Poetry of the Penitent Heart, by Katherine Cooper, Christianity Today




"History left just enough details about Anne to tantalize us. She was a brave, educated woman who used her skills to create works of influence in the midst of tragedy.

"Anne Vaughan Lock was born to what we might consider an upper middle class family. At first glance, they seem the 16th-century London version of "2.5 kids and a picket fence." A merchant by trade, Stephen Vaughan, Lock's father, recognized the importance of ideas and the power of words. He was interested in the new Lutheran theologies flowing across Europe and soon began lining his shelves with illegal pamphlets and copies of the Scripture smuggled into England from the Continent. In a radical move for the time, Vaughan ensured that both his son and daughters had access to education through a private tutor..."

"...In 1555, Lock's hometown of London was not a safe place for those who refused to conform to the reestablishment of Catholicism. Those refusing to obey Mary I's laws concerning religious expression faced fines, punishments, and even execution by burning. At 23, Lock fled London with two small children, for safety in John Calvin's Genevan community."

~~~~~

"Anne Locke published the first sonnet sequence in English, A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner; it comprises 26 sonnets based on Psalm 51. It was added to a 1560 volume of translations of Calvin's sermons on Hezekiah that she dedicated to the Duchess of Suffolk.[5] Anne's sonnets show that she was influenced by both Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.[6]

[5] It appears in Sermons of John Calvin, vpon the songe that Ezechias made after he had been sicke (1560).
[6] Michael Spiller, Early Modern Sonnetteers: From Wyatt to Milton (2001), pp. 24-27.

Anne Lock at Wikipedia

Final Days of Jesus' Life Explored; Critics Challenged, by David Roach, at Baptist Press










"A moment of particular significance during the Passion Week came at the crucifixion, Kostenberger and Taylor note. Jesus' promise that a repentant thief would be with Him in Paradise, they explain in the book, illustrated salvation by grace through faith.

"'Jesus' acceptance of the man powerfully illustrates the opportunity for forgiveness and eternal life that will soon be proclaimed to all people on the basis of his sacrificial death for sin," the authors note. "The robber has no time or ability to do any good works -- he could not possibly make up for the wrong he had done if that were even possible -- but he does have the strength to believe in Jesus and ask him for salvation. That is all that is needed, and the man's eternal destiny changes decisively from separation from God to spending eternity with Jesus in Paradise.'"

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."