The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife
I seem to be arriving late to the discussion on the fragmentary Coptic manuscript that has been dubbed the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. Since I am not a Coptologist, I have little to add to what has been said so far (Jim Davila and Mark Goodacre offer useful introductions and roundups of media and blog posts), except to say that I share Jim's skepticism. The manuscript also doesn't look "right"–it is fragmentary yet is carefully cut, the script and penmanship is more crude than anything I have ever seen (though, again, I'm no Coptologist). I am eager to hear what Alin Suciu will say on his blog–he has already stated on facebook that he thinks it is a fake.
In my opinion, I think this gospel is a forgery, as far as I have studied, there is not a single early christian group in antiquity that believed Jesus had a wife. The closest known reference I can think of right now is the Gospel of Philip (if it can be called that) that called Magdelene a companion of Christ. If it is authentic it could be related to Philip’s Gospel. The fact that Jesus has a wife has been of recent origin, appearing in a large of amount of the modern gospels.
~Randomish
I think we have to be careful about saying such things as “there is not a single early christian group in antiquity that believed Jesus had a wife.” Before the Gospel of Thomas was found, one of the arguments against Q was that there was no evidence for a text from antiquity that was purely a “sayings gospel.” So, a new discovery can be our first piece of evidence for a phenomenon otherwise unknown in history. I’m not sure what you mean by “modern gospels.”
You have a good point that not a known Christian antiquity group that thought of Jesus having a wife. Some gnostic sects believed in their scriptures that there was some feminine aspects in God, but I dont think they believed that Jesus had a wife, but then again I could be wrong. I shall see how this plays out. Also by “Modern Gospels”, I am refering to Gospels that are allegedly ancient but are usually forgeries or fake. Such examples would be Gospel of Seneca, the Essene Gospel and the Jesus Scroll, which states Jesus married Mary Magdalene and a had child. Of course, if the Jesus’ Wife Gospel is proved true then it could be used to backup the Talpiot Tomb (assuming that is Jesus’ tomb.) ~ Randomish