The world recently ignited a scandalous conversation about Jesus. Was Jesus possibly married? A newly discovered manuscript seemed to suggest the Son of God was also a hubby. New Testament scholar Dan Wallace did a great job in this post walking through the early details of the new manuscript discovery.
The world pondered the reality of a scandalous Jesus for about two weeks. It now appears the manuscript was a fake. There is enough doubt about its authenticity that Harvard Theological Review decided a few days ago to not even publish the findings of the manuscript.
Why am I now wasting my time writing about a has-been story? The scandal is over. All the news networks have moved on looking for the next big thing. Well, I refuse to budge. I don’t want to leave the scandal.
When I first heard the “Jesus was married” scandal on the news I sat close to my television hanging on every one of Diane Sawyer’s words. Biblical archaeology fascinates me so I was all ears trying to soak up every scandalous detail. She finished delivering the facts she knew up to that time and I sat back and thought, “So, that’s it?” I was disappointed at the news. I was disappointed Diane Sawyer was so eager to communicate this scandalous story.
I think they could have done better. The realities of Jesus are far more scandalous than the rumors about Jesus. The Hypostatic Union is the scandalous news story of the cosmos. The second person of the Trinity, the God of the Universe, became a man. A man with bowel movements. That’s scandalous. He didn’t just become a man, however, he continued being fully God. In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9). An elephant becomes an ant while fully remaining an elephant. Scandalous.
The scandal continues. Jesus will forever be God and man. He is and always will be the only God-man. And guess what? He did this for us! He did this for you. He did this for me. He took on all the humble traits of flesh because we possess those traits. He became us, represents us, because He’s here for us. He is God in order to fix what needs to be fixed, He is man to pay what needs to be paid. Can anyone stand up and yell scandalous! Can anyone alert the news to this scandal?
I could spend many more paragraphs laying one orthodox scandal of Jesus on top of another orthodox scandal. Nearly every page of the New Testament could be the headline scandal across every major news outlet…if we have ears to hear reality.
Was Jesus married? The vast majority of evidence says no. I suggest to you, however, that it really doesn’t matter. If Jesus was married would it violate the Hypostatic Union? No, not at all. If Jesus was married would He instantly stop being the scandalous God-man Savior of the world? No. There is no christological doctrine which rises or falls on his singleness.
The New Testament revelation of the living Jesus who: comes for us, lives for us, dies for us, rises for us, saves us, changes us, loves us, and is coming back for us is the ultimate scandal. He is the true continuous scandal worth proclaiming. Embrace the scandal.
7 replies to "Was Jesus Married?"
We shouldn’t be surprised when we hear stuff like this; on the other hand, expect more to come. So many out there are trying to proof Jesus was a myth, however if we are truly redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we have this simple FAITH that nothing shall move us, alarm us or cause us in any way to doubt.
He was married, and is married…to us, the Church.
The ungodly, to whom He has so lovingly given Himself on the cross.
Amen Steve!
Every time I see a story like this, I just scan to the bottom of the article and it’s always there, near the credits. 2nd to 3rd century, Coptic Egypt. The conspiracy people will never arrive at the conclusion that gnostic garbage is not a primary source. Its sad that they would instantly believe a single scrap of parchment found in a desert but they don’t 66 books written by many authors over a period of thousands of years telling them the same message of Gods love, and plan of redemption in Jesus Christ over and over again.
Steve Martin: Love ya, Man!
We could not be the “Bride of Christ” if He were betrothed to another. Not just metaphor, dude!
To be avoided is the Medieval tangent regarding the so-called divine blood line of Jesus (from which some self-righteous rulers seemed to spring), which opens a whole family-sized can of theological worms.
I doubt that Jesus regarded bodily functions as scandalous, referring to the discourse about your eye being filled with light. All thing are pure to the pure in heart.
[…] related news, John Byron shared a video of Simon Gathercole talking about apocryphal Gospels, and Tim Kimberley asks if Jesus was married. In almost but not entirely unrelated news, IO9 has a piece about the top choice for a Halloween […]
” It now appears the manuscript was a fake.” Seems certain at this point. But the key point that many Christians have missed is that it does not matter whether this ‘fragment’ is a fraud or just a piece of 4th century Gnostic false teaching. Either way it is heresy.
And that so many Christians say that it does not matter paints a disturbing picture of how far we have fallen.
http://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/the-jesus-wife-heresy/
Part of the Gospel is that Jesus fulfilled all the scriptures about Messiah, who He is. more than one witness in Scriptures tells that he will be “cut off”, or executed, before we could count His generations, etc. This tells us that He would not have offspring in the usual way. So, it follows logically that He would not be married, either. His offspring will be children of faith, not of flesh.