Hi °C | Lo °C At the International Congress of Coptic Studies in Rome, Professor Karen L King, a historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, made public a scrap of papyrus she claims was written in Coptic in the fourth century.
It appears to contain phrases about the life of Jesus which contradict the narrative in modern day Christian scripture.
The papyrus fragment purportedly has Jesus referring to his wife and how "she will be able to be my disciple".
Many books and letters contemporary to biblical texts were removed from, or left out of, what we now know as the Christian Bible.
Different Christian denominations dispute the canonical status of the various texts.
Instead of having our eyes wiped down the centuries by religious hierarchies with axes to grind, maybe we have reached a state where we can come to our own conclusions about these texts - without being made to feel it's a heresy to consider unsanctioned texts.
LOUIS SHAWCROSS
Hillsborough, Co Down
