Dear IWS friends,
We have another small Coptic Gnostic fragment turn up (we have many) that is making head-line news from a professor at Harvard, and I thought I would write you a brief response. While the fragment is new, the idea that Jesus had a “companion” in Mary Magdalene is nothing new. Professor Karen King calls the idea Jesus’ “wife!” I thought I would write you a brief response because I did my dissertation on Coptic Gnostic documents.
Sensationalism catches the interest the the news media and sometimes Christians get worried about such sensational news reports. Please do not worry about such accounts. Such ideas are not new, and calling Mary Jesus’ wife is Dr. King’s translation for the Coptic idea of companion. The Gnostics had ideas that intimacy with the divine was best expressed in sexual terms so that in the Coptic Gnostic Gospel of Philip the highest sacrament was called the Bridal Chamber. Gnostics believed that intimacy with God was to be understood sexually.
These late 3rd – 4th century and following documents were hardly accepted by the Church as authentic representative expressions of portraits of Jesus.
Cordially in Christ,
Dr. Gerald Borchert, IWS Trustee and Professor Emeritus
