There’s been a major discovery which will impact Christian theology:
Speculation that Jesus Christ might have married is an ancient one and, however often theologians and historians throw cold water over the idea, it will keep cropping up – most notably in recent years as a key element in the plot of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. No one would take that particular novel as gospel, but now a historian from the Harvard Divinity School has come up with what may – just – be the first ever reference to Jesus mentioning a wife.
The fragment of fourth-century Coptic writing on a rectangular piece of faded papyrus no more than eight centimetres by four contains eight lines written in black ink apparently including the words: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'” Far from being the start of a music-hall joke, the extract continues: “she will be able to be my disciple,” before being cut off.
Karen L King, the Hollis professor of divinity – the oldest endowed academic chair in the US – who made the discovery, told the New York Times: “These words can mean nothing else.”
Conan has video evidence to support it:
