‘The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” scheduled to premiere last Sunday night on the Smithsonian Channel, has been mysteriously postponed.
The documentary’s major piece of evidence was a papyrus fragment written in Coptic that, when translated, read “Jesus said to them, my wife . . .”
But questions about the papyrus’ authenticity have forced the channel to delay the show.
“Our program will take into account the upcoming tests as well as the academic response to the initial announcement,” Smithsonian Channel general manager Tom Hayden said in a statement.
“We will be announcing a new premiere date in the coming weeks.”
For years, believers and non-believers have fantasized that Jesus Christ had a wife — maybe Mary Magdalene, maybe someone else.
Dr. Karen King, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School, suspected that the fragment she had discovered was a fake.
But some experts in the field confirmed that it could have originated in the second century.
Other Jesus-ologists have cast doubts on the authenticity of the piece of papyrus.
Any time questions about Jesus’ marital status arise so do questions regarding the celibacy of Catholic priests and the role of women in the church.