“Jesus said to them, my wife…” – discovery of early Christian Gospel suggests Jesus was married

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies today.

 King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, announced the existence of the ancient text at the Congress’s meeting, held every four years and hosted this year by the Vatican’s Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome. The four words that appear on the fragment translate to, “Jesus said to them, my wife.” The words, written in Coptic, a language of ancient Egyptian Christians, are on a papyrus fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches.

 “Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim,” King said. “This new gospel doesn’t prove that Jesus was married, but it tells us that the whole question only came up as part of vociferous debates about sexuality and marriage. From the very beginning, Christians disagreed about whether it was better not to marry, but it was over a century after Jesus’s death before they began appealing to Jesus’s marital status to support their positions.”

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Is this the knucklebone of John the Baptist?

New dating evidence supports claims that bones found under a church floor in Bulgaria may be of John the Baptist, who is described in the Bible as a leading prophet and relative of Jesus Christ.

A team from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University dated a knucklebone from the right hand to the 1st century AD, a date which fits with the widely held view of when he would have lived. The researchers say they were surprised when they discovered the very early age of the remains adding, however, that dating evidence alone cannot prove the bones to be of John the Baptist. The new dating evidence was revealed earlier this week in a documentary made by The National Geographic channel.

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Early Christian manuscripts discovered

Michael Licona interviews Dan Wallace about the new manuscript discoveries related to Early Christianity.

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Jerusalem Tomb Reveals First Archaeological Evidence of Christianity from the Time of Jesus

The archaeological examination by robotic camera of an intact first century tomb in Jerusalem has revealed a set of limestone Jewish ossuaries or “bone boxes” that are engraved with a rare Greek inscription and a unique iconographic image that the scholars involved identify as distinctly Christian.

The four-line Greek inscription on one ossuary refers to God “raising up” someone and a carved image found on an adjacent ossuary shows what appears to be a large fish with a human stick figure in its mouth, interpreted by the excavation team to be an image evoking the biblical story of Jonah.

In the earliest gospel materials the “sign of Jonah,” as mentioned by Jesus, has been interpreted as a symbol of his resurrection. Jonah images in later “early” Christian art, such as images found in the Roman catacombs, are the most common motif found on tombs as a symbol of Christian resurrection hope. In contrast, the story of Jonah is not depicted in any first century Jewish art and iconographic images on ossuaries are extremely rare, given the prohibition within Judaism of making images of people or animals.

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World's Earliest Christian Engraving Shows Surprising Pagan Elements

By Owen Jarus

Researchers have identified what is believed to be the world's earliest surviving Christian inscription, shedding light on an ancient sect that followed the teachings of a second-century philosopher named Valentinus.

Officially called NCE 156, the inscription is written in Greek and is dated to the latter half of the second century, a time when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power.

An inscription is an artifact containing writing that is carved on stone. The only other written Christian remains that survive from that time period are fragments of papyri that quote part of the gospels and are written in ink. Stone inscriptions are more durable than papyri and are easier to display. NCE 156 also doesn't quote the gospels directly, instead its inscription alludes to Christian beliefs.

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Conference: Emerging Normativities: Examining the Formation of Proto-­Orthodox Christianities and Rabbinic Judaisms 200 -­ 800 CE

According to Simon Lasair, the prevalent belief in religious circles for centuries was that Christianity somehow replaced Judaism. More recently, scholars have come to believe that Christianity and Judaism evolved together and in conversation with each another.

That is the topic of a conference being organized by Lasair, who is a special lecturer in Judaic studies at St. Thomas More College. Titled Emerging Normativities, the two-day conference will examine the formative period of Judaism and Christianity from AD 200 to AD 800.

"Some of the issues surrounding this new line of thought emerged about 15 years ago," Lasair says. "The capstone was the release of Borderlines, a book by Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley."

Boyarin will be a lecturer at the conference. "The old view that Christianity replaced Judaism was prevalent until the mid20th century," Lasair says. "It was held primarily by Protestant New Testament scholars, and some believe it contributed to the Holocaust. After (the Second World War), New Testament scholars, as well as Jewish scholars, wanted to see if that was true. The joint effort resulted in this new view when scholars realized that Judaism and Christianity have been in conversation throughout most of history, beginning in the first few centuries after the time of Jesus."

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Scholar discovers 6th-century Ethiopian Old Testament

A doctoral student at Durham University in England has discovered the existence of the oldest known copies of books of the Ethiopic Old Testament. The books date back to the early sixth century.

Ted Erho, a postgraduate student in the Department of Theology and Religion, made the find while examining microfilms of classical Ethiopic (Ge’ez) manuscripts at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John’s University in Minnesota.

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Who Were The Three Wise Men Of Christmas?

Of all the characters who appear in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth, the "Three Wise Men" are by far the most fascinating. Even someone who has never cracked open a Bible is very likely to know about the Wise Men, the star they followed and the gifts they brought to the infant Jesus on the first Christmas. But the story of these figures is found only in Matthew among the four canonical Gospels, and leaves many questions unanswered. Who were these mysterious foreigners? Where exactly did they come from? What was their star? And were there even three of them, since Matthew never gives a specific number, only tells us that there were three gifts?

Many early Christian writings attempted to provide answers to these questions, but one stands out as truly exceptional. Known as the Revelation of the Magi, it is a complex, rich, and strange narrative that purports to be the Wise Men's personal testimony about the birth of Jesus. According to this writing, the Wise Men (or better, Magi) are mystical sages living at the eastern edge of the world, guarding an ancient prophecy about a coming star that will signify the birth of God in human form. The appearance of the star, their miraculous journey to Bethlehem, and what became of them afterwards -- all of these events are presented in vivid detail in the Revelation of the Magi. There are no other early Christian writings that provide such a complete explanation of these mysterious figures.

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A flax merchant from Egypt! Owner of 4th century New Testament papyrus identified

A Princeton University researcher has identified the owner of a New Testament papyrus that dates to the time of Constantine the Great.

Constantine was the Roman emperor who allowed Christians to practice freely, ending hundreds of years of persecution. His decision led people throughout the empire to convert and disseminate the New Testament.

Now, thanks to this new discovery, we know the story of one of these Christians.

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Remains of medieval monastery opened to the public in UAE

The remains of an early medieval monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates was opened to the public last week. Local authorities hope that this site will serve as a tourist destination, to compliment the island’s rich wildlife and natural areas.

The pre-Islamic monastery, which is believed to have been built around 600 AD, was initially discovered on the 87 square kilometer island of Sir Bani Yas during excavations in 1992. It is believed that site was the burial ground for a local saint or Christian holy man, and was visited by pilgrims during the early Middle Ages. A new phase of work is currently underway by archaeologists, and treasures are still being unearthed, making the site a significant focal point for history enthusiasts worldwide.

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Mystical Marriage in the Middle Ages: Divine or Diabolical?

In the early Christian church, the image of the “Bride of Christ,” was first used to describe the soul’s connection to Jesus Christ. But eventually, the symbolic marriage of women to Christ became a way enforce submission to patriarchal authority, said Dyan Elliott, Ph.D., in a lecture last week at Fordham University.

Elliott, the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Humanities at Northwestern University, delivered “Mystical Marriage in the Middle Ages: Divine or Diabolical?” at the William D. Walsh Family Library on the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University.

“The traditional understanding of the consecrated virgin as Bride of Christ is a concept so intrinsic to female spirituality and so familiar to medievalists, that it’s difficult to imagine a time when it was otherwise,” she said.

“But there was a time when the bride was just a metaphor unattached to any human body— before it tumbled from the symbolic order … and finally came to rest upon the female body of the consecrated virgin.”

The story of its descent, she said, is a striking example of a religion whose central mystery is “the word made flesh.” Although the history of the “Bride of Christ” stretches from late antiquity to the 15th century, it has several notable highlights.

The relationship between God and Israel, she noted, was compared to a marriage.

“The apostle Paul talked about it, too. In comparing the marriage of the soul to God, he appropriated the role of a nervous father of the bride, saying, ‘I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,’” Elliott said.

“In this example, the marriage between God and the soul is gender-blind,” she explained. “But then Paul aligned Christ’s rule with a husband’s rule of his wife—extorting husbands to love their wives as Christ does the church—thereby strengthening normative gender roles.”

In the late second century, the Christian writer Tertullian described intermarriage between angels and human women to support the notion of virgins becoming “Brides of Christ.”

Tertullian held a radically different vision of the cosmos, one in which heaven and earth intersected at many points, and where sexual relations with supernatural beings was a possibility, she noted.

“He was obsessed with the history of the watcher angels in Genesis 6, whose intermarriage with the daughters of men precipitated God’s decision to flood the earth,” said Elliott, author of Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages.

“Tertullian contended that virgins were the special object of angelic lust and ultimately responsible for the fall of humans. This assignation of blame is one of the odder manifestations of a pro-virginal prejudice,” she said. “He just couldn’t conceive of angels hankering after matrons, which he described as bodies already defiled and relics of human lust. So virgins had to cover up.”

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in 249 A.D., carried the “Bride of Christ” tradition even further, decreeing that even ascetics of the opposite sex should not share living quarters, a practice that was known at the time as “syneisaktism.”

“A deacon and several consecrated virgins kept house and even slept together, attempting to reap the androgynous benefits of chastity,” she said. “But to Cyprian, it was adultery.

Quoting Cyprian, she said, “If a husband should come and see his wife lying with another man, is he not indignant and maddened, even seizing a sword? How indignant and angered then, must Christ our Lord and judge be?”

6th Century Cross is restored by the Vatican

The Crux Vaticana, a cross given to the city of Rome by a Byzantine emperor in the 6th century, has been restored after two years of work. The jewel-encrusted golden cross is said to contain a piece of the cross carried by Jesus Christ.

The Papacy has been using the Crux Vaticana for nearly 1500 years during Easter and Christmas ceremonies at the Vatican, and over the centuries grime and wax have dulled its colour. An attempt at restoring the cross in the 19th century caused further corrosion.


According to Sante Guido, who restored the cross, the changes include replacing some of the gems (which had been added to it in previous centuries) on the cross with twelve pearls along with emeralds and sapphires.

Guido said to Associate Press, "It's the most important reliquary of the 'true cross' that we have. It's particularly important because it's the only reliquary that came from an emperor, so there are various levels of religious and historic significance."

Ioli Kalavrezou, a Byzantine art history professor at Harvard University, commented that this restoration will make the cross look more like its original state. "I can't say it's exactly as it would've been, but it comes much closer to what an object like that would've looked like," she said.

The Byzantine Emperor Justin II gave the Crux Vaticana to the people of Rome sometime between 565-578. The cross contains the following inscription written in Latin: "With the wood with which Christ conquered man's enemy, Justin gives his help to Rome and his wife offers the ornamentation."

The restoration was paid for by an anonymous donor. The Crux Vaticana will be on public display inside St. Peter's Basilica until April 12.

Christ at the Center: The Early Christian Era

The theological disputes and debates among early Christians that helped shape the church are examined by a Valparaiso University theology professor's new book.

Dr. Lisa Driver, associate professor of theology, is author of Christ at the Center: The Early Christian Era. The book is the third volume in the Westminster History of Christian Thought series.

"Early followers of Jesus Christ called themselves believers in 'the way'," Dr. Driver said. "They sought to understand what they were coming to believe in relation to how these beliefs affected the ways in which they lived."

In Christ at the Center, Dr. Driver illustrates how early Christians' interactions with one another in worship and in their care for strangers and the poor shaped how they came to understand God.

"This interrelation of faith and practice is a clarifying lens through which the story of emerging Christian thought can be understood," Dr. Driver said.

The book covers the period from the earliest formation of Christianity through the fifth century.

Dr. Driver said early Christians rejoiced and marveled that, in a sense, Christ's incarnation brought humanity into God himself.

"Such divinely transformed flesh-and-blood humanity required a commitment to rescuing poverty- and disease-stricken bodies," she said. "Nursing care and eventually hospitals were hallmarks of Christ incarnated in his people. When a Roman emperor unsuccessfully attempted to restore pagan religion, he sought to replicate the array of social services that Christians provided."

Another insight of the past, Dr. Driver said, is that a Christian's worship shapes how and what he or she believes. "Examining the life and thought of early Christians, it is clear that the form, style, actions and content of worship provided a complex and rich matrix for Christians to encounter and be transformed by God and from there to explore the spiritual, intellectual and social implications of that relationship," she said.

Dr. Driver said her interest in early Christianity goes back to her family's decision to enter into the Lutheran church. "That opened my eyes to the idea of 'church' (the people of God) extending beyond a local congregation," Dr. Driver said. "The same liturgy and sacraments joined me to brothers and sisters far and wide in a way I had never considered."

Her studies eventually led her to the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and University of Toronto. "At that point I had my very first theology course and met ancient and medieval brothers and sisters," Dr. Driver said. "Here the chronological boundaries burst and I tasted the fellowship of 'church' that goes beyond time and space. Here I could encounter and converse with my forbears in the faith, even as I had communion with them at every Eucharistic liturgy."

Dr. Driver said her calling to teach arose from a zeal to share the wideness of the church with others who may have had little opportunity to know its riches. "In my teaching I continue to emphasize the experiential encounters with God in worship, prayer and intentional Christian life that lie at the heart of the faith," she said.

Dr. Driver said Christ at the Center is written both for theology students and for Christians, Protestants in particular, who are interested in learning about the roots of the faith and about their kinship with ancient Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

Dr. Driver joined Valpo's Department of Theology in 2000. Her research interests include theology of the late antique and medieval periods, Biblical interpretation, Christian social thought and action, Gnosticism, narrative theology in early Christianity and Christian prayer, mysticism and ascetic disciplines.

Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian Europe

Lisa Bitel, professor of history and religion at the University of Southern California, has released a new book this year that explores how ordinary people learned to become Christians at the start of the Middle Ages. She tells the broader story through the tales of two Christian women leaders.

Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian Europe focuses on the two holy women who lived in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, and who helped to develop the Christian church in northern France and Ireland during a turbulent period of history.

“Women couldn’t be priests; they couldn’t go and baptize a thousand,” Bitel said. “But they could be the ones facilitating this change of religious habits. They sponsored the building of churches and holy places. These women were role models. They were hugely influential.”

The history of Brigit and Genovefa explains not just how these legendary, peripatetic women became targets of devotion, but how and where Europeans became Christian and what religion meant to them on a daily basis. The story of these two saints also demonstrates the pervasive influence of gender and ethnicity, as well as regional culture and material environment, on the process of religious change.

Through Genovefa and Brigit, Bitel demonstrates what the written words of missionaries and theologians never can: the active participation of converts in the history of their own conversion.

Because her field is more esoteric than many, Bitel said it is a challenge to attract a general audience. “It’s harder for me, because someone like Henry Hudson, or something related to American history is a natural draw for students who have gone through U.S. schools,” Bitel noted. “When you get into something more exotic like the distant past of Europe, the past of religion, and especially if you throw in a gender perspective, it’s a little harder to get the masses in the classroom.

“So part of my job is to get people interested in the distant past. To persuade them that they will find something useful and relevant.”

Roman cavern discovered near Jericho

Archaeologists from the University of Haifa have discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.

The 4,000-square-meter cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient Palestinian city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about four to fiove hundred years, archaeologist Adam Zertal said.

The cave's main hall, about three meters tall, is supported by some 20 stone pillars and has a variety of symbols etched into the walls, including engraved 31 crosses, a zodiac-like symbol, roman numerals and a Roman legion's pennant. The crosses are believed to have been made around the year 350 AD.

Zertal said his team from Haifa University first discovered the site three months ago while they were putting together a detailed archaeological map of the area. "We saw a hole in the ground ... and went down and discovered this giant cavern, originally a quarry, built uniquely with hall after hall."

"Initially, the place was utilized as a quarry, which was active for 400-500 years. But the other findings definitely give the impression that the cave was used for other purposes, such as a monastery, and perhaps even a hideaway," said Zertal.

The site may eventually be turned into one of the largest underground tourist sites in the Holy Land.