The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: Textuality, Sexuality, and the Latest Controversy in Religion

Wednesday, December 5 at 7:00pm
Vereschagin Alumni House 1022 Dave Brubeck Way, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95204, USA

Dan Brown’s 2008 novel “The Da Vinci Code” had a controversial premise – that Christian savior Jesus married and had children. The fictional book sold more than 80 million copies and was turned into a hit movie. It also was widely condemned by many religious institutions.

Two months ago the issue of Jesus’ marital status was raised again. A researcher from Harvard announced she had identified and translated a piece of papyrus with Coptic writing that suggests Jesus had a wife.

When that announcement was made at a scholarly conference in Rome, University of the Pacific early Christianity Professor Caroline Schroeder just happened to be there. And she also happens to read Coptic.

Schroeder will be joined by professor George Randels and Anthony Le Donne as well as Pacific chaplain Joel Lohr to discuss the Harvard announcement, the controversy surrounding the writing on the papyrus, and the opinions about speculation of a Mrs. Jesus. The discussion, titled “The Gospel of Jesus' Wife: Textuality, Sexuality, and the Latest Controversy in Religion,” will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 in the Vereschagin Alumni House on Pacific’s Stockton campus. The event is free and open to the public.

“The announcement made international news, but also was quickly denounced by many scholars, some who claim the papyrus was a forgery, or at least not a fourth century document,” Schroeder said. “Meanwhile, other scholars have argued that the text, even if authentic, tells us nothing about Jesus himself and only about the beliefs of Christians living in the second through fourth centuries. So this should be a lively discussion.”

Schroeder and Randels are professors in Pacific’s Department of Religious and Classical Studies, where Le Donne is also a visiting scholar and professor this semester. Schroeder and Le Donne have penned articles and books on early Christianity while Randels has written on theological ethics. University Multifaith Chaplain Joel Lohr, who has written books and articles on the Bible and theology, will act as moderator for the panel.

The controversy about Jesus’ Wife started in September. Harvard professor Karen King revealed simultaneously at a scholarly conference in Rome and in interviews with the New York Times and other news outlets that she identified a new papyrus fragment containing the earliest known statement saying that Jesus was married. Since this discovery was announced, some scholars and religious leaders have denounced the so-called "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" as a likely modern forgery, with some claiming there are hints the handwriting reflected modern techniques not available when the words were penned.

Schroeder said that some of the topics the panel will attempt to approach include:

• What is the Gospel of Jesus' Wife?
• What does a fourth-century reference to Jesus and his wife mean about early Christianity?
• Is this papyrus a forgery, and if so, why would someone forge an ancient manuscript?
• Could Jesus have been married?
• Why does a text suggesting that Jesus might have had a wife cause so much controversy?
• What does it mean to sexualize Jesus?

The event is sponsored by Pacific’s Department of Religious and Classical Studies, the Pacific Alumni Association, the Humanities Center, Women's Resource Center at Pacific, Religious and Spiritual Life at Pacific, and Phi Beta Kappa.

What will council's seat change mean for the Delta?

By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer

November 18, 2012 12:00 AM
STOCKTON - Just before the election, the Stockton City Council endured a two-hour presentation on a damnably complex subject: the Delta.

Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to build twin tunnels and siphon off Delta water had reached a "critical juncture," council members were told; they needed a crash course right away.

A week later, three council members, including Mayor Ann Johnston, were voted out of office. A fourth, Susan Eggman, will move on to the state Assembly.

Most of the council members who had in-depth knowledge of the Delta - the acronyms, the power players, the bureaucracy - will soon be gone.

What then?

"Believe me, I'm a little nervous about it," said Vice Mayor Kathy Miller, the lone remaining council member with in-depth involvement in the Delta. "The lack of institutional knowledge now in certain areas on the council - it's not that I think it's insurmountable, but it is an area of concern."

The city had been mostly silent on the subject of the Delta before Johnston elevated it to a major priority the past year.

At first, her concern was not so much with the proposed tunnels, but with other elements of the plan that officials worried would hinder Stockton's future growth.

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What we rarely notice is the foundation of our Freedom

What we rarely notice is the foundation of our Freedom

I am a 27 year old conservative that knows AMERICA is on the hook, and we the people are solely responsible for everything our Government does. An example would be them spending Trillions that does not exist! All the while, luring us in, then demand that we need to pay more!!!

All of the Politicians use these three keys to keeping us uninformed:

- never mention the revenue
- leave a majority of statements open-ended
- Say Something Stupid, while smiling!

Why is it that they haven't tried to help give us taxpayer's a break? If we want to take our Country back, we must first, END THE FED!!

Nearly half of this country is on Government Aid, sucking down our resources without ever paying a dime! They get free health care, ours goes up!!! They want an equal opportunity because they didn't attend or graduate from a University.

We should let them live life broke, and give them free food, thats it. No public Housing, No Cell phones, Internet, tuition, and all the other handouts the government will hand to them!

We need to put a stop to this monetary madness going on in Washington D.C !



That's what a conservative does, cuts unnecessary spending! I had to turn off my cell, my Directv, give up two cars, still paying on both, had to buy another one to go to work, gas went up to $5.69/gal. I have since lost everything but my home, and my family, everything else is unnecessary.

Mitt Romney: $2 Billion on Campaign
Barack Obama: $4 Billion on Campaign

FREEDOM: Priceless,

Some things money can't buy, but for everything else there's the FEDERAL RESERVE

The total cost of the election is close to $6 Billion, how much of that is for schools?....0
Or, feeding the poor?....0
So tell me that you really believe that the government has your best interest at heart? Even though they have never met you? We are the government, so why do we not have access to the same money they get to spend? Or do we??

STOCKTON MAYOR STATES HER FAILURE

Mayor Of Bankrupt California City Explains Where She Failed

Charles' Murray's Losing Ground was that most incentives in life are negative, in that if you don't do X you will starve or freeze or whatever. Thus, you learn to be thrifty, nice, and hard working to simply get by.
The most common complaint by businesses as to why they fail is that their banker stopped lending or seized their collateral; if they just had more time things would have turned around.


Read more: Click Here

Looking at the 2012 November 6th Ballot, and what it all means

By Greg Pitsch

As I glanced over this years Ballot, I was noticing the ambiguous language in the case of the new measures for voters to either approve or deny. Based solely on the wording, I advise you to pay attention to what they are saying, not what they are promising. What gets me frustrated is the fact that we are being toyed with by both the Democratic and Republican parties, they have wedged themselves between us (the people) and our tax revenue.

Most people don't understand what the measures, and propositions are for, to be frank, the propositions are giving us options on how "we the people," would like to spend our tax revenues for the next decade or so. What if we always voted no on all propositions? If the American people were smart enough to drop all propositions on every ballot for the last 20 years, we would actually be getting a huge dollar return.

Because the millions and sometimes billions of our taxpayer dollars would be evenly distributed among the tax-payers. This money is OURS, but these politicians jump in front of it and start fighting over how much goes to what causes, and what countries they want to give aid to. When have they ever had the courtesy to ask us what we would like to spend OUR money on? Never! Or if we would like to keep this years tax revenue, and divide it equally, since we are all feeling this down economy? Not Once!

The United States gives up roughly $53 Billion to foreign Aid, to help encourage democracy around the world. Yet the United States itself is a Republic, not a democracy! This is similar to our $650 Stimulus check we received back in 2007. If we take our entire budget and factor out all the unnecessary items being funded, and divide this amount equally among this countries tax-payers, we would probably not see the current financial crisis, nor anything close to what we are facing today!

OUR money is stolen from us, to first pay the theives, then divided up with the rest of the world, all while we suffer. This solely is the reasoning behind my ideology, on why we should always vote NO, on all measures and propositions.

Prop 30. TEMPORARY TAXES TO FUND EDUCATION. GUARANTEED LOCAL PUBLIC SAFETY FUNDING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Increases taxes on earnings over $250,000 for seven years and sales taxes by 1/4 for four years, to fund schools. Guarantees public safety realignment funding. Fiscal Impact: Increased state tax revenues through 2018-19, averaging about $6 billion annually over the next few years. Revenues available for funding state budget. In 2012-13, planned spending reductions, primarily to education programs, would not occur.

Summary: The tax on the rich will not go to fund schools, however the 1/4 raise in everybody's taxes will go to fund schools. (Isn't that what we spend the states lottery winnings on?) They will more than likely use a majority of the money for Re-drawing the boundary between city police, and county sheriff's patrol jurisdiction. That's also the extent of the funds going towards assisting public safety, actually this is the laws only guaratee. It does state that some of this is to cover the deficit of the 2012-13 state budget, if that seems at all acceptable to you, go for it, however I'm going to have to oppose this Initiative.

No on Prop. 30