Veritas

May 15, 2020
Intriguing religious/true-crime story involving a possible wife of Jesus. News outlets came alive in 2012 when Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced the discovery of a papyrus fragment suggesting that Jesus may have had a wife. The fragment, soon dubbed "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife," stirred interest as well as controversy, as scholars across the world warned it may be a fraud. King, who had obtained the fragment from a mysterious and anonymous collector, doggedly defended the ancient piece of papyrus even as the evidence of its authenticity grew weaker. Journalist Sabar--whose book My Father's Paradise (2009) won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography--happened to be following the story from the beginning, and he shares a sometimes-riveting, occasionally odd tale of academia gone awry. Though the author goes to great pains to portray King in a positive, compassionate light, a central reality emerges: The professor's excitement over the social impact of the fragment blurred her sense of what was historically accurate. After introducing King biographically as a brilliant and respected scholar, "a dazzling interpreter of condemned scripture," Sabar moves on to the story of how King came across the fragment and decided it was most likely legitimate. Her debut of the fragment at a conference in Rome led to a storm of media attention. Over time, however, other scholars began to see signs of forgery in the way the document had been created, and the media tide turned against King. The sordid source of the fragment--a former student of ancient languages-turned-pornographer--overshadowed King's hopes that what it represented for women in the church was worth believing in, above the papyrus' actual authenticity. "Her ideological commitments," Sabar concludes, "were choreographing her practice of history. The story came first; the dates managed after." A lengthy yet fascinating tale of how one scholar was duped, both by a con man and by herself.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
In 2012, a papyrus fragment in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene his wife made headlines worldwide. Karen King, a Harvard expert on Gnosticism, introduced and championed the piece as an alternative look into Christianity's beginnings, but she didn't practice proper due diligence as to its provenance. There was pushback at the time, and, after several years of examination, even King acknowledged that the so-called Gospel of Jesus's Wife was probably fake. Sabar, an award-winning journalist, was there at the beginning; unable to let the story go, he's produced an exhaustive examination of the whole affair in a work of exemplary narrative nonfiction. Fitting neatly into the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category, the story hops from Berlin to Rome to Nowheresville, Florida, and finally to Harvard Yard, introducing in the process con-man Walter Fritz, both an internet pornographer and a forger of ancient texts. Sabar details his time with Fritz, trying to cut through the man's many obfuscations, but the real focus is on King. Sabar makes the case that King's determination to validate women's role in early Christianity led her to cut corners while pushing her Gospel. But Sabar also seems to have an agenda, often going out of his way to throw shade at King. (A note reveals she wouldn't speak to him for this book.) Provocative and probing, this will entice readers interested in the history of early Christianity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

July 6, 2020
In this entertaining outing, journalist Sabar (My Father’s Paradise) tells the story of a mysterious scrap of papyrus and the scholar who staked her professional reputation on it. As a writer for Smithsonian magazine, Sabar investigated the story of Harvard professor Karen King and her so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, supposedly discovered in 2012, which quoted Jesus as calling Mary Magdalene “my wife.” If it was in fact an authentic document, it would have unsettled conversations about Jesus’s life, ministry, and relationships. King’s fall comes after carbon dating established the papyrus to be of medieval origin and an article of Sabar’s forced King to retract her claims of authenticity for the “gospel.” In the second half of the book, Sabar allows himself to emerge as a character in his own right—the hero who ferrets out fraudster Walter Fritz, who fabricated documents of authenticity for the papyrus fragment and had fooled some of the brightest minds in biblical studies. Sabar’s narrative can be challenging to follow at times, in part because of the large cast that spans centuries, and also due to a frustrating aimlessness about exactly what mystery Sabar sees as central to his narrative: how the fraud happened, or the reasons—political, financial, and psychological—people were carried away by it. Still, this meticulous account is packed with enough intrigue to keep readers piqued.

July 1, 2020

Journalist Sabar (My Father's Paradise) has written a true story of mystery and intrigue. In 2012, Karen King, professor at Harvard Divinity School, announced that she learned of an ancient papyrus fragment in which Jesus referred to Mary Magdalene as his wife; this discovery challenged conventional wisdom about not only the life of Jesus but also biblical teachings in general. Sabar wrote an article on the announcement yet felt there was more to the story. His research led him around the world before he discovered the true nature of this fabricated document. Blending religious history with a tale of deception, this account also describes the work and research of King and explores how she, despite impressive credentials as a biblical scholar, believed a contrived manuscript was a historical document. Sabar continues by examining the motives of all involved, and detailing his ongoing search for the truth. VERDICT This is a well-researched, engrossing backstory of failed discovery from a noted scholar. Best suited for readers interested in biblical studies and papyrology.--Jacqueline Parascandola, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.