New Coptic Gospel Papyrus -- Updated

Here's a link to an announcement on September 18th by Prof Karen King in Rome at a Coptic congress of the discovery of a 4th Century Coptic Gospel papyrus fragment. The link shows the text and the transcription with a translation but a better one with magnification is here. The fragment seems to indicate that some early Christians thought that Jesus had a wife (just as some thought he did not). Episcopal Cafe has just posted some initial thoughts on the text written last night. Provisional translation here

(square brackets indicate plausible conjectures):

1. not [to] me. My mother gave me li[fe
2. the disciples said to Jesus [
3. deny. Mariam is worthy of it [
4. …..Jesus said to them, 'My wife [and...
5. …..she will be able to be my disciple [
6. Let wicked people swell up [
7. As for me, I exist with her because [
8. ] an image [

Update: appropriate scholarly skepticism.