This so-called ‘Gospel’ never had anything to do with the real 1st century historical Jesus since it wasn’t really written before the 4th century.
Most scholars now believe that the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” is a modern fake. This is not a new story but you probably haven’t heard about this on the 10 o’clock news which originally hailed the story of its magnificent discovery. In fact, most folks on the street probably haven’t heard about the scholarly updates and conclusions on this document. Many out there may still believe that a ‘new gospel’ has been discovered that ‘proves’ Jesus was married.
Last year most of the newspapers of record did carry the updated story of its exposure as a probable fake somewhere in their back pages. Nothing like the announcement in 2012 when the main stream media gleefully spread the news far and wide that a new ‘gospel’ had been discovered that proved that Jesus was married. All based upon a tiny scrap of papyrus (shown above) that appeared to be written in 4th century Coptic. But later testing showed that it was possibly as late as the 7th or 8th century.
At the time we posted several articles which contradicted the popular notion that this so-called ‘gospel’ was a threat to Christianity in some way. We also presented a number of facts that would preclude this document from having anything to do with the historical Jesus who lived at least 4-8 centuries before this ‘gospel’ was even reported to have been written. Even the Harvard professor that introduced it to the media admitted that it really had nothing to do with the historical Jesus.
In the meantime, we have been following the back and forth on this document in trade journals for several years. Most scholars are now convinced that this document is a modern fake merely copied on a scrap of old papyrus.
If you want to be brought up to date on the latest, here’s the best and most readable article that I have found presenting key reasons why most scholars now believe it is a modern fake:
“5 Reasons Why the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Is a Fake” by Simon J. Gathercole