It has long been a topic of discussion and contention, and now, a papyrus seems to give some clues as to whether or not Jesus was married.
An early Christianity historian at Harvard Divinity School has translated a small scroll which reads in part, “Jesus said to them…’My wife…'” and “she will be able to be my disciple”. Karen King says the scroll was written in Coptic near the fourth century, but shouldn’t be taken as literal truth or proof that Jesus was married, since it was completed centuries after Jesus supposedly lived.
It is an exciting find, however, because no other document has ever alleged that Jesus took a wife, and Christians have long wondered if he was married or if he lived a life of celibacy.
“This fragment suggests that some early Christians had a tradition that Jesus was married,” King said. “There was, we already know, a controversy in the second century over whether Jesus was married, caught up with a debate about whether Christians should marry and have sex.”
King made the discovery in Rome, and says that although the papyrus is too fragile to do carbon dating on–too much of the ink would have to be removed–she will have it tested by spectroscopy, which will help her narrow down how old it actually is.