Anti-Catholic Porn Producer Scammed Harvard Professor With Gospel of Jesus’ Wife
In September 2012, late in the evening of the penultimate day of the 10th International Congress on Coptic Studies, academic luminary and Harvard professor Karen King announced the discovery of a previously unknown early Christian text that she called the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife (GJW). King’s discovery made headlines around the world because one line of the fragment read “Jesus said to them, ‘my wife…’” and then broke off. Was Jesus referring to his wife?
Though King herself never claimed that Jesus was married, the possibility that he was fed into Da Vinci Code hype about a married Messiah. Some were skeptical early on about its authenticity, but even as scientific testing and academic analysis pulled the credibility of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife to pieces a new story emerged: one in which an amateur pornographer-turned-forger deceived an Ivy league professor and, briefly, the world.
The only journalist in the room for King’s talk in 2012 was Ariel Sabar, then a freelancer for Smithsonian Magazine. Though the story was initially delegated to him by an editor, for Sabar his interviews with King and trip to Rome were the beginning of a seven-year journey that culminates with the publication of his fascinating new book, Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife. The book is a testament to the value of investigative journalism and is full of shocking and revelatory moments.