A quite sensational discovery has been made recently that most likely won’t be too pleasing to the Pope and the pundits at the Vatican.
A papyrus written in Coptic believed to be of the fourth century CE mentions something previously unheard of – the wife of Jesus.
Historian Karen L. King at Harvard Divinity School found the following passage on the papyrus: “Jesus said to them, my wife… she will be able to be my disciple.”
As further mentioned in the Smithsonian Magazine, the fragment’s 33 words, scattered across 14 incomplete lines, leave a good deal to interpretation. But in King’s analysis, and as she argues in a forthcoming article in the Harvard Theological Review, the ‘wife’ Jesus refers to is probably Mary Magdalene, and Jesus appears to be defending her against someone, perhaps one of the male disciples. “She will be able to be my disciple,” Jesus replies. Then, two lines later, he says: “I dwell with her.”
Being careful not to upset the status quo, Ms King does not assert that this is proof Jesus was married. She said the fragment is reflective of the debates early Christians had in the infancy of the church. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time early Christian artifacts have contradicted history as written in the Bible.
As most open-minded people nowadays know, much of what is written in today’s Bible after hundreds of translations and rewrites is obviously not the historical truth. Over time, many passages have been added and removed from the Bible and complete books were left out of the canon. We know that the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in Bithynia (present day Turkey) in 325 CE resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine. A precedent was established, called the Creed of Nicaea, to create statements of belief and canons of doctrinal orthodoxy with the aim to define the beliefs for the entire Christendom. In particular, the debate about Christ’s divinity was settled by what was believed were the teachings of the apostles, namely that “Christ is the one true God in deity with the Father.”
The first four books of the New Testament are the gospels, the story of Jesus according to his apostles – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospel of Mary, as in Mary Magdalene, dates back to the second century, later than any of the other gospels. The Gnostic text paints Mary as a singular disciple among Jesus’ followers who had privileged access to his teachings.
In order to create a supernatural Jesus, a relationship with a woman could not be allowed and the mere hint of Mary Magdalene to have been Jesus’ companion was thus purged from the chronicles. However, Leonardo da Vinci might have had knowledge about Mary Magdalene’s role in the drama – when he painted The Last Supper, the person to the right of Jesus, who according to scholars is John the beloved, has definitely obvious feminine features and could very well be Mary Magdalene. The very popular book and movie, The Da Vinci Code, clearly claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and possibly also had a child.
Whatever the case was in reality, it appears the Church has made every effort over almost 2,000 years to support their figurehead and actively and knowingly changed historical records to present Jesus as an immaculate, celibate son of god. Quite possibly there are many scriptures stored in those vast Vatican archives that show the true story, yet access to those archives is of course denied, with the exception to some chosen few.
Osho refers many times to Jesus the man, saying,
Jesus lived a very human life, utterly human – with great godliness, but he lived a human life. He is a rare master in that way. He moved with gamblers, drunkards; there is every possibility that once in a while he may have played poker. And I don’t see that there is anything wrong in it. He used to drink wine, he enjoyed it. And I don’t think that there is anything wrong in it once in a while; it is sheer playfulness. Don’t become addicted to it. He was not addicted to it, but he participated in the ordinary life.
There is every possibility that Mary Magdalene fell in a very human kind of love with him, and it cannot be just one-sided – he may have responded. But Christians will feel offended – a prostitute falling in love with Jesus! And Jesus may have responded in a human way. In fact, he was such a courageous man, such a rebel, that he must have responded in a human way.”
Osho, The White Lotus, Ch 6, Q 3
Bhagawati, Osho News
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