This is a stunningly well-written examination of the found “gospel of Jesus’s wife”, a fragment of papyrus thought to describe Mary Magdalene as that wife.
Sabar’s lengthy investigations and interviews for magazines like the Smithsonian and Atlantic make me want to run out and subscribe to them because this long form journalism is what we need now.
In figuring out the story behind the fragment, he travels to Europe and various places in the US. It’s exhaustive, his research, but he presents it here in extremely readable prose. I honestly couldn’t put it down, 300 pages plus...
Some eye-opening findings here, from academic hijinks to whatever it is going on in Florida. (Whew!). The close, almost incestuous, links between members of faculty in universities gives one pause about the veracity of any research.
Which is why books like this one need to be supported and published. And why double-blinded studies and publications should exist.
In this time of flexible truths and the altering of news, this highlights how easily people can act to promote an agenda. We are a gullible species...
So worth a read!
Ps: this is neither a pro- nor anti-religion book. It is an anti-flimflammery book. Safe for either side to read without getting feathers ruffled. Should be assigned reading for journalism students though it might drive them to despair about jobs in Twitter news... ( )

A stupendous book, building on Sabar's Atlantic article on the same topic. I was riveted from first to last. Along with a deep dive into the nature of the forgery and its perpetrator, Sabar also provides as readable an account of the gnoticism and the "gnostic gospels" I've read, too. ( )

Based on the description I knew I wanted to read this book because it appeared to touch on a several areas of interest for me: early Christian history, academia, and, of course, true crime. I'm not a huge fan of the "did the wife really murder her husband" genre of true crime, but I do enjoy books that require me to learn a lot about a fairly esoteric subject in order to understand some criminal activity. ([b:The Feather Thief|44153387|The Feather Thief|Kirk Wallace Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551792197l/44153387._SY75_.jpg|57423406] is a great example.)

As it turns out, I got what I was looking for - and more, since Sabar also includes discussions of feminist issues and postmodern theory, both necessary for a complete understanding of the "why" behind this initially successful hoax. I could have done without the detailed analysis of the psychological forces that drove the con man, especially the lurid descriptions of his pornographic activities. IMO the book would have been just as effective had the author used a lighter touch in this area, though he may have felt the need to make the story "juicier". That makes little sense, though, since I doubt many readers would pick up this book in hopes of reading something racy.

The key points, in summary:

*Karen King, a highly respected Christian theologian at the Harvard Divinity School, accepts at face value a scrap of supposedly early Coptic papyrus that suggests that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. This supports her lifelong struggle to substantiate a larger role of women in the early church.

*Walter Fritz is a lifelong con man with a background in Coptic studies, originally from Germany but living in Florida at the time of these events. His motivation for attempting this deception appears to be financial, but may have other layers as well.

*Over the course of several years it becomes clear that the papyrus is a fake. What is especially intriguing is Karen King's equivocal responses to each tell-tale revelation of a possible problem, and her manner once Sabar, an investigative journalist, puts all the pieces together and leaves her no recourse but to acknowledge that she had been duped.

Or had she? As we reach the end of the book we learn that she may have had alternate motivations to accept what she must have known from the start was a spurious claim for authenticity.

As much as I had enjoyed following Sabar's methodical, detailed, research, it was these revelations at the end that really resonated with me, in no small part because there is no reference to them in any of the reviews or the publisher's summary.

Despite the qualification I mentioned above, I enjoyed this on a number of levels: the topics I've mentioned, and tracking Sabar's investigation. Recommended - although I'm not sure to whom. You'll have to be the judge. ( )

Veritas in Latin translates as "truth". Sabar has written a detailed and fascinating book about how that was achieved in the case of a papyrus fragment that had a series of words that could be interpreted to suggest that Jesus was married (ala DaVinci Code -- a fun book, btw.). Sabar's story contains confirmation bias, hubris, amateur scholars v. professional scholars, and academic jealousies. Truths might take a while to get into the Ivory Tower but they do make it eventually.

The temptation to read a concept into something because it matches an agenda we already subscribe to is an overwhelming temptation. Karen King, esteemed professor in the Divinity School at Harvard, fell victim to a forged papyrus that could (! not necessarily) have suggested Jesus had a wife. (That it's much more likely he was gay, given his predilection for hanging out with guys, has been suspected in other quarters.) Nevertheless, this scrap of papyrus was a dream come true for King who had argued the Church's position on women was all wrong.

The story is fascinating. Two amateur Coptic scholars, one an atheist, when they had a chance to look at the fragment, realized the translation and wording was lifted verbatim from the Gospel of Thomas and the translation of the word for "my" most likely had a different meaning anyway. Other professional scholars also revealed doubts although their argument that the grammar was inappropriate for the time period didn't convince me. All you have to do is watch television or listen to conversations on the street and you will quickly realize how perverted colloquial grammar can become. Words like notorious, infamous, and famous have all become synonymous, ruining any former subtleties, not to mention confusion of ran and run, nor the infamous "he gave it to you and I" which sends shivers down my Strunk and White. (If you don't know what Strunk and White is, then you're part of the problem.) Not to mention the total destruction of the past tense by the historical present. End of rant.

Sabar had followed the story from the beginning and it was his article in the Atlantic that reopened the furor. He had taken the time to track down the origin of the fragment and doggedly sleuthed out the seller of the fragment, something King most assuredly should have done.

Along the way, Sabar discusses the history of our attitudes toward marriage and Augustine's obsession with sex as well as the non-canonical Gospels. It all provides very appropriate context. In the end I don't damn King as much as others have in the media. We ALL suffer from confirmation bias and her case is simply confirmation of how powerful it can be. (Puns intended.) ( )

Veritas - A Harvard Professor, A Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife, by Ariel Sabar, an award winning journalist. I really became engaged with the book when I realized how much he was using good genealogical research techniques to discover just who the con man was. Starting with just a few facts, a general place where he lived and a couple of names with specific dates that he used in an attempt to authenticate an ancient papyrus, Sabar made good use of Elizabeth Shown Mills' F.A.N. club. He tracked down minute details of the con man's Friends, Associates, and Neighbors over a period of four years in order to solve the mystery. It takes 35 pages of tiny type to list all of his sources and another five pages for the bibliography. It is a facinating and cautionary tale of how documents of all sorts can be forged and if not detected as such, may have the effect of changing history.