1890s, manuscript finds at Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, already produced major portions of the Gospel of Thomas, and these created a sensation in popular newspapers and magazines. Both those discoveries date from the mid-1940s but many of the main insights long predated that time. In modern times, two finds in particular have rightly caused much excitement for what they might suggest about the Second Temple era and early Christian times, namely the Dead Sea Scrolls and the books in the Nag Hammadi library, specifically the Gospel of Thomas. Successive claim about new and explosive discoveries rely on a process of recurrent public amnesia. ![]() Any kind of historic perspective shows that even what initially look like the most radical ideas in this field have a long prehistory. In most cases, the claims that are made are actually quite familiar, and have been made on many previous occasions. ![]() In reality, such finds rarely tell us much that is new or unexplored, and are mainly of use to hardcore specialists. The Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife… every few years, the media report new finds of ancient texts that supposedly throw revolutionary new light on the Biblical world, and (commonly) on Christian origins. Revolutionary Biblical Discoveries and the Need for Historical Amnesia By Philip Jenkins ASOR-AFFILIATED RESEARCH CENTERS FELLOWSHIPS.MEMBERSHIP & ANNUAL MEETING SCHOLARSHIPS.SCHOLARSHIPS FOR FIELDWORK PARTICIPATION.2023 Call for Member-Organized Sessions and Workshops.ASOR-AFFILIATED ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECTS.King and AnneMarie Luijendijk, an associate professor of religion at Princeton University, will present their hypothesis in the January 2013 issue of Harvard Theological Review journal. Harvard quotes two independent experts who believe the 3-inch fragment is authentic, both after examining the papyrus and the writing and after examining the language and grammar. The Washington Post reports that in her announcement in Rome, King said that the Vatican had not yet responded to her findings. "The discussion is particularly animated in the Roman Catholic Church, where despite calls for change, the Vatican has reiterated the teaching that the priesthood cannot be opened to women and married men because of the model set by Jesus." But they are relevant today, when global Christianity is roiling over the place of women in ministry and the boundaries of marriage. These debates date to the early centuries of Christianity, scholars say. "Even with many questions unsettled, the discovery could reignite the debate over whether Jesus was married, whether Mary Magdalene was his wife and whether he had a female disciple. King adds that this new gospel also tells us that some early Christians believed that Jesus was indeed married. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry, but it was over a century after Jesus' death before they began appealing to Jesus' marital status to support their positions." "This new gospel doesn't prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage. "Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim," King said in a press release. She told a gathering of scholars in Rome that written in Coptic was this surprising sentence: "Jesus said to them, 'My wife.' " But today, Harvard Professor of Divinity Karen King presented a scrap of papyrus that dates back to the fourth century. Of course, most Christians believe that he wasn't. An ancient piece of text is reviving an equally ancient debate: Was Jesus Christ married? ![]()
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