Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife

by Ariel Sabar

A part of King saw the Wife papyrus—and perhaps had always seen it—much as she had The Da Vinci Code: it was a fiction that advanced a truth. A lie that got people thinking about “the things that really matter.” A tall tale that could be called “true” because its heart was in the right place. In her 2004 interview on MSNBC, King had rhapsodized about “the services” The Da Vinci Code provided. The fictitious thriller showed people “the enormous diversity of early Christianity.” It got people to ask questions about issues—from women’s roles to the basis of church authority—“all being hotly debated in the early church.” Which made me wonder how tolerant King might be of other fakes offering similar “services,” whether by enlarging the audience for her ideas or by raising the profile of Harvard Divinity School—aims not wholly unconnected.