(DAILY BEAST) In September 2012, late in the evening of the penultimate day of the 10th International Congress on Coptic Studies, academic luminary and Harvard Professor Karen King announced the discovery of a previously unknown early Christian text that she called the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (GJW). King’s announcement made headlines around the world because one line of the fragment was said to read “Jesus said to them, ‘my wife…’” and then broke off. Was Jesus referring to his wife?
Though King herself never claimed that Jesus was married, the possibility that he was fed into Da Vinci Code hype about a married Messiah. Some were skeptical early on about its authenticity, but as scientific testing and academic analysis pulled the credibility of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife to pieces a new story emerged: one in which an amateur pornographer-turned-forger deceived an Ivy League professor and, briefly, the world.
