Mrs. Messiah?

It seems that every few years we get another religious controversy – some archaeological discovery that threatens to upend everything we know about religion: the debunking of the Shroud of Turin – then the new school that says it's legitimate after all; the ossuary that allegedly contained the bones of James, a brother of Jesus, which would put to rest the notion of Mary's perpetual virginity; the Gospels of James, Judas and Mary; and now a scrap of papyrus containing an incomplete phrase, in the voice of Jesus, in which he refers to “my wife.” While all these controversies pertain to Christianity, I'd suppose other religions have their own controversies as well.

In regards to the newest kerfluffle, first of all, even the Harvard scholar who announced the find doesn't yet attest to its authenticity. It's an incomplete phrase on a fragment of papyrus smaller than a credit card and there's no wider document yet known; therefore we have no context for it. It's written in Coptic and presumably dates to the fourth century, but that has yet to be authoritatively established.

I'm not denying its validity outright, but there are compelling reasons to doubt that validity so we shouldn't get our shorts in a twist over it just yet. And while I firmly believe the conventional wisdom that says Jesus was a celibate man, it would be rash to have the reactionist opinion that it's all so much hogwash.

If Jesus had been a married man after all, that wouldn't refute my belief that he is Lord and Messiah. Neither would the revelation that Mary had mothered other children after him. But it would also be rash to jump to the conclusion that this discovery discredits the Christian religion. That would be the other unfounded extreme that this discovery might represent, and which I'm sure some unbelievers will seize upon. I attach the article here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/jesus-wife-papyrus-authen_n_1897169.html?&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false