Let’s start with some helpful definitions. “Magdalene” is not a name, it’s a title or nickname (technically called an apellation.) Let’s just call her Mary. Let’s also remember that Jesus’s apellation is “the Nazarite” not “of Nazareth.” A Nazarite is one type of extremely orthodox Jew. No haircuts, strict observance of dietary laws, etc. Yeah, yeah, I know, the Bible says Jesus broke a lot of the rules. But remember, you gotta know the rules before you can break 'em.
One rule of classical Judaism was to take God’s commandment to be fruitful and multiply to heart. Celibacy and sexual abstinence were considered gross sexual deviations on par with bestiality and homosexuality. Unmarried men were specifically barred from becoming Rabbis.
So what? you ask. Well, of all the rules the nitpicky Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking, no one accused him of being a thin, single, neat freak, if you follow my meaning. Monk types, like Essene ascetics, were rumoured to be secret homosexuals, precisely because they remained celibate. And Jesus is referred to as Rabbi, especially in John.
Let’s follow the scholars in taking John as the most accurately written gospel. Not only does John not say Jesus was unmarried, but John sure portrays Jesus as a married man. And none of the gospels hint that celibacy was one of the requirements of those wishing to emulate the life of Jesus. That was Paul’s idea, and he never claimed it was Jesus’s idea.
First example: the wedding in Canaa. Jesus’s mother is there, and according to Jewish custom, he would not take her to someone else’s wedding. We know it was a traditional Jewish wedding because it was “on the third day,” that is, the third day of the week, the traditional day for Jewish weddings.
Further, Jesus’s mother treats Jesus as though he were the official host of the wedding party. For example, she expects Jesus to supply more wine. This is specifically the tradional duty of the groom and his parents. Secondly, when he works a “miracle” to produce more wine, the only response from the crowd is displeasure that this “best wine” was not served sooner, again according to Jewish wedding custom.
Conclusion: Anyone familiar with classical Jewish customs (the intended audience for the gospels) would sure assume that Jesus was the groom, and therefore married.
But, to whom? Later, Jesus approaches the house of Lazarus, and learns Lazarus has died, and the women of the house are sitting shiva, or mourning. Jesus summons Mary, Lazarus’s sister. According to Jewish custom, a woman may leave shiva only when summoned by her husband. Again, readers of the gospel would naturally assume that Mary was Jesus’s wife, and Lazarus his brother-in-law.
Is this the same Mary who annoints Jesus’s feet? That Mary, annointing his feet, is re-enacting the annointing of a Hebrew King by his wife, so that Mary is definitely playing the role of king’s wife to Jesus’s King. The identification of this Mary as a “sinner” has nothinbg whatever to do with a particular sin, like prostitution. Such mundane matters would never be discussed in such and important forum. Rather, she is identified as being outside the closed society of Nazarite or Essenic orthodox Jews to which Jesus belonged. (One tricky problem in Biblical scholarship is that sectarian Jewish movements don’t give themselves names like Essene. They are named by other people. Curiously, none of the Gospels name the Essenes as being a major movement like the Saduccees and Pharisees. A possible clue that the gospel folks were Essenes.)
Jesus is crucified and buried on private property. This indicates a close connection to a very wealthy and influential family, private tombs being extremely rare in Jesus’s time, and the compliance of the Romans with a request for private execution raises some pretty bushy eyebrows. Something’s going on here.
A year before his execution, Jesus visits Jerusalem, and is a welcome guest of the High Priest. Contrast this with his next Passover visit, when the High Priest and his party lust after Jesus’s blood. What changed?
The Gospel of John is different. For one thing, it’s often referred to as the the gospel OF John, not the gospel (of Jesus) according to John. For one thing, Lazarus appears as the first person to raise from the dead, before Jesus does it. Wouldn’t this make Lazarus the Christ? And if Jesus gets special treatment because he’s the brother-in-law of Lazarus, who is Lazarus? And how did Jesus and his family make such a powerful enemy so fast?
One clue: there was a power vacuum in Jerusalem for almost a year before the arrival of Pontius Pilate, the new gorvernor of a more strictly controlled Judea. We know the house of Caiaphas was deposed and replacd by one Johnathan Eleazar. And, a year before he died, Jesus is portrayed as having purged the Temple of unworthy types. There are many clues that Jesus died a year during the first year of Pilate’s tenure. The first thing Pilate did on arrival was put Joseph Caiaphas right back in the temple. Presumably, the party of Lazarus (as good a bet as any to be the biblical name of J Eleazar) would now be enemies of the state. And Jesus is executed for crimes against the state, regardless of any other anti-Jesus propoganda. Remember, it was not the Romans who were the puppets here.
If John/Lazarus is Johnathan Eleazar, what’s the connection to Jesus? Brother-in-law is a pretty safe bet, I’d say. I doubt if a revolutionary High Priest is going to pick some random long-haired miracle monger out of the bushes of Galilee and make him co-regent. It would be somebody close to him.
So, having backed the wrong side, Jesus is hunted down and executed the following year. And who is sitting shiva by his tomb? None other than Mary. If she’s not a member of his family, like his mother, what is she doing there? And lots of early christians considered Mary to be the first pope, not Peter or Paul. Why would they think that, if they didn’t assume she was his wife?
Conclusion: the friendly folks who wrote the gospels sure seem to want us to jump to the conclusion that jaesus was married, and presumably to Mary, the sister of Lazarus. I say let’s take them up on it.
