The Review: Peer Review or Mafia? Jesus' Wife; Pornography; Retraction!

Why hasn't the Harvard Theological Review withdrawn a debunked article? ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( [logo] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? [Please sign up to receive your own copy.]( You’ll support our journalism and ensure that you continue to receive our emails. [Read this newsletter on the web](. Back in 2016, the journalist Ariel Sabar published an [essay]( in The Atlantic, “The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus’s Wife,” debunking a 2014 Harvard Theological Review article by the Harvard Divinity School professor Karen L. King that purported to have discovered an ancient papyrus fragment in which Jesus refers to “my wife.” As Sabar shows, the fragment was a forgery — the work of an eccentric German pornographer. (Sabar, setting out to uncover the provenance of an ancient text about Jesus’s wife, finds instead one Walter Fritz, who “had launched a series of pornographic sites that showcased his wife having sex with other men.”) King acknowledged that she’d been duped. But the Harvard Theological Review has not, to this day, retracted the now thoroughly discredited paper. In his follow-up [article for]( Chronicle Review]( Sabar asks](. I don’t want to give too much away, but the answer seems to involve a species of peer-review malpractice that I personally found quite shocking. It’s like discovering that a famous restaurant has centipedes in the kitchen. Paid for and Created by University of Denver [University of Denver Research Addresses Global Challenges]( Learn how University of Denver faculty and students are collaborating with other institutions, community organizations and state agencies to drive positive innovation, leveraging its diverse portfolio of knowledge leaders to create global solutions. The fact of the matter is that King’s article should never have had a chance of publication, because the appearance of an actually interesting papyrus fragment in pristine isolation from any other material screams “fraud” about as unambiguously as anything can. Noah Feldman, just a few days after the Theological Review article published, [explained why in]( One of the most important questions in determining the authenticity of an ancient artifact that possesses potentially enormous religious or theological significance is why that artifact in particular survived. In antiquity, there were millions of papyri, and the odds that one particular fragment to have survived would be so important are stunningly small. If the fragment came from some large cache of similarly aged yet utterly boring and unimportant documents, that would be some reason to consider it possibly authentic. If it didn’t, that would be prima facie evidence that it was forged. “Almost everything we know,” Feldman wrote, “about the nature of historical evidence points to forgery.” That “everything we know” was so insistently ignored by credentialed experts speaks to a depth of need that is almost touching. The scholars’ resonant wish for meaningful fragments of the Biblical past overrode training, past experience, and common sense; in place of these safeguards was the romance of contact with antiquity and the desire for professional glory. “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( Subscribe to The Chronicle The Chronicle’s award-winning journalism challenges conventional wisdom, holds academic leaders accountable, and empowers you to do your job better — and it’s your support that makes our work possible. [Subscribe Today]( The Latest THE REVIEW [A Scholarly Screw-Up of Biblical Proportions]( By Ariel Sabar [image] Harvard Theological Review offers an exemplary guide on how not to do peer review. ADVERTISEMENT [Advertisement]( THE REVIEW [‘The Culture-War Stuff Just Rots the Brain’]( By Len Gutkin [image] The sociologist Musa al-Gharbi on empire, Islam, and the hypocritical liberalism of Manhattan. THE REVIEW [The UNC Scandal No One Talks About]( By Andy Thomason [image] The Nikole Hannah-Jones case has Black scholars asking if they’re welcome. It’s not the first time. ADVICE [Young, Black, Female, and Moving Into Campus Leadership]( By Rachel N. Bonaparte-Hagos [image] Lessons learned during the transition from faculty member to administrator. 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I’m always hoping to hear from you — write to opinion@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin Paid for and Created by Dipont Education [The Making of a Global Educator]( Since joining Dipont Education and shaping the curriculum at Kunshan American School in China, Carol Santos says her view of what global education entails continues to evolve as she learns more about her students and their needs. Today's Global Campus Strategies for Reviving International Enrollments and Study Abroad Pandemic travel restrictions cut both ways, causing international enrollments to plummet and limiting study-abroad opportunities. This Chronicle report provides an in-depth look at how the global education experience has changed and offers strategies for assessing and adapting programs to ensure students' exposure to cultural and global diversity. [Order your copy today.]( Job Opportunities [Search the Chronicle's jobs database]( to view the latest jobs in higher education. 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