Did Jesus have a wife? Several years ago, controversy surrounded the announcement of a purported ancient manuscript fragment that mentions Jesus’ wife. (You can see the fragment, and read more about it, at the Harvard Divinity School website.) Most scholars at the time responded with skepticism, although the fragment stood up to enough testing that it was never definitively shown to be a forgery.

That story is in the news again this month with a remarkable article in The Atlantic recounting journalist Ariel Sabar’s attempts to track the ownership and recent history of the fragment. Sabar’s investigation turns up enough suspicious characters and murky relationships to populate a conspiracy thriller novel. At the very least, this new story casts significant additional doubt on the fragment’s authenticity.

It’s important to note that none of the scholars involved in the ongoing debate—whether supportive or skeptical of the fragment’s authenticity—think that it provides any reason to believe that Jesus was married. If the fragment is authentic, it still dates to several hundred years after the life of Christ, and would tell us only that some people at that time thought that Jesus had married.

Although it may not have theological significance, the fragment and the surrounding debate are interesting for Christians to consider. Among other things, we’re reminded that theological confusion is not a new phenomenon; whether or not this fragment is authentic, there were plenty of alternative gospels and other documents like it circulating throughout the ancient world, competing for attention and belief. (The task of identifying those texts worthy of inclusion in the Bible canon was a difficult and crucial one—and even today, not every branch of Christianity agrees on exactly which texts are in the canon.)

In the years since the “Jesus wife fragment” story first broke, we’ve published a few articles exploring the subject:

• Regarding the “Jesus Wife Fragment” — a guest post by Bible scholar David Turner on how we should understand the fragment and the controversy surrounding it.
• Did Jesus Have a Wife? — apologist Lee Strobel discusses the fragment, as well as the general question of whether or not Jesus might have been married.