Mechanism of Mystification and Demystification at the Point of Contact between the Humanities and Science : Case Study of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

Abstract

The case of the so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife lays bare all the problems of research on early Christian manuscripts. We have here a manuscript of unknown provenance, a private collector wishing to protect his anonymity, an academic institution hungry for media interest, and, last but not least, the ideological bias of a scholar. In the end, the manuscript proved to be a modern forgery. However, we know this without any serious doubt not thanks to laboratory analyses and more traditional paleographic or historical studies. The issue was not resolved until a professional journalist conducted a journalistic investigation. If this method of verification of manuscript authenticity joins the others, it would be an undisputable benefit of this whole four-year-long saga.