Was Jesus married?
Ever since Dan Brown’s novel, “The DaVinci Code” came out, this question doesn’t seem to go away. Unfortunately for Dan Brown, he relies on very dubious sources for his contention that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. This controversy starts with two Gnostic gospels that were written 100-200 years after Jesus lived. Gnosticism was like a New Age religion that existed in the ancient world. It was able to include any number of beliefs in its system, including the new faith of Christianity. Early defenders of the faith successfully defeated Gnosticism and today it’s almost a non-existent faith. But back in the 2nd-3rd-4th centuries, Gnostics attached their writings to certain followers of Jesus even though they had been dead for centuries. They thought this would give their writings credibility with Christians. So you’ll see documents like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the gospel of Mary, etc.
In the Gospel of Philip 6:33-36, it reads, “…and the companion of the…Mary Magdalene…her more than…the disciples…kiss her…on her…”. Many of the words didn’t survive. That’s why we have an incomplete text and we don’t really know what it means. FYI…in the middle Eastern countries, it is common to kiss each other as a way of saying hello, even today. But Dan Brown puts his own words and meanings in here and says that Jesus kissed Mary on the lips. He then goes on to infer that they were married, even though the Gospel of Philip doesn’t mention this.
In the last few years, there has been a discovery of a credit card sized fragment that scholars have named the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. Its discovery is of dubious origin. Scholars have labeled it a fake for various reasons. Read christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/july-web-only/5-reasons-why-gospel-0f-Jesus-wife-is-fake.html.
It has only 8 lines of partial text. Line 4 says “Jesus said to the…’my wife’…” probably implying Mary Magdalene. This is a 4th century copy but scholars think the original is of 2nd century origin for several reasons. This was a time when many of the false writings about Jesus started circulating.
There are many reasons to doubt that Jesus was married. Here are a few;
– there is no mention of Jesus’ wife during His earthly ministry but there is mention of Peter’s wife (1st Corinthians 9:5 & Matthew 8:14,15) and other apostles wives (1st Corinthians 9:5).
– when Jesus was tried and crucified, there’s no mention of His wife but several other less prominent women are mentioned….at the cross (Matthew 27:55, 56 & Mark 15:40)…at the tomb (Mark 15:47) and at the resurrection (Luke 24:10).
– after His resurrection, there’s no mention of His wife even though He appears to a woman who is not His wife (Mark 16:1).
– Jesus’ family members are mentioned, His mother, brothers & sisters, but no wife is ever mentioned (Mark 6:3).
– there is no indication anywhere that He was widowed.
– Paul defended his right to have a wife (1st Corinthians 9:5). What a great place to mention Jesus was married. It would have cliched his point perfectly. But there’s no mention of it.
– Jesus was married…to the church, the bride of Christ…read Ephesians 5:2-33
As I’ve mentioned before, the Gospel of Philip is a false Gnostic gospel. Read more about this at www.michaeljkruger.com under “Was Jesus married”. This is a good article.
Another good website is at www.pathos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/was-Jesus-married-a-careful-look-at-the-real-evidence/ This article doesn’t mention the Gospel of Jesus’ wife.
https://answersingenesis.org/jesus-christ/was-jesus-married This article does mention the Gospel of Jesus’ wife.
No reputable biblical scholar believes that Jesus was married.
One other thing…a few years ago, a man claimed that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and at the time of His Crucifixion, Mary was pregnant with their child. He said the proof was in the National French Library. He was right but officials couldn’t figure out how his bogus material got into the library. In his material, he said that the good old boy’s club, that we know as the apostles, pushed Mary out of her position as the head of the church. So she took her daughter and lived in southern France. He then traced her lineage to the Merovingian kings of France. Then he traced their lineage to…guess who? That’s right, to him. His claim was that he was the rightful heir to the throne of France, even though the Merovingians hadn’t ruled France in hundreds of years and there had been many other kings of France not of the Merovingian line. Nobody believed him. He had also been convicted of scamming people in the past. When one of his friends was on trial, he was called as a witness in defense of his friend. While he was under oath, the judge knew who he was and decided to ask him about his claim of Jesus being married and him being an heir to the French throne. Under oath, he denied these claims. This was one of Dan Brown’s main sources. So much for accuracy
I hope this ends the controversy about Jesus being married, but I doubt it will.
For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
https://BSSSB-LLC.com