The "gospel of the wife of Jesus" may be genuine

CAMBRIDGE. The mystery surrounding the so-called “Gospel of the wife of Jesus” may begin to dissipate. A new study of the ink with which this highly controversial papyrus was written showed that they are genuine. Researchers believe that new evidence may shed light on the origin of this document.

Debate about trusting the Gospel began as soon as Harvard University professor Karen King announced that she discovered the 2012 papyrus, written in Coptic, which contains the passage that translates as: “Jesus told them:“ My wife… ”and further referred to the name of Mary, possibly Mary Magdalene. According to preliminary data, the manuscript dating from the 4th century could be a copy of the Gospel of the 2nd century, written in Greek.

Photo: EPA / KAREN L.KING / HO

An analysis of the papyrus by scientists from Harvard found that the document is about 1200 years old, i.e. It was created somewhere between the 6th and 9th centuries. The age of the ink corresponds to the age of the paper, which may be a confirmation of authenticity.

However, not all so simple. Over the past year, many scientists have come to the conclusion that papyrus is a modern forgery. King and several other researchers are not ready to share this view. Scientists from Columbia University got down to business. Their report, published in 2014, contains a definite conclusion: ink is of ancient origin.

The fact that the current owner of the papyrus insisted on his anonymity adds doubts. He claims to have bought the Gospel of Jesus Wife along with other Coptic texts in 1999 from a man named Hans-Ulrich Laukamp, who, in turn, received them from Potsdam in 1963.

Laucamp died in 2002, leaving no children or relatives. However, according to his close friends and colleagues, he was never carried away by ancient artifacts, did not buy or collect them. Moreover, Laukam lived in West Berlin in 1963 and, therefore, could not get valuable documents from Potsdam.

Check the facts of the biography of Laucamp is not possible. In a 2014 article, King reported that the anonymous owner “provided me with a photocopy of the contract for the sale of 6 fragments of papyrus in the Coptic language, which he believes are part of the gospel.” The contract was drawn up between the anonymous author and Hans Ulrich Laukampom November 12, 1999, and signed by both parties. King also notes that the “handwritten comment” on the contract states that papyrus was purchased in 1963 in Potsdam from a seller from East Germany.

After searching a public database in Florida, a Live Science reporter found seven signatures of people with the name Laukamp on five notarized documents between 1997 and 2001. Anyone can view these databases and download these documents. The signatures can be compared with the one on the papyrus sale agreement, thereby confirming or refuting the story of how the gospel got to Harvard. In other words, if the sales contract is fake, it casts a strong shadow on the fact of the authenticity of the gospel.

Another important find that indicates the “Gospel of Jesus’ wife” is fake was made last year by Christian Askeland, a research fellow at the Septuagint Institute for Bible Studies in Wuppertal, Germany. She examined the second Coptic papyrus containing part of the "Gospel of John", which the anonymous owner of the "Gospel of the Wife of Jesus" also transferred to Harvard. Radiocarbon analysis showed that the age of this document is about 1200 years.

Asquiland discovered that text and line breaks - where one line of text ends and another begins - are identical to another papyrus found in 1924. This second papyrus was written in a Coptic dialect whose carriers became extinct about 1,500 years ago. This made Asquiland doubt the authenticity of the passage from the Gospel, as it seems that both papyri were made by the same artisan at the same time.

James Yardley, a senior fellow at Columbia University, analyzed both documents and found that they were written in different ink, which could undermine Askiland’s arguments. Yardley added that until the data of his new research were published in a scientific journal, he would not want to comment on them. Only after publication will he be ready for a dialogue with opponents.

The find of Asquiland is far from the only argument that the gospel of the wife of Jesus can be fake: a number of scholars note that the Coptic writing in the "Gospel of the wife of Jesus" is similar to the other "early" Christian text "Gospel of Thomas", in the text of which in 2002 they found a modern typo. This clearly indicates that the document is fake, copied from a modern text. Karen King, defending his position, refers to the fact that the ancient scribes made grammatical errors similar to modern typos, and this argument should not be decisive.

King and the Harvard University press service did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru