Jesus wife forgery - harvard scholar

Jesus wife forgery - harvard scholar

Karen King, a distinguished Harvard Divinity School professor, announced in 2012 the discovery of a papyrus fragment she named the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife"

. The credit card-sized Coptic text, which included the phrase "Jesus said to them, 'my wife,'" was later revealed to be a modern forgery. After years of debate, King herself concluded in 2016 that the papyrus was most likely a fake. 

Karen King and the papyrus

• In 2010, King received an email from a manuscript collector, later identified as Walter Fritz, who claimed to own several interesting papyri. The email and photographs he sent showed a fragment containing the explosive line about Jesus's wife.
• Despite initial skepticism, King presented the fragment at a conference in Rome in 2012, igniting a media firestorm. Her academic treatise on Mary Magdalene was already a bestseller, and the idea of Jesus being married captured significant public attention.
• King, an expert in the history of early Christianity, emphasized that even if authentic, the text would not prove that the historical Jesus was married but rather that some early Christians believed he was. 

Evidence of forgery emerges

• Almost immediately, Coptic scholars questioned the fragment's authenticity. The writing style was blunt and unnatural, and the grammar contained suspicious errors.
• One scholar noted that the Coptic text seemed to be a "patchwork" of phrases taken from the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, with the words "my wife" being a notable addition.
• King's publication in the Harvard Theological Review included scientific reports that initially seemed to support the fragment's age, with carbon-dating placing the papyrus itself between the seventh and ninth centuries. However, this proved that a modern text was written on ancient material. Later ink analysis further indicated modern origins.
• A key piece of evidence came from a related fragment of the Gospel of John, also provided by the same collector, which was shown to be copied almost line-for-line from a 1924 publication, revealing a clear modern forgery. 

The forger is revealed

• Investigative journalism by Ariel Sabar for The Atlantic exposed the identity of the papyrus's owner as Walter Fritz. Fritz was a German businessman with a fraudulent Egyptology degree who had a criminal history and a reputation for deception.
• Fritz had a motive for creating the forgery, which may have included financial gain, personal ambition, or a desire to embarrass the academic establishment. He also had a documented history of presenting fake academic credentials. 

King's concession and aftermath

• After Sabar's exposé was published in 2016, King publicly stated that the evidence strongly pointed toward the papyrus being a forgery. She admitted she was "not happy" about being lied to by the collector but felt "relieved" that the truth was finally revealed.
• The scandal became a high-profile cautionary tale about the importance of verifying the provenance of ancient artifacts and the dangers of media sensationalism in academia. Sabar later detailed the full story in his 2020 book, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife. 

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 The "Jesus's wife" fragment is now considered a likely forgery, a conclusion Harvard scholar Karen King eventually reached after initial skepticism and subsequent investigation into the papyrus's origins. After her 2012 announcement of the fragment, which included the phrase "My wife," a 2016 Atlantic article by Ariel Sabar revealed the fragment's owner, Walter Fritz, and raised questions that led King to concede the evidence pointed toward a forgery. Scholars now view the fragment as a modern fake, with clues including unusual handwriting and grammatical errors, and strong similarities to other known fake texts. 

The Discovery and Initial Announcement

• In 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced the discovery of a small papyrus fragment written in Coptic that included the words, "Jesus said to them, My wife". 
• The fragment generated significant media attention and sparked controversy among scholars, raising questions about Jesus's marital status. 
• King initially suggested the fragment was a 4th-century translation of a late 2nd-century Greek gospel and a source for understanding early Christian debates about marriage and family, according to this YouTube video. 

Scrutiny and Forgery Claims

• Skepticism about the fragment's authenticity began almost immediately, with scholars pointing to issues with the papyrus's style and grammar. 
• The fragment's origins were mysterious, with its anonymous owner providing unclear details about its history. 
• In 2016, an investigative article by Ariel Sabar in The Atlantic identified the owner as Florida businessman Walter Fritz and uncovered connections to other questionable texts, as reported by The New York Times. 

King's Concession and Scholarly Consensus

• Following the Atlantic article, King concluded that the evidence "presses in the direction of forgery". 
• A consensus among scholars now considers the fragment to be a modern forgery, based on the extensive investigation into its provenance and the nature of the text itself. 
• While the initial discovery caused a sensation, the scholarly consensus is that it is not authentic, and the story highlights the scholarly process of debate and eventual consensus, notes this YouTube video.