Mary Magdalene

[markr1506]

Was Mary Magdalene married to Jesus?

 

[Marble]

Good question.
I don't think they were officially married, but they might have been lovers.

 

[James Humphreys]

Was Mary Magdalene married to Jesus?

I don't think so, but her relationship to Jesus was obviously very special. I think she was meant to be the bride to Jesus, if he had had enough foundation of belief among the Jewish people. If you look more deeply at what motivated Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus, it may have been jealously about the closeness of the relationship between Jesus and Mary.

 

[tumbleweed41]

Possibly. (It seems unlikely for a Rabbi of his age to be unmarried. The Talmud recommends marriage between the ages of 16 and 24)
Tradition holds that an unmarried Rabbi is unnatural, and would surely have been a point of contention with the Pharisees and Sanhedrin Jesus debated with.

But not according to the accepted Christian gospels.

 

[tumbleweed41]

Good question.
I don't think they were officially married, but they might have been lovers.

According to the Talmud, sexual intercourse satisfies the requirement for marriage.

Judaism 101: Marriage

 

[James Humphreys]

A book that provides good insight on this subject (in part) is "Secrets of the Holy Family" by Mark Gibbs.

 

[fallingblood]

Possibly. (It seems unlikely for a Rabbi of his age to be unmarried. The Talmud recommends marriage between the ages of 16 and 24)
Tradition holds that an unmarried Rabbi is unnatural, and would surely have been a point of contention with the Pharisees and Sanhedrin Jesus debated with.

But not according to the accepted Christian gospels.

Rabbi's, as the Talmud speaks of, didn't really come around until after Jesus died. The rise of Rabbi's with Rabbinical Judaism came about after the destruction of the Temple. So one has to be careful while using the Talmud for the time period of Jesus.

At the same time, we see other teachers, and groups of Jews, who remained unmarried, and were still quite well respected. The Essenes come to mind right away. Then there is also Paul, so it would not be too abnormal for Jesus to have remained unmarried as there were grounds for it.

John Shelby Spong has an interesting argument though for Jesus having been married, which can be seen in his book Born of a Woman. So there is a possibility he was married, but, like you said, the Gospels say nothing about it, and neither does Paul. So it is hard to tell.

Personally, I say no.

 

[gnostic]

Rabbi's, as the Talmud speaks of, didn't really come around until after Jesus died. The rise of Rabbi's with Rabbinical Judaism came about after the destruction of the Temple. So one has to be careful while using the Talmud for the time period of Jesus.

True. The Talmud was indeed written later, but you are forgetting very important fact, fallingblood.

The Talmud was based on older oral tradition: the Oral Torah.

The Rabbinical Jews that came after the destruction of the Second Temple managed to still preserve their oral traditions. However we see signs of the Oral Torah that predates Jesus and that of Rabbinical Judaism.

Traces of the Oral Torah can be found in literature that were written in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha (such as the Book of Jubilees and the books of Enoch), and of course, in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

[Gaura Priya]

I think he had three wives: Mary and Martha, the two sisters... and Mary Magdalene.

 

[gnostic]

There are no record of Jesus being married in the bible, and it is not clear what's Mary Magdalene's relationship was.

There are several references to her in the gospels. The most common references (found in the gospels) were that she was one of number of women who attended his crucifixion, and the first to see the risen Jesus (sometimes alone, sometimes with 2 other women). The other mentioned is that she had 7 demons exorcised from her and she had followed Jesus out of Galilee. Nothing special her following Jesus, since there were other women who did the same thing.

The only references to her being more than just one of the female disciples, come from mostly 2 outside sources, more specifically, 2 works from the Gnostic literature: Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary.

The Gospel of Philip mentioned her being a companion of Jesus.

There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.

This could mean any number of things. This could mean she was Jesus' wife or concubine, or even Jesus' friend.

It what is mention later in this gospel that the relationship was more intimate.

As for the Wisdom who is called "the barren," she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth.

Here Jesus loved her and kissed her...often.

Of course, this made the disciples angry and jealous, because the following passages Jesus had to rebuked them.

The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them,"Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness."

The same things is mentioned in the Gospel of Mary, but this time Jesus was no longer with them.

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you have in mind since you know them; and we do not, nor have we heard of them."

But what Mary told Peter and other disciples, Peter (and his brother Andrew) didn't like. Levi defended her:

Levi answered and said to Peter, "Peter, you are always irate. Now I see that you are contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Savior knew her very well. For this reason he loved her more than us. And we should rather be ashamed and put on the Perfect Man, to form us [?] as he commanded us, and proclaim the gospel, without publishing a further commandment or a further law than the one which the Savior spoke." When Levi had said this, they began to go out in order to proclaim him and preach him.

Still, there is nothing to indicate that they were actually married.

 

[BruceDLimber]

There are no record of Jesus being married in the Bible.

Nay, more!

One of the titles of Jesus in the Baha'i scriptures is "He Who never married."

Peace,

Bruce
s

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

There is insufficient detailed information about either the life of Jesus or the Life of Mary Magdalene to believe one way or the other.

It probably causes less upset to many people to follow tradition as we understand it

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Traces of the Oral Torah can be found in literature that were written in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha (such as the Book of Jubilees and the books of Enoch), and of course, in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Of course ...