Review of Anthony Le Donne, 'The Wife of Jesus: Ancient Texts and Modern Scandals' (original) (raw)
Related papers
Re-considering the Gospel of Jesus' Wife: An Imperfect Forgery or Another Polemical Gnostic Fragment
The 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies (ICCS) was held in September 2012 in Italy. However, when the Gnosticism and Manichaeism section began, the atmosphere of the congress was rapidly changed by Karen King's paper. It was originally assumed that the topic would be an attempt on the Tchacos Codex, but the Harvard scholar announced a new Coptic fragment in relation to the marital status of Jesus with Mariam. The new Coptic fragment was a rough rectangular shape, torn on all four corners. The amazing outbreak of the new Coptic papyrus took the attention of scholars and global faith communities, arousing uncertainty and suspicion. Then, what is the new text about? Why is the Coptic teaching so controversial? What is the present status of the controversy? This article will not only review the critical debate but also, based on the texts of Mary, Pistis Sophia, Philip and Thomas, propose a new hypothesis that the new manuscript is not an imperfect forgery but an as yet unconfirmed polemical gnostic fragment.
The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: Constructing a Context
It has been proposed that references to Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Philip represent a possible context for an early gospel fragment in which Jesus refers to her as ‘My wife’. It will be argued here that Mary’s relationship to Jesus in Philip is determined by her role as privileged recipient of revelation, not by her marital status. More significant in accounting for the Jesus’ Wife fragment is the Gospel of Thomas, which the author appears to have known in precisely the text-form represented by the one surviving Coptic exemplar.
The Gospel of Jesus ’ Wife : How a fake Gospel-Fragment was composed INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
A gospel or gospel-fragment might be regarded as " fake " whether its author belongs to the ancient or the modern world. In both cases, the aim would be to persuade as many readers as possible to take the new text seriously – as a window onto unknown aspects of Jesus' life, or how it was perceived by his later followers. In her thorough and helpful analysis of the text that is coming to be known as the Gospel of Jesus' Wife (GJW), Karen King rightly points out that new items of information about the historical Jesus are not to be expected from it. 2 It can though provide valuable insights into early Christian debates about sexuality and gender. At least, it can do so if it is " genuine " , genuinely old. King admits to initial scepticism, but is now convinced that this papyrus fragment derives from a fourth century copy of a second century text. I shall argue here that scepticism is exactly the right attitude. The text has been constructed out of small pi...
The Alleged Gospel of Jesus's Wife: Assessment and Evaluation of Authenticity
Harvard Theological Review, 2014
The article in question-Francis Watson, "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: How a Fake Gospel-Fragment Was Composed"-is available on Mark Goodacre's blog, NT Blog, under the entry "Revised Versions of Francis Watson's Articles on the Jesus Wife Fragment," http://ntweblog. blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/revised-versions-of-francis-watsons.html.
"The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: Textual Evidence of Modern Forgery" (New Testament Studies)
New Testament Studies, 2015
The present essay summarises textual evidence indicating that the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife is essentially a ‘patchwork’ of words and short phrases culled from the lone extant Coptic manuscript of the Gospel of Thomas (Nag Hammadi Codex II), prepared by a forger using Michael W. Grondin’s 2002 PDF edition of this manuscript. The text contains at least five tell-tale signs of its modern origin, including the apparent replication of a typographical (and grammatical) error from Grondin’s edition. A direct link between it and Grondin’s work also seems to be confirmed by the earliest known English translation of the fragment.
‘A fake Coptic John and its implications for the 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife'’
Tyndale Bulletin, 2014
The recent revelation of a Coptic Gospel of John fragment from the same source as the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” has decisively altered the discussion concerning the authenticity of the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” fragment. The Coptic John fragment is a crude copy from Herbert Thompson’s 1924 edition of the “Qau codex” and is a product of the same modern writing event as the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” fragment. Both texts are modern forgeries written on genuinely ancient fragments of papyrus.