Mary Magdalene appears very early in the Gospels, while Jesus is still preaching in Galilee. It appears that she accompanies Him from Galilee to Judea. If not, she at least moves between the two provinces as easily as He does. In Palestine during Jesus' ministry it would be unthinkable for an unmarried woman to travel unaccompanied--much less to travel unaccompanied with a religious teacher and his entourage. What was her relationship with Jesus?
We are back to the questions on the first page. Who was Mary Magdalene? The bride at the wedding in Cana? The woman with the alabastar jar? The woman who annointed Jesus with expensive oils? The woman in Bethany? The woman at the foot of the cross? The one He loved? Were all these women Mary Magdalene?
We must first investigate the Gospels. Is there any evidence in the Gospels, direct or indirect, to suggest that Jesus was married?
There is, of course, no explicit statement to the effect that he was. On the other hand, there is no statement to the to the effect that he was not--and this is both more curious and more significant than it might first appear. A Dr. Geza Vermes of Oxford University points out, "There is a complete silence in the Gospels as to the marital status of Jesus . . . Such a state of affairs is sufficiently unusual in ancient Jewery to prompt further enquiry."
The Gospels state that many of the disciples--Peter for example--were married. And at no point does Jesus himself advocate celibacy. On the contrary, in the Gospel of Matthew he declares, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become as one flesh?' So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore let what God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19:4-6). Such a statement can hardly be reconciled with an injunction to celibacy. And if Jesus did not preach celibacy, there is no reason to believe he practiced it. According to Judaic custom at the time it was not only unusual, but almost mandatory, that a man be married. Except among certain Essences in certain communities, celibacy was vigorously condemned. During the late first century one Jewish writer even compared deliberate celibacy with murder, and he does not seem to have been alone in this attitude. And it was as obligatory for a Jewish father to find a wife for his son as it was to ensure he was circumcised.
If Jesus was not married, this fact would have been glaringly conspicuous. It would have drawn attention to itself and been used to characterize and identify him. It would have set him apart, in some significant sense, from his contemporaries. If this were the case, surely at least one of the Gospel accounts would make some mention of so marked a deviation from custom? If Jesus were indeed as celibate as later tradition claims, it is extraordinary that there is no reference to any such celibacy. The absence of any such reference strongly suggests that Jesus, as far as the question of celibacy was concerned, conformed to the conventions of his time and culture--suggests, in short, that he was married. This alone would satisfactorily explain the silence of the Gospels on the matter. The argument is summarized by a respected contemporary theological scholar:
"Granted the cultural background as witnessed . . . it is highly improbable that Jesus was not married well before the beginning of his public ministry. If he had insisted upon celibacy, it would have created a stir, a reaction which would have left some trace. So, the lack of mention of Jesus' marriage in the Gospels is a strong argument not against but for the hypothesis of marriage, because any practice or advocacy of voluntary celibacy would in the Jewish context of the time have been so unusual as to have attracted much attention and comment." Charles Davis, reported in The Observer (London, March 28, 1971), Page 25
The hypothesis of marriage becomes all the more tenable by virtue of the title "Rabbi," which is frequently applied to Jesus in the Gospels. It is possible, of course, that this term is employed in the very broadest sense, meaning simply of a self-appointed teacher. But Jesus' literacy--his display of knowledge to the elders in the temple, for example--strongly suggests that he was more than a self-appointed teacher. It suggests that he underwent some species of formal rabbinical training and was officially recognized as a rabbi. This would conform to tradition, which depicts Jesus as a rabbi in the strict sense of the word. But if Jesus was a rabbi in the strict sense of the word, a marriage would not only have been likely, but virtually certain. The Jewish Mishnaic Law is explicit on the subject. "An unmarried man may not be a teacher (rabbi)."
Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Page 330 - 331
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Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln |
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| Mary Magdalene | ||
| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |
| Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
| References | Magdalene Links | |
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