Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife

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In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a prominent professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced a groundbreaking discovery at a conference near the Vatican: an ancient papyrus fragment in which Jesus refers to Mary Magdalene as "my wife." This revelation sparked global headlines, as the implication of a married Jesus could challenge the celibate, male-dominated priesthood and the 2,000-year history of Christianity. While biblical scholars reacted with fervor, King, an esteemed authority on female figures in Gnostic texts, presented the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" as a significant achievement and evidence of alternative, inclusive early Christian narratives. Award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar was tasked with covering this find and began to uncover troubling questions about the papyrus. His investigation led him to a small Florida town, where he met a college dropout with a prophetess wife, a mysterious past in Germany, and a fraught relationship with the Catholic Church. As Sabar delved deeper into the enigma of the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," the story grew increasingly surreal. This narrative unfolds as a detective story, an exploration of Biblical Studies and Egyptology, a psychological study of a complex con artist, and a tragedy for a scholar who faced profound questions about the intersection of faith and reason.