In September 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen L. King published a fourth-century Coptic papyrus fragment in which Jesus refers to someone (probably Mary Magdalene) as "My wife" and mentions that "she will be able to be my disciple." The document is a copy of a late second-century manuscript. This link takes you to the HDS press release, which provides a summary of the discovery and access to a draft article that Dr. King will soon publish in Harvard Theological Review.
Dr. King introduced the manuscript in the following video from the Harvard Divinity School:
The Smithsonian Channel made plans with Dr. King to air a special TV program on the manuscript. In this trailer, Dr. King explains why this document is so unique.
However, scholars began to voice concerns about the authenticity of the manuscript, and the Smithsonian Channel pulled the plug. The Harvard Theological Review continued with its plan to publish Dr. King's analysis of the manuscript, but delayed publication until the editors could secure a host of other scholars to help evaluate the authenticity of the piece. Their articles, and those of others, are listed in the bibliography below.
Yardley, James T. and Alexis Hagadorn. "Characterization of the Chemical Nature of the Black Ink in the Manuscript of The Gospel of Jesus's Wife through Micro-Raman Spectroscopy." Harvard Theological Review 107:2 (2014) 162-64. Online, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9226243, accessed 10 April 2014.
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Images, Interpretations, and Traditions." In Interpreting Tradition: The Art of Theological Reflection (ed. J. Kopas; Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984) 109-121.
Bovon, François. "Mary Magdalene in the Acts of Philip." In Which Mary? The Marys of Early Christian Tradition (ed. F. Stanley Jones; SBL Symposium Series 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 75-89.
Brock, Ann Graham. Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Brock, Ann Graham. "Setting the Record Straight—The Politics of Identification: Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother in Pistis Sophia." In Which Mary? The Marys of Early Christian Tradition (ed. F. Stanley Jones; SBL Symposium Series 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 43-52.
Dillenberger, Jane. "The Magdalene." In Women, Religion, and Social Change (ed. Y. Y. Haddad and E. B. Findley; Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 1985) 115-45.
Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
King, Karen L. "Why All the Controversy? Mary in the Gospel of Mary." In Which Mary? The Marys of Early Christian Tradition (ed. F. Stanley Jones; SBL Symposium Series 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 53-74.
Malvern, Marjore M. Venus in Sackcloth: The Magdalen's Origins and Metamorphoses. Carbondale,
Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975.
Marjanen, Antti. "The Mother of Jesus or the Magdalene? The Identity of Mary in the So-Called Gnostic Christian Texts." In Which Mary? The Marys of Early Christian Tradition (ed. F. Stanley Jones; SBL Symposium Series 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 31-41.
Meier, John P. "In the Interim... Part II: Family, Marital Status, and Status as a Layman: 2. Was Jesus Married?" InA Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 1, The Roots of the Problem and the Person (New York: Doubleay, 1991) 332-45, 363-70.
Pearson, Birger A. "Did Jesus Marry?" Bible Review 21:2 (Spring 2005) 32-39, 47.
Penn, Michael. "Performing Family: Ritual Kissing and hte Construction of Early Christian Kinship." Journal of Early Christian Studies 10:2 (2002) 151-74.
Saxer, Victor. "Les saintes Marie-Madaleine et Marie de Bethanie dans la tradition liturgique et homiletique
orientale." Revue des Sciences Religieuses 32 (1958) 1-37.
Schaberg, Jane. The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha and the Christian Testament. New York: Continuum, 2002.
Shoemaker, Stephen J. "A Case of Mistaken Identity? Naming the Gnostic Mary." In Which Mary? The Marys of Early Christian Tradition (ed. F. Stanley Jones; SBL Symposium Series 20; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) 5-30.
--------. "Rethinking the 'Gnostic Mary': Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition." Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 555-95.
