Mounting evidence that 'wife of Jesus' papyrus was forged

October 12, 2012

After an initial round of enthusiastic media coverage, stories about the discovery of a papyrus scroll mentioning the "wife of Jesus" have disappeared from the headlines, amid mounting evidence that the document was not authentic.

The most damning new evidence of forgery, introduced by an Oxford scholar, is the discovery that the "ancient" document reproduces a typographical error that is found in a modern edition of an old Coptic text.

 

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Further information:

• Jesus' Wife Fragment: Further Evidence of Modern Forgery (NT Blog)
• Smithsonian Channel curbs hype on papyrus-fragment story (CWN, 10/2)