Dear Editor, Karen King (Harvard university) recently presented an ancient papyrus fragment that caused worldwide sensation as it refers to the "wife" of Jesus. But Professor Francis Watson, (Durham University), argues that it's a patchword of texts from the Gospel of Thomas: "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife is a modern forgery".
Other Coptic experts are critical of its appearance, grammar, script, lack of context, and ambiguous origins.
Professor Giovanni Maria Vian, a specialist in the history of the early Church, said that the writing on the papyrus is "personal writing" whereas a Codex would have been written in a "very rigid" way like a printed text.
"There is a business in fakes in the Middle East, it could be sold as a genuine article to get a higher price since "the theme raises popular interest".
"Church tradition has no mention of a wife of Jesus. It is clearly said that Saint Peter was married. So why hide this for Jesus?".
Also, Mark Giszczak, (Augustine Institute, Denver), said that those who use sources like the papyrus to continue a controversy over whether Jesus was married are "really seeking to revive the ghost of Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' novel."
"There is an obsession with making Jesus seem like nothing special, a mere human teacher rather than the Son of God."
Maria Ferraz -- ferfe66@gmail.com
From Barcelona Spain
