Jesus Part 4. He Got Married?

Even less is known about the years of adulthood between age 19 and 30 for Jesus than His childhood. Almost nothing is known of the childhood of Jesus. No one around Jesus during His childhood, teenaged and young adult years, and adult years until about age thirty apparently thought anything remarkable about Him. Which implies that He was a pretty typical Jewish boy, pre-adult, and adult of His times. There was a period of approximately forty years when boyhood friends and many relatives of Jesus could have been easily found, interviewed, and good written records could have been made. Why did this not happen?

My answer is that here we are seeing the result of the reverse of embellishment: deliberate obfuscation. This is a fancy way of saying hiding the truth. Instead of using the point of the pencil to create some fanciful answer, instead the eraser end was used to eliminate the story. The Rejected Gospels may be the answer here.

Why do this? Simple. The desire to eliminate anything that might be seen as lessening the “Godliness” of Jesus. Remember the argument about the “Godliness” of Jesus, Arianism, was not settled doctrine until the time of the Nicene Creed, after AD 310. This “compromise” wasn’t a compromise, but a forced political move by the Emperor Constantine. Constantine had a rather stiff political attitude: do it my way or die.

Which brings us back to “pretty typical Jewish adult of His times”. After going through the Hebrew rite of passage, called bar Mitzvah at about age 13, Jesus would have been considered “an adult”. There are two major things to consider: beards and sexual relations. One of the symbols of adulthood for the time was the growth of a beard. All who aspired to leadership had to either be clean shaven, or sport a full beard. It was a part of the patronymical and cultural ethos of the time.

The exceptions to beards were: warriors following Alexander the Great’s prescription of beards for fighting men. Those with great wealth exhibiting that wealth by conspicuous consumption. That is having of going through the then laborious, time consuming and expensive effort on a regular basis to be clean shaven. The third group was those who wanted to emphasize their youth, strength, fighting ability, and virility. Ever notice that the Roman Emperors were nearly always depicted as beardless, especially on the coins of the day. Vanity, pure vanity. Poor men wore beards.

Next we need to consider the relationship of Jesus to women. Today it is fairly well known and understood that the early church did it’s level best to erase any hint of Jesus having any contact with women of a sexual nature.

This attitude was cast in cement by the Fourth Century, by which time the Rejected Gospel of Mary was well hidden. The Gospel of Mary indicated that Mary was fiercely independent; an apostle of Jesus - possibly His lover, possibly His wife, definitely a visionary. She claimed to be first among the apostles. That alone was enough to earn her the reward of being wiped from history.

As for the hints about kissing and sex, that especially had to go. Jesus could not have been contaminated by “unclean” women. Women menstruated on a monthly cycle. This was all a part of the Gnostic attitudes of the time where anything of the physical world was thought to be evil.

Which again brings us back to “pretty typical Jewish adult of His times”. At that time a typical man would have commonly been married by about age 16, or less. This was the cultural norm. Anyone outside of this norm would not have been well thought of. The extremely male dominated culture demanded certain behaviors. Among these was cohabitation with women. Also that culture, unlike our own, understood that it was the easiest way to contain the raging hormones of teenage males. Get that kid married!

Rumors have existed for two thousand years that Jesus was married, possibly even had several children, before the beginning of His ministry. Jesus, if He was to aspire to any leadership role, or one that would require any level of respect, would have been a part of the cultural norm for His time.

Which brings us to His ministry. Since nothing is said about His wife and children, are we to assume that He abandoned them? What kind of person would abandon His wife and children? A driven one. A person suddenly seized by God. One with little choice. This violated God’s own gift of free will. Or, the children could have been left with relatives, and Mary went with Him on His travels? What was His mission? The reformation of the Hebrew religion. Only leaders can lead a reformation.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace completed an MA and taught in the public schools for 28 years. He recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, the layers of money sucking priesthood, and their departures from the fundamental ideas and messages of Religion. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will outrage everyone. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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