[Darris McNeely] Was Jesus Christ married? Did he have a wife and a physical relationship? Once again these questions have arisen because there's been discovered and verified a very small piece of the fragment of papyrus from the 4th Century that raises a question in some scholars' minds as to whether or not they were talking about Jesus Christ having a wife. In fact, the size of the fragment that has been found and verified from the 4th Century was about the size of a business card, very, very small with just a few lines of text on it. And one of the lines makes this statement that, "Jesus said to them, to His disciples, that is Jesus said to them, 'My wife.'" Now from this, the extrapolation is made that it's talking about Jesus having a wife. Now that's not exactly what it is saying because there's not enough information there and the scholars who've studied this all pretty much agree that it's not really being taught, but it raises the question and put's out the headline, Was Jesus Married?, and that in itself is probably the biggest headline and issue that's behind this story.

[Steve Myers] Right and it goes against everything that would be in the New Testament when it comes to the life of Christ. It goes against the entire documentation of the text from the New Testament. And so when you look at what's there, there's more documentation of New Testament texts than there are of any other document, any other book, any other information in that era. And so it would undermine all of that. And of course that's the size of a business card verses the thousands of documents that are verified of the New Testament.

[Darris McNeely] And of course none of those documents mention Jesus Christ having a wife. And of course they make up then what we call the New Testament, the gospels, the Epistles of Paul. Again no reference whatsoever of Jesus having a married relationship. He came from a family. He had brothers, and a mother, but not a wife there in that story whatsoever. So this 4th Century find about what 300 years beyond the time of the actual life, the firsthand accounts of Christ, the difference in verifying that credibility is just not there.

[Steve Myers] So if you can imagine us going back 300 years we better be careful you know when these kinds of things are touted because really it's something that could undermine some peoples' faith. And it's not a new thing, we've seen this type of thing talked about, it's been written about - the Da Vinci Code you know postulates some of these kinds of things, but it's just not factual.

[Darris McNeely] Yeah, do your homework, do your study on the subject, understand also that the biggest issue behind such headlines as this is really an attack upon the credibility of the Bible, upon the divinity of Jesus Christ, the fact that He is the Son of God, that He died and was resurrected for our sins and He lives today, and that the story of the Bible and the Scriptures is true. That's what is really the subtext of this particular issue whenever it arises like this. Keep that in mind. Do your homework. Do your research and don't be taken in by some of these stories.

[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.