On 18 September 2012, senior Harvard University scholar, Dr Karen King, revealed she'd found an ancient manuscript, which had the potential to send shock waves throughout the Christian world.
On the scrap of papyrus, she believed there to be convincing evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
But almost from the outset debate raged over its authenticity.
Gospel of Jesus' Wife Photo: biblicalarchaeology.org
Award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar followed the story from the start and he tells the story in his new book, Veritas.
Karen King was a world-leading scholar in her field, Sabar says.
“She built her reputation on really shrewd interpretations of scripture that did not make the New Testament.”
She had a particular interest in the banished gospels and much of her work was devoted to Mary Magdalene.
Sabar, reporting for the Smithsonian was invited to Rome in 2012 where King unveiled the manuscript to a group of scholars.
The manuscript, if true, would have changed the scholastic understanding of Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene, he says.
The fragment contained the partial phrase: “Jesus said to them my wife ….” And then on the next line, “She is able to be my disciple …” written in Coptic, Sabar says.
“In these two short lines, there is sort of a mortar fired at two of the pillars of orthodox or Catholic tradition.
“One Jesus was a bachelor and the other is that Jesus did not choose women among his closest followers, the Apostles.”
“In this one-two punch, you have a text that seems to suggest there’s a different tradition in early Christianity that might have been suppressed.”
Orthodox scholarship had believed the relationship was only a spiritual bond, he says.
“Dr King had long lamented the fact that all the depictions of Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene were merely spiritual.
“This fragment was like a missing piece in the gospels … it went one step further.”
But at the unveiling things did not go quite to plan, he says.
Dr King did not provide a photograph of the fragment for invited experts in the field to examine.
“She wanted to skip over the question of authenticity and go straight to interpretation because that’s where her strengths were.”
She also wouldn’t disclose who the individual was who brought her the papyrus.
“She said he was a complete stranger who emailed her out of the blue in 2010.”
This at the time seemed odd, Sabar says.
“You’d think that a scholar would want to do everything in their power to vet it before going public in such a dramatic way.”
No carbon-dating or scientific testing was offered to support the authenticity of the fragment, he says.
Photo: Penguin Books
The Harvard Theological Review pulled back from publishing the discovery after two out of three peer reviews were negative.
“Two said ooh this thing looks fake and you’ll probably embarrass yourself if you publish it.”
By 2015 most opinion was the manuscript was fake … but there were still pockets in academia believing it to be genuine.
Sabar says at this point, having in the intervening period been working on other stories, decided to find the man who gave Dr King the papyrus.
He tracked down a man called Walter Fritz in Florida who was originally from a small town in southern Germany
Something of a failed Egyptologist, Fritz was now making internet porn starring his wife.
Fritz initially denies everything but after time pivots and says he was indeed the source of the papyrus.
The mystery remains as to why Dr King would buy into the authenticity of the fragment.
She initially thought it was a fake, Sabar says.
“She comes back to him four months later out of the blue and says I would like to publish this I would like to try and authenticate it.”
The timing of Dr King's about-turn is intriguing, he says.
“It happened at a time when the president of Harvard is beginning to raise questions about how effectively Harvard is teaching religious study to its students.
“At almost exactly the moment the Harvard Divinity School is facing an existential threat, Dr King makes this 180-degree turn and decides to embrace a papyrus that she formerly decided was fake.”
This is especially surprising as she knew the risks, Sabar says. Dr King had nothing to gain if it turned out to be true and everything to lose if it didn't.
