School of Theology Professor Joel B. Green weighs in on the debate
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09/20/12
Joel B. Green, professor of New Testament interpretation at
Fuller Theological Seminary, was quoted in an article in the Christian Post on
“The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife: Ancient Fragment Stirs Debate.”
The September 19 article by The Christian Post’s Lillian
Kwon gathers reactions from the theological community about the fourth century
fragment of papyrus containing the phrase “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife…’”
The fragment, revealed by Harvard Divinity School historian
Karen King and published in a New York Times article on Tuesday, has created
quite a buzz in the religious community.
Green notes in the article that there is “no evidence at all
of any debate among the earliest followers of Jesus regarding Jesus’ marital
status.” He goes on in the article to explain that those sorts of claims came
later, like in popular literature from the third and fourth centuries.
“These claims really don’t tell us anything about Jesus of
Nazareth, the historical person who lived in the first third of the first
century. They do tell us about how some people in later centuries worked out
their own beliefs and practices.”
Read more from the article here.