Was Jesus Married? Ancient Papyrus Mentions
His ‘Wife’
‘Knowledge is power’
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A small fragment of faded papyrus contains a suggestion that Jesus may have been married.
The fragment, with just eight lines of text on the front and six lines on the back, is from a
fourth-century dialogue, written in the Coptic language, between Jesus and his disciples. In it,
Jesus speaks of “my wife,” according to Harvard professor Karen L. King, who discovered the
fragment.
“The most exciting line in the whole fragment…is the sentence ‘Jesus said to them [his
disciples], my wife…” King said in a video posted to Harvard’s YouTube channel. The next line
of text reads, “She will be able to be my disciple.”
“This is the only extant ancient text which explicitly portrays Jesus as referring to a wife,” King
wrote in her paper on the discovery.
The discovery, if it is validated, could have major implications for the Christian faith. The belief
that Jesus was not married is one reason priests in the Catholic Church must remain celibate
and are not allowed to marry. It could also have implications for women’s roles in the church,
as it would mean Jesus had a female disciple.
For centuries, there has been debate about the possibility that Jesus was married, with many
believing he might have had a relationship with Mary Magdalene, who is mentioned
prominently in the New Testament. The speculation was even the subject of Dan Brown’s best
seller, The Da Vinci Code.
King stresses that the new discovery “does not provide evidence that the historical Jesus was
married.”
However, King writes, “the fragment does provide direct evidence that claims about Jesus’
marital status first arose over a century after the death of Jesus in the context of intra-
Christian controversies over sexuality, marriage, and discipleship.”
In the years after Jesus’ death, Christians debated what was the correct way to follow Jesus’
example and lifestyle. King says the parchment might simply mean that some Christians
believed after Jesus’ death that he was married during his life.
While working to determine whether the papyrus was a forgery, King said she was particularly
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