A hotly debated piece of papyrus at Harvard that could help answer whether Jesus had a wife has been largely accepted as a forgery by the media and the woman who championed its cause.And everybody else.
But for that same woman, a professor who has spent the past four years studying the small scrap of papyrus, the frenzy has distracted from the broader issues.Professor Karen King raises some points worth discussion. And the following is indeed important and good news:
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According to King, “the most significant development” resulting from the papyrus was the formation of the Ancient Ink Laboratory at Columbia University and that lab’s subsequent discovery of a nondestructive technique to date ancient inks.Also, as Alin Suciu notes on Facebook, an interesting takeaway from this article is that the date of the ink on the papyrus is earlier than the date of the papyrus. I don't think this has been mentioned before. Further proof, if any were needed, that it is a forgery.
Director of the Ancient Ink Laboratory Jim T. Yardley said the lab created a “totally unprecedented” method of dating manuscripts by analyzing tiny ink samples with a “scanning electron microscope.”
Recent background on the whole, long saga of the Gospel of Jesus' Wife is here, here, and here, with many links to earlier posts.