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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