--- title: 'Jesus Wife' Fragment Lessons for Modern and Ancient Christians description: Twelve centuries ago, an Egyptian community thought Jesus had a wife. Our reaction says as much about modern faith as any ancient one canonical: https://time.com/57705/jesus-wife-parchment-women-church/ author: Elizabeth Dias article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-10T15:25:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:53:56.828Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Did Jesus Have a Wife? New Scientific Study Offers of Ancient Parchment Questions for Modern Faith og:description: Twelve centuries ago, an Egyptian community thought Jesus had a wife. Our reaction says as much about modern faith as any ancient one og:url: https://time.com/57705/jesus-wife-parchment-women-church/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt751c39c4680ce3c2/69868a1a06f2c178e332e54f/jesus-wife-papyrus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Jesus' Wife, Papyrus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Did Jesus Have a Wife? New Scientific Study Offers of Ancient Parchment Questions for Modern Faith twitter:description: Twelve centuries ago, an Egyptian community thought Jesus had a wife. Our reaction says as much about modern faith as any ancient one twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt751c39c4680ce3c2/69868a1a06f2c178e332e54f/jesus-wife-papyrus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Jesus Wife' Fragment Holds Questions for Christians > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Apr 10, 2014 3:25 PM UTC  This Sept. 5, 2012 photo released by Harvard University shows a fourth century fragment of papyrus that divinity professor Karen L. King says is the only existing ancient text that quotes Jesus explicitly referring to having a wife. This Sept. 5, 2012 photo released by Harvard University shows a fourth century fragment of papyrus that divinity professor Karen L. King says is the only existing ancient text that quotes Jesus explicitly referring to having a wife. Karen L. King—Harvard University/AP by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Apr 10, 2014 3:25 PM UTC Scholars at the Harvard Theological Review announced Thursday that they see no evidence of forgery in an ancient text mentioning “Jesus’ wife.” The fragment of parchment made waves 18 months ago when scholars first made its discovery public. But before jumping to any conclusions, here’s what’s most important to keep in mind. Carbon dating of the “Jesus Wife” fragment dates the text to the 8th century in Egypt. That is some five hundred years after the official Biblical text was already agreed upon, even by the latest dating estimates. The point of the fragment has never been to prove that Jesus was or wasn’t married—the gospels themselves, written within a hundred or so years of Jesus’ death, are silent on that point. Today it is easy to imagine that the Bible has always been one cohesive book. But it actually took centuries for early church leaders and theologians to agree on what letters, gospels, and writings counted as “canonical,” allowed to be counted as the official Word of God. Hundreds of different gospel writers and authors wrote hundreds of texts about God and Jesus. Today we have fragments upon fragments of these documents, some are quite long, some are no more than a word, or a half a word. While not all of them were accepted as Scripture, they do tell us something about how communities worshiped and what was important to them. So, if the parchment fragment is indeed authentic, it tells us that there was at least one community of believers that imagined that Jesus did have a wife, and it meant enough to how they lived their spiritual lives that they recorded it in a parchment. Without more information, we are left to imagine what that meant for how they allowed women to work in churches or what role they gave women in society. It also tells us something about our own contemporary views about God. We are fascinated with the idea that maybe, a God made human could have married. We wonder what implications that has for how we should view women, especially in a time when Pope Francis seems to be nudging the door open for women in the Catholic Church. And, one thing is for certain: everyone wishes the fragment could have been bigger. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/57705/jesus-wife-parchment-women-church/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/57705/jesus-wife-parchment-women-church/"},"headline":"'Jesus Wife' Fragment Holds Questions for Christians","datePublished":"2014-04-10T15:25:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:53:56.828Z","description":"Twelve centuries ago, an Egyptian community thought Jesus had a wife. 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