# If Jesus had a wife, would that change anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 20, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337 "2012-09-20T23:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/101 "2014-04-14T01:57:14Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > As a side note, could you explain your :mad: smiley on the prospect of his becoming PM? It’s what you must suspect. Modi is portrayed in Western media as as divisive Hindu nationalist. He was banned from traveling to the UK for many years, and [still is banned from the US due to “severe violations of religious freedom.”](http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2014/02/25/time-end-narendra-modis-travel-ban-united-states/) I’m somewhat open to being convinced this is all unfair, and I do think it should be reversed if he becomes PM. But it doesn’t look good to me. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/102 "2014-04-14T02:54:58Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > It’s what you must suspect. > > Modi is portrayed in Western media as as divisive Hindu nationalist. He was banned from traveling to the UK for many years, and [still is banned from the US due to “severe violations of religious freedom.”](https://boards.straightdope.com/2014/02/25/time-end-narendra-modis-travel-ban-united-states/) I’m somewhat open to being convinced this is all unfair, and I do think it should be reversed if he becomes PM. But it doesn’t look good to me. Modi is portrayed wrongly. There is a definite anti Modi slant among certain sections of Indian intelligentsia, but to a neutral observer it doesn’t make sense. Not only has his complicity in the riots never been established, an Indian supreme court special investigation team recently concluded > [@](#): > > The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, to probe the 2002 Gujarat riots has concluded in its 541-page closure report that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi took all possible steps to control the 2002 post-Godhra riots [http://ibnlive.in.com/news/how-sit-report-on-gujarat-riots-exonerates-modi-the-highlights/256848-3.html](http://ibnlive.in.com/news/how-sit-report-on-gujarat-riots-exonerates-modi-the-highlights/256848-3.html) There’s a detailed list of steps taken by his government to quell the riots compiled by a Delhi academic here - [http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1688&ptype=&pgno=2#.U0tI2lVdXa5](http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1688&ptype=&pgno=2#.U0tI2lVdXa5) I have myself seen a number of public statements made by Modi at the time to maintain peace, here’s one with English subtitles [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4CiuBBKJ30Q/hqdefault.jpg "Narendra Modi speech after Godhra incident 2002 - the so called 'Riot period' -must see") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CiuBBKJ30Q) I have seen a number of statements by him in interviews that maintain that riots and violence are a stain on civilised society and should not happen at any cost. I can link to them if you’re interested. His entire campaign to be PM, and his governance for the last 12 years in Gujarat has focused on development, not on being ‘divisive’. He rejects claims of being a religious nationalist, independently accepting both apellations, in that he is religious, and he is a nationalist, but he puts the country’s development before all else. He has gone to the extent of making the statement that ‘toilets are more important than temples’, which is not one I would expect from someone who gives primacy to religion. As for the bans placed on him by foreign countries, the UK and Europe have recently reversed their ‘bans’, and the US ambassador too went to meet him last month. This is probably motivated by political expedience though. Not that the ban was made through any considered investigation either. Read this article if you’re interested in seeing how it came about [http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/u-s-evangelicals-indian-expats-teamed-up-to-push-through-modi-visa-ban/](http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/u-s-evangelicals-indian-expats-teamed-up-to-push-through-modi-visa-ban/) It was a politically convenient ‘judgement from afar’, without any actual evidence. To me, the most compelling evidence lies in his performance since the riots. In Gujarat, which has had Hindu Muslim riots every decade since independence (including worse ones under the opposition party Congress - where many more people died) there have been none in the last 12 years under Modi’s rule. The only one that happened was 5 months into Modi’s Chief Ministership, when he was new to the job. In the latest assembly and municipal elections in the state, his party won from constituencies where Muslims are in the majority. That last fact is what convinces me more than any other that he is portrayed wrongly. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/103 "2014-04-14T03:38:17Z")
To prevent this hijack from going further, I’ve opened a thread in Elections. I’d link to it, but I access the board through a proxy, and can’t figure out a good way to do it, so click on over. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/104 "2014-04-14T21:55:40Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > At any rate, my point was that if he had children, that would present all sorts of problems that him being married wouldn’t. Children but not married? I knew he had groupies like Martha and Mary, but was there a 1st Century equivalent to those women who try to get knocked up by their celebrity one-night-stands? Were there Plaster Casters back then? Because a cast of the Divine Unit could really draw in the pilgrims. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/105 "2014-04-14T22:31:47Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > I absolve you. 🙂 I suspect that when people learn about this stuff, especially when they are young, it is just taught as dry history of doctrine. IMHO it is much more interesting to learn alongside the political and institutional history of the Late Empire. This wasn’t just an academic argument to learned theologians, these differences caused riots, unrest, rebellion, and the commandeering of the entire grain fleet of Alexandria by its bishop. The story has wild-eyed monks, backroom politics, wide-scale demagoguery, and siege warfare. > > You also probably learned it from the perspective of a fully-defined, mature, and even dominant faith. While these conflicts were raging, it was not a sure thing that the church would survive at all in any form. I can think of few other times where the value of intangible ideas ever loomed so large. It’s great stuff. “People swarm everywhere [in Constantinople], talking of incomprehensible matters, in hovels, streets and squares, marketplaces and crossroads. When I ask how many oboloi I have to pay, they answer with hairsplitting arguments about the born and the unborn. If I inquire the price of bread, I am told that the Father is greater than the Son. I call a servant to tell me whether my bath is ready; he rejoins that the Son was created out of nothing.” – [Gregory of Nyssa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Nyssa) From [_Lest Darkness Fall,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lest_Darkness_Fall) by L. Sprague de Camp (a _Connecticut Yankee_ story – 20th-Century American archaelogist Martin Padway finds himself transported by a bolt of lightning to 6th-Century Rome; in need of money, he has just invented/introduced the process of distilling wine into brandy): > [@](#): > > The joint was in the theater district on the north side of the Capitoline. The “music” was furnished by a young woman who twanged a harp and sang songs in Calabrian dialect, which the cash customers seemed to find very funny. > > “Let’s drink to --” Thomasus started to say “success” for the thirtieth time, but changed his mind. “Say, Martinus, we’d better buy some of this lousy wine, or he’ll have us thrown out. How does this stuff mix with wine?” At Padway’s expression, he said: “Don’t worry, Martinus, old friend, this is on me. Haven’t made a night of it in years. You know, family man.” He winked and snapped his fingers for the waiter. When he had finally gotten through his little ceremony, he said: “Just a minute, Martinus, old friend, I see a man who owes me money. I’ll be right back.” He waddled unsteadily across the room. > > A man at the next table asked Padway suddenly: “What’s that stuff you and old one-eye have been drinking, friend?” > > “Oh, just a foreign drink called brandy,” said Padway uneasily. > > “That’s right, you’re a foreigner, aren’t you? I can tell by your accent.” He screwed up his face, and then said: “I know; you’re a Persian. I know a Persian accent.” > > “Not exactly,” said Padway. “Farther away than that.” > > “That so? How do you like Rome?” The man had very large and very black eyebrows. > > “Fine, so far,” said Padway. > > “Well, you haven’t seen anything,” said the man. “It hasn’t been the same since the Goths came.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially: “Mark my words, it won’t be like this always, either!” > > “You don’t like the Goths?” > > “No! Not with the persecution we have to put up with!” > > “Persecution?” Padway raised his eyebrows. > > “Religious persecution. We won’t stand for it forever.” > > “I thought the Goths let everybody worship as they pleased.” > > “That’s just it! We Orthodox are forced to stand around and watch Arians and Monophysites and Nestorians and Jews going about their business unmolested, as if they owned the country. If that isn’t persecution, I’d like to know what is!” > > “You mean that you’re persecuted because the heretics and such are not?” > > “Certainly, isn’t that obvious? We won’t stand – What’s your religion, by the way?” > > “Well,” said Padway, “I’m what in my country is called a Congregationalist. That’s the nearest thing to Orthodoxy that we have.” > > “Hm-m-m. We’ll make a good Catholic out of you, perhaps. So long as you’re not one of these Maronites or Nestorians–” > > “What’s that about Nestorians?” said Thomasus, who had returned unobserved. “We who have the only logical view of the nature of the Son – that He was a man in whom the Father indwelt --” > > “Nonsense!” snapped Eyebrows. “That’s what you expect of half-baked amateur theologians. Our view – that of the dual nature of the Son – has been irrefutably shown --” > > “Hear that, God? As if one person could have more than one nature --” > > “You’re all crazy!” rumbled a tall, sad-looking man with thin yellow hair, watery blue eyes, and a heavy accent. “We Arians abhor theological controversy, being sensible men. But if you want a sensible view of the nature of the Son --” > > “You’re a Goth?” barked Eyebrows tensely. > > “No, I’m a Vandal, exiled from Africa. But as I was saying” – he began counting on his fingers – “either the Son was a man, or He was a god, or He was something in between. Well, now, we admit He wasn’t a man. And there’s only one God, so He wasn’t a god. So He must have been --” > > About that time things began to happen too fast for Padway to follow them all at once. Eyebrows jumped up and began yelling like one possessed. Padway couldn’t follow him, except to note that the term “infamous heretics” occurred about once per sentence. Yellow Hair roared back at him, and other men began shouting from various parts of the room: “Eat him up, barbarian!” “This is an Orthodox country, and those who don’t like it can go back where they --” “Damned nonsense about dual natures! We Monophysites --” “I’m a Jacobite, and I can lick any man in the place!” “Let’s throw all the heretics out!” “I’m a Eunomian, and I can lick any _two_ men in the place!” Padway saw something coming and ducked, the mug missed his head by an inch and a half. When he looked up the room was a blur of action. Eyebrows was holding the self-styled Jacobite by the hair and punching his face; Yellow Hair was swinging four feet of bench around his head and howling a Vandal battle song. Padway hit one champion of Orthodoxy in the middle; his place was immediately taken by another who hit Padway in the middle. Then they were overborne by a rush of men. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/106 "2014-04-14T22:34:55Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I recently read Aslan’s “Zealot”. The fellow discusses the context of Jesus’ times. > > He suggests that Jesus was a follower of John the Bapist, who took up the same path after the arrest and execution of JtB. He began preaching his message around his home near the Sea of Galilee, then worked his way down to a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. > > Aslan suggests the same as others mentioned here - that a common laborer (before he became a wandering religious zealot) . . . Nitpick: The point of the book is that Jesus was really more of a **political** than religious zealot, to the extent the two were distinguishable in his time and place. His grudge against the priests was that they were getting rich off what amounted to a Temple-sacrifice racket and working hand-in-glove with the Romans to exploit the Judeans economically. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/107 "2014-04-14T22:40:37Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > What I got from _Zealot_… The point was that (as far as we know) Jesus spent a decade or more are a tekton - a day laborer, construction worker, or carpenter. Given the times, it was most likely a few hours walk from the piddly village of Nazareth, helping build Herod Jr’s new capital Sephoris where there was plenty of work. He does not start anything like his later life for a while. A person in that situation would most likely be married. And like as not to be widowed, too, chancy as life was in those days, which would account for no wife being mentioned in connection with his life after he began to wander and preach. A good Jew has a religious and moral obligation to get married, but not necessarily more than once. Come to think of it, that would also account for St. Peter having a mother-in-law but no wife being mentioned, etc. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/108 "2014-04-14T22:44:00Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Aslan makes some interesting points.The land at the time was full of messiahs (why do keep hearing lines from \*Life of Brian \*in my head?); messiah at the time simply meant deliverer, i.e. from the Herod and Roman domination and their corruption of the temple heirachy. It was also full of wandering wizards/healers/exorcists; in that role, ccording to Aslan, Jesus was unusual only in not charging money. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/109 "2014-04-14T22:49:25Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > However… I think I would be upset to learn that Jesus married a woman who was a disciple. To me, that smacks too much of the televangelist sleeping with his secretary kind of scenario. The teacher/disciple relationship is not one that should include sex. I’d feel the same way about a modern pastor marrying a church member. If you’re a pastor with spiritual authority over someone, the relationship needs to stop at pastor/churchgoer. Even if no abuse of power was actually involved, there’s too much potential for abuse. Well, **that’s** a bit strict! To most people, a bachelor pastor marrying a parishioner would be heartwarming After School Special material (so long as he ain’t Catholic, of course). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/110 "2014-04-14T22:50:38Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Jesus only spent 33 years on this planet, according to the official timeline. I didn’t get married until I was 37. Did I not experience life as a human during those first 37 years? Sure seemed like it to me. Well, yeah, he was on a tighter schedule. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/111 "2014-04-14T22:51:54Z")
> [@monavis](#): > > I guess that is why the Christian Religion is so divided. “A religion is just a fandom that’s gotten really old.” Flamewars are inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/112 "2014-04-14T22:56:17Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > A bit divergent, but I’ll never get a better chance to ask: Have your studies yielded any evidence of a Roman custom, at any time or place, that allowed the mob to give the condemned criminal of its choice a “get out of jail free” card, as in the tale of Barabbas? There is no non-biblical evidence of such a custom. And Reza Aslan makes the point that Pilate was a very, very strict governor, who ordered so many crucifixions that the Judeans complained to the Emperor. He does not say whether it did them any good. It is just conceivable that Augustus wrote Pilate saying, “Cool it! Save crucifixion for the worst cases!” And then Pilate just might have made such an offer to the mob, trying to be reasonable here. But I doubt it. Jesus **was** one of the worst cases, a direct threat to the state, and no way would a responsible governor, which Pilate also was, have let him out of it alive. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/113 "2014-04-14T22:59:00Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > Of course it was biased. It was an opinion piece. But anyway, the reasons why it may or may not make a difference are quite different in this case. Jesus did not stake any particular claims on not being married. We might care in posterity to the extent that we want to imitate his life. It would be completely insane for a Christian to try to imitate Jesus’ life in any but the vaguest terms. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/114 "2014-04-14T23:18:20Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > In the news this month we are have a somewhat comparable situation in the political world, where Narendra Modi, favored in polls to be the next prime minister of India, turns out to be a wedded man: > > [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/10/why-did-narendra-modi-keep-his-wife-secret-for-almost-50-years/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/10/why-did-narendra-modi-keep-his-wife-secret-for-almost-50-years/) Headline: “Why did Narendra Modi keep his wife secret for almost 50 years?” Have you **met** her, dude?! [rimshot] ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/115 "2014-04-22T13:08:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It would be completely insane for a Christian to try to imitate Jesus’ life in any but the vaguest terms. I hope this is not off base.but I have often heard Jesus was like us in all things except sin, but Jesus was in reality nothing like us if the NT is correct. He had loving parents, no abuse, was never sick, knew nothing about being a woman. never bore a child, when he needed money to pay his taxes he sent Peter to catch a fish with money in it’s mouth to pay for his taxes and Peter’s, He never knew the experience of old age, his sufferings were from a few hours unlike the Challenged who suffered through their entire life. He was said to know that he would come back to life in 3 days, but in reality it was only about 30+hours, his close friends, followers, and relatives didn’t apparently believe he would come back to life or they would not have gone to anoint a dead body, or be surprised to hear the tomb was empty. May M didn’t recognize him, and why he would make a big secret of what he had told people what would happen didn’t make sense nor if he was truly human he could not have gone through the wall to see his Apostles. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/116 "2014-04-23T01:35:17Z")
It would explain why he didn’t mind dying. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/117 "2014-04-23T04:21:24Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#): > > It would explain why he didn’t mind dying. Anyone would mind being crucified. To say it didn’t really hurt Him would be . . . any one of several heresies. But, of course, Jesus had a tombstone disposition and a graveyard mind! He’s a bad motherf\*\*\*er and He don’t mind dyin’! Tell me, Who do you love?! Oh baby, Who do you love?! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/118 "2014-04-23T04:28:24Z")
And of course, Jesus **is** the quintessential motherf\*\*\*er when we account for the highly unusual circumstances of His conception and Trinitarian doctrine thereupon . . . ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/119 "2014-04-23T14:07:17Z")
I’ve already expressed my take on the theory. Unlike some Christians, I regarded \*\*\*The Last Temptation of Christ \*\*\*as a terrible movie but not as a blasphemous or even offensive movie. There’d be absolutely nothing immoral, sinful or distatsteful about Jesus getting married, enjoying sex with his WIFE, and having children. I don’t believe he did, and there’s no evidence (Scriptural or otherwise) to suggest that he did, but as long as we’re playing the “What if” game, I don’t see what would be so terrible about a married Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337/120 "2014-05-16T12:28:32Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Here’s the problem I’d have with it: if Jesus is God Incarnate, here for a very limited time on a particular mission, and he gets married…that’s sure a big diversion from his mission. It just doesn’t _fit._ > > I mean, I’m married and have a son, but that isn’t a _distraction_ from my real mission in life; it’s the better part of what my life _is all about_. That’s my _calling_. > > If one buys into this crazy Christianity stuff, it’s hard to see Jesus’ mission (can’t call it a ‘calling’ because per Christian belief, he wasn’t ‘called’ by God, he was and is God) as anything less than all-consuming, from his baptism by John forward. And it’s one thing to leave behind your parents and siblings (if you’re Protestant) and kin for one’s all-consuming mission, but it’s a very different thing to leave one’s _wife_ behind. > > It suggests it was a bad choice to have made that commitment in the first place - and presumably Jesus would have understood who he was, and what he was ultimately going to be doing, for his adult life. (Certainly one Biblical story suggests that he was starting to grasp the idea by age 12.) > > And it seems improbable that his wife wouldn’t be mentioned if Jesus brought her along on his ministry, especially in the accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection, stories which name Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene, and a number of other women as well. Heck, Mary his mother wasn’t along on his ministry, but she was there for the concluding act, according to the Bible. So why wasn’t his wife there? > > No, I just can’t make it fit. It doesn’t make sense to me with respect to who I believe Jesus to be, and it doesn’t make sense in the context of the Bible. In John 10, Jesus quotes the psalmist, and when accused of blasphemy he says: It says in your law I said you are gods, Why do you say I blaspheme because I call god my father when your father’s did." That suggests he did not consider himself any more of a divine person than any of the people who he was speaking to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-jesus-had-a-wife-would-that-change-anything/635337.md?page=7)