[Music] the question of whether jesus had a wife has long been the subject of mystery and speculation what if jesus was married to mary magdalene what if they have descendants that live amongst us this idea forms the basis of the da vinci code and continues to enrapture the public imagination but it's not just the realm of fiction or conspiracy you see there's an ancient christian text that seems to confirm this theory it's a tiny fragment of papyrus with an astonishing revelation that jesus had a wife the so-called gospel of jesus's wife sent shockwaves throughout biblical
scholarship it had the potential to rewrite everything we knew about the life of jesus but it didn't why what happened to this text it's a long story [Music] measuring about the size of a credit card the gospel of jesus's wife is a tiny fragment of papyrus it was presumably part of a much larger document but this is all that remains the writing is in coptic an egyptian language that was once widely spoken in antiquity translating the text reveals a conversation between jesus and his disciples it's a little hard to make out but there's one part
that's crystal clear on line 4 right in the center it reads jesus said to them my wife could this prove that jesus was actually married when this text was revealed to the public in 2012 the identity of this mystery wife was clear mary magdalene mary magdalene is a character from the new testament not to be confused with jesus's mother who's also called mary no this mary was one of jesus most trusted followers and was present at his crucifixion and burial she's most famous for being the first to witness jesus after his resurrection however nowhere does
it say that she was his wife in fact the new testament has zero references to jesus's marital status because of this many safely assumed that he was celibate the idea that jesus and mary had a secret relationship is a popular one most famously explored in the da vinci code the best-selling novel by dan brown the success of this book and subsequent film sparked all kinds of wild conspiracies with some people even claiming to be their direct descendants blockbusters and conspiracies aside jesus having a wife is actually a rather ancient idea it has its roots in
gnostic christianity a collection of christian sets that flourished from the first century onwards particularly in egypt gnostics believed that they had access to hidden esoteric knowledge about jesus primarily contained in their sacred texts they produced their own gospels and teachings mainly about the special status of mary magdalene one such text is the so-called gospel of mary in one passage peter tells mary that quote sister we know that the savior loved you more than all other women similarly the gospel of philip describes her as jesus's companion and that is meant to have quote loved her more
than all the disciples and kissed her often on the mouth the gospel of jesus's wife was supposedly one of these gnostic texts but is the only one that explicitly states that jesus had a wife it seems to complete that puzzle surrounding mary magdalene and that they were married making the da vinci code appear more like historical fact than historical fiction these gnostic texts make some startling claims but it's important to note that these were pretty fringe beliefs even for the time many of these gnostic gospels were written centuries after jesus's death meaning that they probably
were not eyewitness accounts the gospel of jesus's wife was said to have been written around the 4th century a.d so pretty late for a christian text of this nature compare this with the new testament books the canonical gospels were written around ad70 to ad110 just enough to be an eyewitness account and why they're considered to be more authoritative then again maybe the gospel of jesus's wife is a copy of a much older version perhaps an original that has since gone missing with this being the last surviving copy if so it would offer a precious glimpse
into jesus's largely unknown personal life at the time the gospel of jesus's wife was an electrifying discovery such a startling revelation had the potential to rewrite everything people knew about jesus jesus's celibacy is often used as a reason why some priests can't get married if jesus did in fact have a wife then those ancient rules would have to be rewritten then there's the big picture stuff theologically speaking jesus is believed to have been god incarnate what would it mean if god fell in love with a mortal woman too many questions and it's not just jesus's
biography we'd have to change but also that of mary magdalene being jesus's significant other would raise her status considerably the figure of mary magdalene is already a complicated one whenever she is named in the new testament she is depicted quite positively and as a key member of jesus's inner circle but from about the second century onwards early christian writers began to conflate her with other women like the unnamed prostitute or the sinful adulteress that jesus meets elsewhere in doing so they forever tarnished the interpretation of this character if it turned out that she was the
wife of jesus these traditional beliefs would have to be challenged the gospel of jesus's wife is a remarkable document jesus being married would transform a lot of beliefs if it was genuine of course and that's where things get a little complicated as soon as it was revealed to the public tv documentaries were being prepared about this unusual find there was already plenty of public interest especially as the da vinci code had been such a big hit but there were those who are less caught up with the media frenzy and cast doubts over the authenticity of
this document forged manuscripts have long been a problem for biblical scholars because they are so exceptionally rare museums and universities are willing to pay enormous sums for them especially if they contain astonishing information like ours but there are also those who can create convincing fakes and sell them off as genuine every year one or two fragments are discovered to be forged to an untrained eye it's pretty hard to tell but biblical scholars have become very good at it with the gospel of jesus wife experts found a number of telltale signs that forgery was afoot the
handwriting was unusual consisting of thick clumsy letters uncharacteristic for these kinds of artifacts what's more almost all of the texts had been lifted from another book the gospel of thomas the only detail that's been changed is the wife bit how convenient the copywork is shoddy there are several spelling mistakes and grammatical errors something was very wrong all the signs pointed to forgery rumors about the document began to grow and soon shrouded it in speculation the documentaries and tv specials were put on hold until further notice eventually the fragment was taken to be carbon dated a
process which can accurately determine the age of the material to the surprise of many the test indicated that the papyrus was indeed ancient it dates to around the 8th century a.d admittedly it's a few centuries off the original time frame but is still very old so surely that's case closed right does this mean that it's a genuine gnostic text not quite you see you can fool a carbon dating test all you need are empty fragments of old parchment on which to add text to later on you'd be surprised by how many blank scraps turn up
on the black market with our document the papyrus itself is ancient but the writing was added at a later date the modern inks used suggest that it came from not the 8th century but from the 21st century there were still those who desperately clung onto the idea that the gospel of jesus's wife was real but it was growing more and more obvious it wasn't it was a fake and to be honest not a very good one it was a dubious forgery designed to cash in on the success of the da vinci code preying on the
public hope that jesus might have had a wife the scandal damaged reputations and ruined careers scholars put their reputation on the line and some lost it all but once the dust settled and the clamour died down one piece of the puzzle remained unaccounted for who was the mystery forger a report from the atlantic traced it back to walter fritz a german immigrant who was living in florida fritz was the ideal candidate for hoax of this kind he was a student of egyptian languages like coptic who was expelled from his university for plagiarism when asked whether
he was the hoaxer he denied it although he did admit that he quote might have been able to do so had he tried had it been real the gospel of jesus's wife would have been a miraculous discovery to many it would have been proved that jesus was indeed married but as time went on the text was quickly determined to be a hoax on inspection nothing about it seemed genuine from the clumsy handwriting to the grammatical errors i suspect the newsfeed being a fake would have come as a great disappointment many were hoping that it would
either shine a light into gnostic christianity or simply prove that dan brown was onto something jesus was famous for his parables and so the warning of this tale is for those who get swept up by media frenzy and conspiracy theories even though this document was ultimately fraudulent it was a catalyst for some interesting conversations for example how much do we really know about the life of jesus all we have are texts from the new testament and a few other sources but they only really cover the final few years of his life ultimately we know very
little about jesus as a historical figure so for now the mystery of whether he had a wife is ongoing we'll have to wait and see if another ancient fragment pops up but next time we'll hopefully be more careful hey thanks for watching had a great time making this and i hope you enjoyed it as well if you like this video and want to see more why not subscribe a like and a comment also go a really long way oh and do check out the channel's merch over at crowdmade we have beanies t-shirts and hoodies links
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