Jesus' Wife, History and Reactivity

Sensational Headline: "Was Jesus really Married?"

Reality Underwriting Sensational Headline: A fragment of a document was discovered that dates to the 2nd-4th century and reports Jesus referring to His wife. (Click here for the story)

Dr. Karen King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, recently released a report that the aforementioned document references Jesus' wife and her status in the Church. This wife is assumed to be Mary by those who believe that Christ was married.

A few things:

1) This document is at least two hundred years younger than any New Testament document (despite King's claim that the document is later 2nd century). Even if it is 2nd century, that dates later than the New Testament by at lest 80-90 years. Considering the timeframe of the earliest-latest writings in the NT is about a century, those years are significant. By the time this was written, theologians were already talking about the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).

2) This document lends itself to Gnosticism, an ancient religion which used Christianity as a foundation, but was heartily and widely rejected as contrary to the Gospel.

3) This document is terribly, terribly incomplete. The "wife" statement in it is an incomplete sentence. We actually can't pull any meaning out of the fragment.

4) And here's the big one... Christians, chill out. Please.

Church, we do not need to be governed by fear. It does us no good to attack the character of Dr. King, especially since she was contacted to translate this fragment by someone else. And I have seen enough attacks online regarding Dr. King and her research to know that we as the Church really need to chill out.

Church, we do not need to be governed by fear. We should be the first to embrace the translating of this ancient text. It gives us context to the rich tapestry of spirituality in the ancient world, and helps us understand the context of the Church's teaching. We also live in a rich tapestry of spirituality in the 21st century, and we are called to grapple with the teachings around us. It's bad enough that we (Christians) are considered anti-knowledge and anti-learning by the rest of the world. We do not need to make it worse by actually rejecting centuries-old documents as a modern liberal plot to destabilize evangelical Christianity.

Church, we can be governed by hope. I am so glad this document was released. It opens the conversation on our history, on the importance of understanding and appreciating our past, on the relationship of sexuality and gender to spirituality and other crucial topics. However, as long as we are governed by fear, there will continue to be an us-them/ally-enemy spirit in our assemblies. Developmental psychologists tell us that us-them thinking is critical to adolescence, but is meant to become nuanced in adulthood. Thus, I must request that we grow up. Let's talk, and more importantly, let's listen. Let's let the facts come out before we make judgments. Let's appreciatively hear what people are devoting their lives to, and then speak the truth in love in the midst of it all. The acts of lowering our reactivity and listening before speaking, both Biblical claims on our discipleship, may just grant us Gospel opportunities. Grace and peace be with you all.