GJW update

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS' WIFE is the subject of a post at the CNN Belief Blog. I don't see any new information, but it's a pretty good summary of the current state of play.

'Jesus Wife' fragment gets more testing, delays article

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Editor

(CNN) - One of the most anticipated articles in religion circles will be absent from the pages of the January edition of the Harvard Theological Review. Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King's final article on the "Jesus wife" fragment did not make the scholarly journal because further testing on the Coptic papyrus fragment has not been finished.

[...]

As for this,

"We're moving ahead with the testing, but it is not yet complete, and so the article will await until we have the results," King said in an email to CNN.

"The owner of the fragment has been making arrangements for further testing and analysis of the fragment, including testing by independent laboratories with the resources and specific expertise necessary to produce and interpret reliable results. This testing is still underway," Kathyrn Dodgson, director of communications for the Harvard Divinity School, said in a email to CNN.

I don't think I'm the only one who has wondered why the owner is arranging the tests rather than Professor King or specialists designated by Harvard University. Does the owner have the expertise to make such arrangements? And, not to put too fine a point on it, how do we know that tests have actually been arranged? Have King or Harvard been involved at all or do we just have the word of the anonymous owner? The reports I have seen are vague on this point and it would be helpful to hear some specifics. Trust, but verify.

Background here.

UPDATE: David Meadows comments.