The Huffington Post is persisting in cluttering up my facebook newsfeed with tidbits designed to tantalize people into tearing out their hair over the marital status of Jesus.

I am finding it difficult to get as over-excited as they would seem to like: haven’t we been here before? Still, I am sufficiently engaged to give some sort of an inexpert opinion as to the significance of what has happened this past week with the introduction of a “new” piece of papyrus which appears to give credence to the idea that Jesus was a married man.

To recap: on Tuesday, a Harvard Divinity School professor, Karen King, introduced the world to a fragment of papyrus dating from the early few centuries following the life of Jesus which contained the words, “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

(http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/18/living/fragment-suggests-jesus-was-married/index.html?iref=allsearch)

It’s worth noting that she, in the same presentation, argued that this does…