--- title: 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' Is Probably Not A Fake, Say Scientists description: The Vatican called a papyrus fragment which suggests Jesus was married a "clumsy forgery" when it emerged in 2012, but forensic analysis now appears to have proved its authenticity canonical: https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-10T13:42:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:14:29.660Z article:section: U.S. og:title: 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' Is Probably Not A Fake, Say Scientists og:description: The Vatican called a papyrus fragment which suggests Jesus was married a "clumsy forgery" when it emerged in 2012, but forensic analysis now appears to have proved its authenticity og:url: https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a64df576d3c64e/69868a0035ba6f16c5c01735/jesus-wife-papyrus-karen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Papyrus, Jesus' wife og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' Is Probably Not A Fake, Say Scientists twitter:description: The Vatican called a papyrus fragment which suggests Jesus was married a "clumsy forgery" when it emerged in 2012, but forensic analysis now appears to have proved its authenticity twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a64df576d3c64e/69868a0035ba6f16c5c01735/jesus-wife-papyrus-karen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Say Gospel of Jesus' Wife Probably Not Fake by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Apr 10, 2014 1:42 PM CUT  Karen L. King Hollis, Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, in her office with a papyrus fragment of the gospel of Jesus' wife. Karen L. King Hollis, Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, in her office with a papyrus fragment of the gospel of Jesus' wife.Bill Greene—Boston Globe via Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Apr 10, 2014 1:42 PM CUT A [highly contested ](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/oct/16/gospel-jesus-wife-modern-fake-typo "undefined")ancient Egyptian papyrus that references Jesus as a married man is more likely an authentic ancient text rather than a modern forgery, says a [paper published in the _Harvard Theological Review_](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=9226239&jid=HTR&volumeId=107&issueId=02&aid=9226237&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession= "undefined") Tuesday. In 2012, Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen L. King presented the fragment, called “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” at a conference in Rome. Controversial passages read: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…'” and also “she will be able to be my disciple.” The latter [caused a stir](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2125022,00.html "undefined") amid the backdrop of a continuing debate within the Catholic Church on whether women should be [allowed to be priests](http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/25/why-jesuss-wife-matters-a-lot-and-not-at-all/ "undefined"). Although the [Vatican immediately dismissed the text](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/28/us-religion-jesuswife-idUSBRE88R0NT20120928 "undefined") as a “clumsy forgery,” teams of engineering, biology, and chemistry professors from Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded after carbon testing that it is written on papyrus from the ancient era. An Egyptologist at Brown University, however, maintained that the document is a fraud. The University of Arizona said that it could not come to a firm conclusion given the small sample size. [King told the ](http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/10/new-tests-show-evidence-forgery-gospel-jesus-wife/IusII8b4eI86HgDTKipLhN/story.html "undefined")[_Boston Globe_](http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/10/new-tests-show-evidence-forgery-gospel-jesus-wife/IusII8b4eI86HgDTKipLhN/story.html "undefined")that the important argument isn’t whether or not Jesus was married, as one text doesn’t prove fact: “I’m basically hoping that we can move past the issue of forgery to questions about the significance of this fragment for the history of Christianity, for thinking about questions like, ‘Why does Jesus being married, or not, even matter? Why is it that people had such an incredible reaction to this?'” \[[_Harvard Theological Review_](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=9226239&jid=HTR&volumeId=107&issueId=02&aid=9226237&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession= "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/"},"headline":"Scientists Say Gospel of Jesus' Wife Probably Not Fake","datePublished":"2014-04-10T13:42:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:14:29.660Z","description":"The Vatican called a papyrus fragment which suggests Jesus was married a \"clumsy forgery\" when it emerged in 2012, but forensic analysis now appears to have proved its authenticity","url":"https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/","keywords":["faith","Religion","Harvard","Vatican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a64df576d3c64e/69868a0035ba6f16c5c01735/jesus-wife-papyrus-karen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5a64df576d3c64e/69868a0035ba6f16c5c01735/jesus-wife-papyrus-karen-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Papyrus, Jesus' wife","caption":"Papyrus, Jesus' wife","creditText":"Bill Greene—Boston Globe via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/57336/jesus-wife-papyrus-harvard-authentic/","name":"Scientists Say Gospel of Jesus' Wife Probably Not Fake"}}]}] ```