Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdeline after the Resurrection, Alexander Ivanov, 1835 How to Date Jesus' Wife, by Kevin P Emmert, at Christianity Today
So then, this is apparently an ancient fragment of a gnostic text, derived from the Gospel of Philip, which you can read at the Nag Hammadi Collection of The Gnostic Society Library.
The Gospel of Philip
"We asked Nicholas Perrin, Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College, and the author of several books on theGospel of Thomas.
"Do you think this fragment is a legitimate ancient document?
"The consensus is that it is authentic, in the sense of being somewhere between the fifth and the ninth century. That's important and interesting. It likely reflects that an earlier text was copied down.
"Can someone, on the basis of this fragment, say, "A-ha! So now we know Jesus was married"?
"No, that's an illegitimate move. [This document is] so far removed from the first century that this rather reflects the speculations a later sect had about the earthly Jesus.
"In the Coptic, the phrase really says, "Jesus said to them, 'My woman…'" It could mean "woman" in the generic sense, but I think it just means his wife. The word is chime, which in this context, I think, means "wife." And then it goes on to say, "she will be my disciple." To me, this seems most reminiscent of another text dated to the third century AD, called The Gospel of Philip.
"In the Gospel of Philip, there are intimations of Jesus being married, or at least having a partner. The Coptic term is a little ambiguous, at least regarding Mary. It's a mysterious text, but what's going on, to the best of our knowledge, in theGospel of Philip is that Jesus and Mary are reconstituting a kind of mythic primeval androgyny. What the folks behind the Gospel of Philip are saying about Jesus is that he is the new Adam and Mary is the new Eve. And the whole point about redemption is to get male and female together once again (in my interpretation), but this time without sexual intercourse."
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