It seems that this story will not disappear. Now NBC has published a piece on the topic.
Inthis article i willgo through some of the more ridiculous statements and seek to set the record straight. As usual, the numbers and bold words indicate quoted material and not my words.
1. If Jesus is a normal human being and he’s sexual, that’s the real fear,” James Tabor
No it is not a ‘real fear’ for true believers know that the source for these rumors come from deceived secular sources and carry no truth with them. 2 Tim 3 is quite clear as to the secular world is deceived and John 14 & 16 also demonstrate that fact.
There is nothing to fear here as all that fragment does is spread malicious gossip and lies about someone they never knew. If Jesus were married God would have told us.
2. The Catholic Church’s celibate priesthood is built on the belief that Jesus was not married. Eastern Orthodox priests are often married, but the church teachings don’t mention a married Jesus. Protestant ministers are allowed to marry, but there again, it is not common to teach that Jesus himself was married.
Jesus does not have to be married for preachers to wed. The Bible laid out the criteria for preachers in 1 Tim. & Titus and being married was included in the criteria. It is not wrong for preachers to marry. It also doesn’t mean that Jesus has to be married.
3. especially that he might have had a child, god forbid, since that would really raise questions about his ‘divinity,’ since they see him as fully human and fully God
People who make statements like this do not get the ramifications of a married Jesus. They also do not understand the Bible, who Jesus is and His purpose on earth. Because they do not understand they go to the wrong sources containing the wrong information and get further confused.
Secular sources do not have the truth about Jesus.
4. The Unification Church, however, does believe that Jesus was supposed to get married, and some of the early teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stated Jesus was married and even fathered children
Just because false religions say Jesus was married doesn’t make it so. What scholars and the unbelieving world forget is that there is a true and a false message. Jesus being married is a false one supported by those who do not follow biblical teachings.
The key criteria is –what is true or false and is the source from truth or falsehood.
5. Unlike their modern counterparts, there is evidence that some early Christians — the Valentinian Gnostics
This is a major problem with unbelievers. They lump anyone and everyone into the category of being Christian simply because they talk about God, Jesus, the disciples or the Bible.
Not everyone who claims to be Christian is one and Gnostics were not part of that group. The secular world has to use God’s criteria to determine who is or isn’t one before including them in that category.
This lumping in of all groups just creates confusion which is not of God.
6. The Christians who eventually became dominant, DeConick said, believed celibacy was the route to heaven
No I would disagree with that statement about dominance as it is also applied for the argument against the origination of the Canon and it doesn’t hold water. Because one group or more may have believed that celibacy was the way to heaven doesn’t make it so. That idea is contrary to the teaching of Jesus in John 3.
So those people holding that view were either misguided or deceived for celibacy is not the way to heaven.
7. DeConick, who explored sex and gender in early Christianity in her book, “Holy Misogyny,” said that in the ancient world, the female body was considered weak, pitiful and wretched
She confuses confused, misguided thinking with biblical teaching. Yes the Bible states that the woman is the weaker sex, in Eph. 6, but that does not mean that God, Jesus and early christians considered them weak, pitiful and wretched.
God gave woman a different role than men and that does not discriminate against women, does not make them secnd class and it does not marginalize them. it simply means they have different responsibilities and duites. But since the unbelieving world is deceived they just can’t see that truth.
8. Witherington believes most churches will likely be ambivalent about a married Jesus because the implications are unclear
Of coiourse they will. Jesus warned us that many people in th echurch calling themselves christian will fall away from the faith. That is to be expected. What that tells other believers is to be careful and make their calling and election sure. Also they should take steps toprotect their faith so they do not reject Jesus and the truth.
9. Ongoing for centuries, the debate about the possibility that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene was also the subject of author Dan Brown’s bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code.”
All that tells us is that false teaching will be with us till the end of time and that true believers need to stand with God and make sure they do not succomb to the deceit of evil.
Dan Brown is not telling the truth and does not follow biblical teaching or sources. Conisder the source.
10 Maybe it makes him more human for us,” Tabor said.
Jesus isn’t supposed to ‘become more human’. He is who He is and nofragment or novel will change that He was both human and God at the same time. How He did it we are not told and that isn’t the focus we should have. He was the final sacrifice who opened made salvation easier.
God’s salvation plan is not without rules and one would be wise to study those rules in the Bible. The words used by God may not be the exact words you are looking for but they are there.
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