Vatican: Papyrus fragment is a fake

Posted at: 10/02/2012 1:18 PM

The Vatican has weighed in on the papyrus fragment that a Harvard professor says is the first discovered record that Jesus may have had a wife.
 
The Vatican says the papyrus fragment is a fake.
 
In an editorial in the Vatican’s newspaper, Gian Maria Vian wrote there are substantial reasons to conclude that the papyrus is a clumsy forgery and a fake.
 
The newspaper published a long analysis on the authenticity of the ancient papyrus that is written in ancient Egyptian Coptic. The fragment includes the words, "Jesus said to them, my wife."
 
Harvard Professor Karen King concluded that the fragment is from the fourth century.
 
The announcement divided the academic community with some experts expressing doubts noting that the letters were clumsy, the script of someone unused to writing Coptic.
 
King stressed that the fragment didn't mean that Jesus was married, but that early Christians discussed the possibility.
 
Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married and the Catholic Church, the largest Christina denomination, says priests must not be married and be celibate and women cannot be priests.

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