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

From National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Ariel Sabar, the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard.

In 2012, a Harvard religion professor named Karen King made a breathtaking announcement just steps from the Vatican: she had uncovered an ancient scrap of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene "my wife." The manuscript's eight mysterious lines, which King provocatively titled "The Gospel of Jesus's Wife," had the power to topple the Church--overturning centuries of sacred teachings on marriage, sex and women's leadership, and casting doubt on the hallowed tradition of a celibate Jesus. Bible scholars were in an uproar over the authenticity of this extraordinary scripture, but King, invoking her source's request for anonymity, refused to reveal where it came from. Striking out in search of its provenance, award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar found himself on the trail of a Florida man with an unbelievable past. Could an internet pornographer with a bogus Egyptology degree and a prophetess wife have staged one of the greatest hoaxes of the century? An exhilarating, propulsive and globe-straddling detective story, Veritas is a trapdoor-filled tale about an obscure con artist and a renowned Harvard historian--and how they worked together to pass off an audacious forgery as a long-lost piece of the Bible.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 06/29/2021
ISBN: 9780525433897
Pages: 432
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.19w x 0.84d