Veritas, Ariel Sabar

"In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star professor at the Harvard Divinity School, announced a blockbuster discovery at a scholarly conference just steps from the Vatican: She had found an ancient fragment of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The discovery made front-page news around the world - if early Christians believed that Jesus was married, it would threaten not just the celibate, all-male priesthood, but the entire the 2,000-year history of the faith. Biblical scholars were in an uproar, but King had impeccable credentials as a world-renowned authority on female figures in the Gnostic gospels. The "Gospel of Jesus''s Wife," as she titled her discovery, was both a crowning career achievement and powerful proof for her arguments that there were alternative, and much more inclusive, versions of Christianity from its beginnings. Assigned to write a story about King''s find, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar began to unearth disquieting questions about the papyrus. His globe-spanning invest