I never seriously considered that Jesus may have been married because it’s not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. But some people argue that’s only because I’ve accepted the interpretations at face value. Besides, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus was single. Could I be wrong?
A small scrap of papyrus that contained the phrase: "Jesus said to them, 'My wife …'" briefly caused a stir because it counters the prevailing view that Jesus was single and celibate. There have been alternate theories, popularized by Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, that Jesus was married but gospel writers hid it for any number of reasons. Those theories haven’t gained much traction because there’s not much evidence to support them.
Could this papyrus be that supporting evidence? First, the scrap only holds eight incomplete sentence fragments. Jesus may go on to introduce his wife or launch into a parable, but we have no way of knowing the context without the rest of the writing. Additionally, the historian who analyzed the papyrus dates it at 300 years after Jesus was alive. The person who wrote it would be many generations removed from any eye witnesses to Jesus. As we noted in the previous post on what books were included in the Bible and why, direct connection to an apostle who was an eye witness to Jesus was an important factor in determining what books were considered reliable and authoritative.
That doesn’t completely preclude the possibility that Jesus may have been married. For instance, the author of the papyrus may have been copying from an older document. Is there any other evidence that Jesus may have been married?
Zach Hunt goes into more depth about whether the authoritativeness of the scrap of papyrus and whether it was likely that Jesus was married in his post Jesus Had a Wife? at The American Jesus. He cites two reasons why it’s likely that Jesus was not married:
- The lack of mention of Jesus’ wife in the gospel accounts: If Jesus had been married, they likely would have been mentioned it in the gospels and, if they had omitted such an important detail, we would have heard about it from others who knew Jesus or knew someone who knew Jesus. After all, the gospels don’t hide Peter’s mother-in-law or marriage.
- Paul’s advice on remaining single: According to Hunt, it’s likely that Paul’s choice to be single and his advice to others to remain unmarried reflected his desire “to live a life as closely resembling Jesus’ life as possible,” including marital status.
Christian Piatt asked “Did Jesus get married and have children?” in a second book in his Banned Questions series – Banned Questions About Jesus. He reprinted the responses on his blog shortly after news of the papyrus fragment came out. You can read them by clicking here. The consensus is that, while it’s hard to make absolute statements about someone who lived 2,000 years ago, there’s little evidence that Jesus ever married or had children. Not only that, but the gospel writers would almost assuredly have included something as important as that in their writings.
Pastor and author John Ortberg, writing last week in the Huffington Post, said that, despite popular conspiracy theories and contentions that the gospel writers tried to cover up Jesus’ marriage to make him appear more divine than human, “the New Testament doesn't present Jesus as a single man to cover up his humanity. It presents him as a single man because ... he was a single man.”
Is this is enough to change the mind of someone who wants to believe Jesus was married and the church is only trying to cover it up? I guess I’ve bought into it. Maybe the bigger question is: Does it really matter whether Jesus was married?
It may have mattered to Paul, who chose a single life and encouraged others to do the same. It may matter to Catholic priests and others who similarly choose a single life to be more like Jesus. But, would it change the foundation of our faith if Jesus was married?
Zach Hunt believes it probably matters little. Indeed, if Jesus had been married, it might have provided an ideal example of marriage. John Ortberg writes “perhaps what matters most in this discussion is the impact Jesus had -- not on one woman -- but on the status of women as a whole.” And that’s the subject of our next post, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, what do you think? Was Jesus married? Does it matter to you? Why or why not? Please click on “Comments” below to share your thoughts and to read what others are saying. Come back often to continue the conversation!
In the very first article I read about this, the day the story broke, Karen King, the Harvard professor who received the scrap with the controversial phrase on it, even said that it didn’t prove anything about Jesus being married. She said that it did offer evidence of early Christian sects’ thinking, which is something she’s very interested in.
ReplyDeleteShe got the scrap from someone who had it for a time, and its origin was uncertain. However, professional scholarship demands that each piece of evidence be thoroughly investigated and vetted, which is what’s happening now. It all seems reasonable to me. However, if it were true, the only difference it would make might be to give credibility to the claims that the information was intentionally suppressed or that the church as an anti-female bias.
I had never thought of the possibility of Jesus having a wife until I read the Da Vinci Code back when I was 17, and since then I haven't given it much thought. I guess it doesn't matter either way to me. However, now that I work in the field I do (Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Intervention), I almost wish that He had been married and that He spoke about His marriage. I mean, what healthy marriage can people look to in the Bible? The OT is full of polygamy and then in the NT some of the verses can be interpreted as seeing the desire to marry as a weakness. I wish there were an example from the NT to follow. Many times men use scripture to manipulate and control their wives. When I have to confront these beliefs at work, I can explain what 'real love' is according to the Bible, but there isn't a concrete example of a healthy marriage. However, I do see many of my Muslim colleagues using Mohammed's marriage as an example, which I think has helped address the issue within their religious community.
ReplyDeleteThanks for those observations because it puts it in a very real context today.
DeleteWhen I hear someone talk about "biblical marriage" I'm usually puzzled for the reasons you mention. The Bible really doesn't provide an idealized example of a healthy marriage as we think of it (even Abraham and Sarah had problems). The OT does have laws/commands on marriage, but it seems to have even more examples that break those laws. I interpret that as showing how God continues to love us and work through us, flaws and all. I've had trouble with Paul's advice on marriage because his main positions seems to be "don't marry" followed by "well, if you can't resist temptation, then you might as well get married." Hardly a ringing endorsement. A lot of what is defined as "biblical marriage" today often reflects the values of that person or community as it does a clear definition from the Bible.
Even though there's no documentation of Jesus being married - at least nothing that made it in the Bible (maybe it's my naivete but I find it hard to believe the gospel writers and early disciples of Jesus would have all kept silent on something like that) - I think there's much we can learn from the way Jesus treated those around him about being in a loving relationship. John Ortberg goes into that in his article (referenced in the post). I'm going to come back to that soon with another question on how women are treated in the Bible.