Wife of Jesus fragment in Coptic: Critical Assessment

Koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Department of Liberal Education

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

19 September 2012 (updated 25 September 2012)

A fragment with 8 lines on one side and some on the reverse, written in a 2^nd -3^rd century CE Coptic script, gave some scholars from Harvard University the idea that Jesus was maybe married. “It is not proof that Jesus was married,” said dr. Karen L. King but she thinks that it does say something about marriage in that century in the church, especially the Coptic church. The manuscript is probably from Northern Africa. She also thinks that it is related to the Gospel of Thomas. In her estimation, she is dealing with a “lost gospel of Jesus”.

           What we are doing here, is to take a photo from her online video of the manuscript and type the letters what we can see and then discuss the issue whether the text is saying that Jesus was married.

It is not possible for us to see all letters. Some letters do appear doubtful but it may be because the reverse also contains lines.

           As one can see in the text under discussion, there are eight lines. The particular line that is applicable is line 4. We gave two readings for that line since the letters that are controversial in this section are not that clear.

TEXT

Line 1 eian tm maau act naeipo

                                1   2  3  4         5     6         7  8   9    10     11   12 13      14  15  16  17 18 19

                                    From            not             mother         she was given       our      occupation  

Line 2  PejeM ma;ytyc n ic jec

                                  20  21  22 23 24 25     26  27   28  29   30  31 32      33     34 35   36  37  38

                [              ]                Said                        (the)    disciple               to     Jesus:      taking a     [wife  ]

Line 3 j ary a mariam panammoza

                              38      39  40  41    42    43   44  45 46 47  48     49  50  51  52   53  54   55  56  57       

                  [                                            ]               Mary                      poured out         into                     [     ]

Line 4a      peje ic nau tahime m

                                58 59 60 61   62  63  64  65     66 67    68  69 70       71 72 73 74 75  76     77  78

                                                           Said                Jesus                                                                     [          ]                    [      ]

Line 4b     peje ic ntahime m

                               58 59 60 61  62  63  64  65    66 67   68  69  70  71 72 73 74       75    76   

                                  Said         Jesus:   “My        wife                                                    [M            ]

Line 5 matcnns r ma;ytyc n aeiau w

                                79 80  81  82   83  84   85       86      87  88  89  90  91  92 93       94     95  96 97 98 99    100

               [              ]     this person is not able        to be              a disciple                       of     increase/advance         [   ]

Line 6   mare rwme nhoou sa sene

                                  99   91 92 93     94   95   96   97    98  99 100 101 102  103  104    105 106  107 108

                                           Let                men                           of   evil           swell/go up         seeking           [         ]

Line 7 aNokt soop nmnac  etbet

                  109 110 111 112 113  114 115 116 117    118 119 120 121 122    123 124 125 126 127

                                        I                    dwell                       with her                            because           [       ]

Line 8        oum nna

              [                          128 129 130   131 132 133 134  135      ]

 In line 4 we find “Jesus said” as is indicated in Walter Till, Koptische Dialekt Grammatik (München: C. H. Beck,1961): 48.

Jesus has a horizontal line above it since it is an abbreviation.

There is a problem with the letter just after the word IC or Jesus. It is not clear. The following letter is also not clear.

NTA- added to a noun indicates possession or ownership . If we follow the reading of line 4b, and it is probably the way Harvard scholar Karen L. King took it, the line is “Said Jesus: My wife  . . . . . . “

ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT

How do we deal with this?

a.     There are limitations in this researcher’s observations since he is working indirectly with the text with very unclear images. However, some letters are clear and the shape of some argues against reading it the way it was translated in the NBC report below, seemingly supplied by Karen L. King of Harvard university.

b.     The letters are not that clear from what we can see but they do have better methods to establish the readings at Harvard.

c.      If the unclear letters (to us) indicate NTE- then Jesus did say “My wife”.

d.     In order to explain it as the wife of Christ, and that Christ was married, will only be done by someone who is not familiar with the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament we frequently see God treating His faithful as His bride. In the New Testament the ten virgins are waiting for the Bridegroom to come, which is Christ. If Christ is the Bridegroom, He can speak of His church as “My wife”. In Revelation 12 the church is depicted as a woman. Revelation was the product of what Jesus showed John at Patmos.

e.      The sentence breaks off and does not give more information. If scholars find another fragment saying “Jesus said: My children . . . “ then scholars will argue that Jesus had children because He was married. Again, incognito about the Old and New Testament uses of the faithful who are the children of God.

f.       The suggested translation for line 6 and text is seen by Kathy King as an absolute optative (separated from the verb that comes later in the sentence!) MARE (letters 90-94) it seems for us, judging from her translation “Let  . . . “. Maybe one should prefer the line 6b option given supra (see Till 1961: 55 at paragraph 255). Harvard’s reading of the text-form should get preference above our reading here since we are doing it from images and not the original.

g.     In line 2 the translation is “Said the disciple to Jesus”. The preposition “to” as n is very clear in 33, and the abbreviation for Jesus in letters 34-35 as ic is very clear. See Till 1961: 48 paragraph 222.

h.     In line 5 the letter 99 is not clear.

i.       In line 8 it appears as if they are seeing the word limyn but it is very difficult for us to see .

j.       Line 1 seems for us to read “not from mother . . . “.

k.     The letters in line 7, 118-122  nmnac  means “with her” (Till 1961: page 34 paragraph 153).

l.       The last word in line 7 is etbe and means ”because of”.

m.  The root soop means “dwell” or “to be” (Till 1961: 43 paragraph 198). “I will dwell/be with her because of. .” is the translation of line 7. (See Till 1961: 26 at paragraph 116 for the personal pronouns aNokt = ANOK = I).

n.     The root sa means to “go up/swell” (see Till 1961: 45 at paragraph 205).

o.     The root -s in tcnns means “be able” or “can be” and ns is listed as a negative by Crum Coptic Dictionary, 540. It is however a negative “not be”. The prefix cn-  is added to a verb to indicate “person of a certain profession” (Till 1961: 20 paragraph 91). T- is the demonstrative feminine particle added to mean “this (feminine)” (Till 1961: 29 at paragraph124). “This (feminine) person will not be able to be a disciple”. The following words after “disciple” was left out of the translation by the published translation. The n is interpreted as the genitive connected to the next word aeiau which means “increase in size, age, growth, quality” (Crum 1). The r before the word “disciple” means “to be” (see Till 1961: 44 at paragraph 204). Thus translate the sentence as “This (feminine) person will not be able to be a disciple of increase . . “

p.    The  a- in act  is the past of the Perfect II tense of the verb (see Till 1961: 56 at paragraph 261) and the c- is the pronominal suffix 3^rd person singular “she” added to the verb -t which means “give”. The na-is the possessive pronoun plural first person “our” (Till 1961: 30 at paragraph 128). The word eip seems to mean “occupation/art/craft” (Crum 81).  

q.     The word jec [   ] may be part of a word that means “take a wife/marry” like in jechime. But, it can mean many other things as well. The break is not helpful in this regard. It does not mean it is an imperative for Jesus to take a wife. In Matthew 19:10 the disciples answered Jesus that to take a wife is difficult.

r.      The phrase pan a mmo may be taken as pan as “poured” (Crum 263) and mmo as “into” (Till 1961: 34 at paragraph 156). Translate thus: “Mary poured into . . . .“

s.      In line 6 the closest one can come to an understanding of the word sene seems to be “seeking/asking”.

FINAL CONCLUSION

          The conclusion is that there is absolute no evidence that Jesus was married or had an affair with Mary Magdalene as some tried to squeeze out of the fragments from Nag Hammadi, Coptic manuscripts between the late 2^nd and middle third centuries CE.

          The presentation of Harvard representative of the fragment is filled with loopholes and gaps of information and the fragment is so small that a proper context for the words cannot be made. We know one thing, and that is that the Canon of the Old and New Testaments, setting aside the strange apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, including the Gospel of Thomas, does not support even a hint that He considered a married life on earth.

          Thus, the whole concept is based on guesswork, and for whatever reason scholars wish to squeeze blood out of a stone in order to cast doubt upon the Word of God and the given tradition by the Holy Spirit.

TRANSLATION AS FROM THE SOURCE BELOW

Translation of Lines 1-8 as provided by the NBC report online cited below.

1.     "'... not [to] me. My mother gave to me li[fe] ...'"

2.     "The disciples said to Jesus, '..."

3.     "deny. Mary is worthy of it" (Or: "deny. Mary is n[ot] worthy of it")

4.     "...' Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'"

5.     "... she will be able to be my disciple ..."

6.     "Let wicked people swell up ..."

7.     "As for me, I dwell with her in order to ..."

8.     "an image"

TRANSLATION OF THIS RESEARCHER

Line 1  ]Not from mother was given our occupation [   ]

Line 2  ]Said (the) disciple to Jesus: taking a [wife  ]

Line 3  ](?   ) Mary poured out into [Za. . . . ]

Line 4  ]Said Jesus: My wife M[     ]

Line 5  ]this person is not able to be a disciple of advance [

Line 6  ]Let men of evil go up seeking[

Line 7  ]I dwell with her because[

Line 8  ](?     )[

Source:

1.     http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13945001-reality-check-on-jesus-and-his-wife?lite&ocid=msnhp

(American announcement)

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49092144

    (European subsequent reaction)

2.     Henry B. Smith Jr. MA, “Brief Reflections on the So-Called "Jesus Wife" Fragment” (2012/ 9/ 25) (Second photo from this site).      

http://www.biblearchaeology.org/syndication.axd?class=r

 Photo from online site in source (2) supra.