Was Jesus Married?

[turoldus]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10758940/Papyrus-referring-to-Jesus-having-a-wife-was-not-forged-tests-find.html

[sandwiches]

Was Jesus Married?

No.

Larry Hurtado has been followng this story for some time on his blog:

larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/jesus-wife-articles-in-htr-initial-thoughts/

Prominent in the modifications of her earlier view is the intriguing statement in the appended note at the end of the article that the carbon-dating (taking the dating by Tuross) now seems to demand a date sometime in the 8th century CE (not the 4th/5th century CE dating in her earlier paper). As she notes, this takes us well into the Islamic period of Egypt, and so raises the question of whether, in fact, the fragment might reflect in some way the influence of Islamic ideas about Jesus

[sandwiches]

Also Mark Goodacre has links to some of the lateast opinions:

ntweblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Francis Watson is particularly damning in his opinion:

markgoodacre.org/Watson4.pdf

as is the Egyptologist Leo Depuydt who says I am personally 100% certain that the Wife of Jesus Fragment is a forgery.

Ultimately the science suggests such a late date (8th century) that it does not matter much whether it is a modern forger using old materials or not? though I think Watson makes a good case for modern forgery.

[fortigurn]

It's so interesting that when 'controversial' texts like this are dated reliably to the fifth or sixth centuries, certain people propose they have a second century pedigree in hitherto undiscovered texts, while trying to claim second century New Testament fragments are no evidence of first century gospels.

[sandwiches]

And here is an excellent summary by Christian Askeland of the background and latest findings:

evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/introduction-eight-of-eleven-articles.html

He is rather withering about Karen King's approach.

[ignorantianescia]

The discussion of the options of forgery in King's paper is not very satisfying. Some cogent arguments for the forgery case can be found on Goodacre's blog. It's extraordinary how the new paper glosses over the mistakes and correspondences so swiftly.

The issue of the dates remains puzzling, but as the links by Sandwiches point out, they don't have to be a problem. Except for the fourth to third century BC dates, of course. Maybe it'll be the Mythicists' golden grail as evidence for a pre-Christian Jesus.

[ignorantianescia]

The Huffington Post also has an article, which is well-balanced: www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/jesus-wife_n_5124712.html

Even the comments start off reasonable, with an atheist who thinks Jesus existed, but a watchdog for orthodox anti-apologetics promptly bites him in the butt.

In addition to the other links, this article from Gospels.net makes several points of the forgery argument very clear: www.gospels.net/gjw/mighthavebeenforged.pdf

There are also new posts by several professors in the relevant disciplines:
larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/jesus-wife-fragment-further-observations/
historicaljesusresearch.blogspot.nl/2014/04/who-arranged-jesus-marriage-when-and-why.html

[wraggy]

It is safe to say that men in Jesus’ day, especially if they were to become the spiritual leaders/bread winners of their families, would have been matched around the age of twenty. The ideals of family honor, fiscal wellbeing, and ancestral blessing were hinged on the success of an arranged match. Oddly, however, Jesus seems to say some very strange things about family honor, fiscal wellbeing, and ancestral blessing. Could it be that Jesus was a social outlier and/or an iconoclast? He looks to have eschewed “traditional family values” in his public career. This, of course, does not prove that Jesus wasn’t matched to a bride in his early twenties, but it does give us reason for pause. I think it highly unlikely that Jesus pursued marriage during his public career, but I have no problem at all suggesting that he might have been married in his early years. If so, it was a decision made for him by his culture, his clan, and his parents.

historicaljesusresearch.blogspot.nl/2014/04/who-arranged-jesus-marriage-when-and-why.html

I remember listening to a lecture by Amy-Jill Levine and if I recall correctly, she said that Rabbis sometimes delayed marriage for spiritual purposes. I have read little on 2nd Temple Judaism and nothing of any substance. Does anyone have any recommendations on good, up to date scholarship on 2nd Temple Judaism? I would probably like to read a mixture of scholars i.e Jewish, Christian, secular.

[ignorantianescia]

Peter Schäfer's The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World is a good and useful book. However, it seems that it is a little more pricey than I remembered.

[sandwiches]

On the marriage point, Vermes (Jesus the Jew, paperback) notes the connection in ancient Judaism between ideas of purity, abstinence and prophecy:
p80( According to the Talmud, Moses freely decided to terminate the cohabitation with his wife after he received his call from God. He reasoned that if the Israelites to whom the Lord spoke only once and briefly were ordered to abstain from women temporarily, he, being in continual dialogue with Heaven should remain chaste permanently)..... (p81)Against such a background of first century AD Jewish opinion, namely that prophetic destiny entailed amngst other things a life of continence, Jesus' apparent voluntary embrace of celibacy, at any rate from the time of his reception of the holy spirit, becomes historically meaningful. (Due to a total lack of evidence, his sexual situation before his baptism by John, and the significance of a possible perpetual celibacy, nust remain outside the realm of historical research proper.).

Casey Jesus of Nazareth (p145) notes:
Jesus is not said to have married, nor are any children recorded. It is therefore virtually certain that he did not marry, and absolutely certain that he had no wife at the time of his ministry, and that he never had any children. Most attempts to present Jesus as married do not belong to serious scholarship. The most respectable that I have seen is that of Phipps, who over-interprets Jewish views that men should marry and applies them to Jesus.

In a footnote, Casey adds:

WE Phipps - Was Jesus Marries? The Distortion of Sexuality in The Christian tradition (New York: Harper and Row 1970).... Marriage to Mary Magdalene is presented e.g. in The Da Vinci Code... For sober historical discussion see Meier, Marginal Jew.pp332-45.

[sandwiches]

An interesting story from the current Indian election:

www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/world/asia/top-indian-candidate-believed-a-bachelor-admits-to-being-married.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

Indian Candidate’s Biography Has an Asterisk: A Wife, of Sorts

It was his first official acknowledgment of an arranged marriage he abandoned soon after the wedding about 45 years ago, during a period when he was considering becoming a monk or a full-time activist with a Hindu nationalist organization, which required a vow of celibacy.
Renunciation of family life is a tradition in India’s public life, going back to Mohandas K. Gandhi, who was married but took a vow of celibacy.

Maybe some modern-day Westerners find such attitudes hard to understand?

[wraggy]

Apr 13, 2014 9:09:06 GMT ignorantianescia said:

Peter Schäfer's The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World is a good and useful book. However, it seems that it is a little more pricey than I remembered.

I was thinking along the lines of Ed Sanders Jesus and Judaism. My only concern is that it was published nearly 30 years ago. Should that be a concern? I am particularly interested in Judaism at the time of Jesus.
I can pick up Sanders through an Oz bookshop for $38 Au. Or I may look at getting both Sanders and Vermes' Jesus in his Jewish context. Has anyone read these books?

By the way, is anyone reading or read Casey's critique of the Jesus Mythers? He has piqued my interest.

[ignorantianescia]

I haven't read them, but I would say go for it. It may be dated on some subjects, but it is an important early work for current studies of Judaism and early Christianity within its Jewish context. I don't think it's particularly aimed at a general readership, though. Just be careful of criticisms of "Second Quest" scholarship, which are at times justified but often isn't balanced in its execution (Casey has similar biases).

The advantage of Schäfer's book is that it is intended as an introductory text and that he provides a lot of context. However, it may be more of a political history than what you're looking for.

[wraggy]

Apr 14, 2014 9:09:52 GMT ignorantianescia said:

The advantage of Schäfer's book is that it is intended as an introductory text and that he provides a lot of context. However, it may be more of a political history than what you're looking for.

Yep, it's more about locating Jesus within the context of 1st c Judaism.

[evangelion]

Apr 13, 2014 6:49:42 GMT wraggy said:

I have read little on 2nd Temple Judaism and nothing of any substance. Does anyone have any recommendations on good, up to date scholarship on 2nd Temple Judaism?

deSilva: Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture.

Pilch: A Cultural Handbook to the Bible.

I've written a review of Pilch's book, which you can read online (click here).