Revelation of a so-called discovery brought new debate among the masses and made international headlines this week.  A piece of papyrus, supposedly originating from the fourth century, purports to contain speech attributed to Jesus.

The story goes that a Professor of Divinity at Harvard was contacted in 2010 by a collector (who chooses to remain anonymous) asking her for help translating and authenticating a piece of papyrus.  Supposedly, this fragment has been referred to by the professor as “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.”  She presented this fragment to a conference in Rome this week.  Text on the papyrus claims, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife.’  We are told that the rest of the sentence is cut off.  Nothing else is known about the circumstances of the papyrus or its discovery.  However, it is assumed to come from some Gnostic Christian text.  (The Gnostics are a completely different story and is too much to get into here.)  Even with this scant bit of information, this scrap of paper that is no larger than a business card  has ignited new claims and renewed interest in whether Jesus took an earthly wife or not.  Here we go again…did we not get enough of this in 2003? 

This whole thing is rather silly to me.  Additionally, I find it quite interesting that folks find this writing bears further scrutiny because the “jury is still out” on the matter.  Also amusing are the number of folks whose comments I read who go along with the idea that Jesus probably was married (in the literal sense) because as a Jewish man, He would have been expected to marry. 

If you know Christ and know what He says in the Word, there is no debate here and you already know the answer to this “debate.”  What is newsworthy and important about all of this is that Jesus is still making news.  At least this has caused people to talk about Him.

Forget the suggestions that we need to “rethink” Christianity, no matter what “new finding” comes along.  All you need to know is the truth…it never changes.