Jesus' Wife and Seal Team

The controversy over whether Jesus had a wife or not is hitting main stream prime time with recent credible scholarship regarding a piece of papyrus. See, James Martin, S.J.'s op ed in the NYTimes Wednesday or Thursday (I got a facebook preview-google it or click HERE).

     No, the Seal teams of various friaries, fraternities and the Jesuits should not now consider marriage (they likely already did at some point and rejected it for themselves.) But they should re-examine why they are celibate in light of the fact that Jesus was likely married. Single minded single hearted focus on serving a mission of someone who redeemed humanity is worth all your time and attention.  Also you might not be great at multitasking.

In this controversy I disagree with James Martin, SJ on rational grounds.  Even if Jesus were married there are great reasons to be celibate and chaste, but not because Jesus was.

   All my reasons have been mysteriously deleted from Facebook as if a spam robot were programmed to delete "Mary Magdalene"  James Martin's arguments why Jesus couldn't have been married all fall when you introduce a few pertinent facts. For example he says there are lists of all Jesus' relatives various places showing up, people reciting them (your mother, brothers, etc... are here) and his wife isn't mentioned. That is because she probably already was there with him. James Martin wonders why the gospel writers never gave her mention or why someone called the wife of Jesus was not at the foot of the cross with his mother. That argument strikes me as beyond blind because if Mary Magdalene was
there at the cross and was his wife, no one would want her to be identified as his wife or she would be next. She would be hunted down and hung too- just like the wife of Peter was crucified upside down next to him. The irrational crowd feeding frenzy to see him strung up would have bled over into any immediate family like a wife if she were known to too many as his wife.  Peter was so afraid of the crowd he denied even knowing Jesus.  Don't you think the apostles would have feared for the life of Jesus' wife and not wanted to spread that around? Its likely if Jesus told his apostles about a marriage with Mary Magdalene he would have sworn them to secrecy to protect her.

    The issue is more than academic. The issue affects the way that the church views womankind --in ways too profound to recite. And it should cause a profound self-examination at the highest levels regarding persecutions of women. You know who you are.

  Jewish law forbade anybody other than a relative to touch a dead body and Mary Magdalene was given the task of anointing Jesus' body with burial oils. It was absolutely prohibited for anyone to touch a dead body and only a relative could touch one in a burial context. Jesus' mother was still alive. She probably was not in a mood - and gave the task to her daughter in law to go to the tomb to anoint the body.

     Secondly it was Jewish law and tradition that Rabbis had to be married. A thirty year old profound spiritual teacher wouldn't be called Rabbi unless he was qualified as one and Jesus is often referred to as Rabbi. Jewish males as a rule married and it was a condition of Rabbinical priesthood. Priests of the Cohenic line had to marry virgins but Levitical priests could marry divorced, widowed or non virgin women. In the new testament a Bishop had to be the husband of one wife with his household in order. It is a rule inspired by Jewish priesthood law. No polygamy. No mistresses for the priesthood. One wife. A real one.

     Mary Magdalene is at the foot of the cross, at the tomb (she never left him even in death), when she recognizes him in the garden after the resurrection she runs to hug him and he has to say -don't touch me now, I have not yet ascended (in his resurrected body.)- suggesting that he expected that she would want to run and hug him as soon as she recognized him. She doesn't call him Rabbi then- it is reported she calls him "Lord"- which would be an appropriate greeting for a wife to call her husband during the day.

  James Martin at the end of his op ed asks the rhetorical question of the apostles -why didn't you guys tell us about his wife. The answer seems obvious to me. A. They did and the obvious bits were edited out and B. If it were too obvious, Mary Magdalene and all her progeny would be deader than Marie Antoinette.

  No, James Martin, you don't have to find someone to marry. But your reasons for being celibate as a 'discipline' or contractual  condition of employment should not prevent you from looking for love in all the right places.