However, this does not necessarily mean Jesus had a wife.

In 2012, a small fragment of Coptic (an Egyptian sect) papyrus claiming that Jesus had a wife was revealed by professor Karen L. King. In a storm of controversy, many were quick to call it a fake. Coptic scholars promptly picked it apart and found a number of grammatical errors. Likewise, Egyptologist Leo Depuydt from Brown University claimed it could be easily forged. He said, “An undergraduate student with one semester of Coptic can make a reed pen and start drawing lines.”

Although there is much evidence to suggest that the document cannot prove Jesus was married, several scientists from various universities have concluded that it is indeed an ancient document dating back to the eighth century and not a modern counterfeit.

There are, of course, several reasons this does not prove anything about Jesus Christ. Firstly, the eighth century is much later than the original writing of the gospel. Dr. Depuydt also discovered that this snippet of manuscript appears to be an almost exact copy of an excerpt from the Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphal, or false, gospel. Another strong possibility is that the “bride” referred to in the document is actually referring to the church, a comparison that is made many times in The Bible.

Christians should certainly be skeptical of any supposed new information about Jesus or the Bible, but we should never forget the Bible’s message of love toward one another and God.