ABC asks (but in the wee hours): Was Jesus married? (Christianity takes another hit.)

AP News ^

[Happy2BMe]

ABC asks (but in the wee hours): Was Jesus married?

The Associated Press

    NEW YORK -- ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas concedes her network is stepping into a theological minefield with its one-hour exploration of whether Jesus Christ had a wife.
    The ABC News special, "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," is scheduled to air Tuesday, November 3rd, at 3:35 a.m. (The prime time slot on Monday is occupied by Monday Night Football.)
    "You can't talk about this subject without intriguing people or offending people," Vargas said earlier this week. "We're trying to do it as respectfully as we can."
    ABC screened the special for some reporters and religious leaders on Thursday. The program is based on the best-selling novel, The DaVinci Code, which claims to be partly grounded in historical fact.
    The book asserts that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife -- not a prostitute, as in some teachings -- and that she fled Jerusalem with his child after his crucifixion.
    The story was kept alive for centuries by a secret society that included the painter Leonardo DaVinci, who supposedly inserted clues about it in his art, the book claimed.
    The ABC special speaks to several theologians who either discount the story or assert that it is possible. Vargas said ABC found no proof that Jesus had a wife, but couldn't completely discount it, either.
    Vargas, who was raised a Roman Catholic, said her own parents said to her, "Oh, my goodness, what are you doing?" when they found out she was working on the story.
    It drew some immediate criticism, particularly from a representative of the Catholic League, who said ABC News relied too heavily on the opinion of the Rev. Richard McBrien of Notre Dame, who believes Mary Magdalene's importance has been historically understated and that it's possible she was his wife.
    "The facts themselves scream out that this is a crackpot theory," said Joseph DeFeo, policy analyst for the Catholic League.

[KC_Conspirator]

I have not heard the "Jesus was gay" thingy yet, but it does not surprise me since they claim that everyone from Abe Lincoln to the Pope.

[Timesink]

WNN preempted to make room for THIS! Bwa-ha-haaa! Eat it, Sharon!

(Assuming this is true. A few days ago this crap was supposedly going to run at 8 pm, before MNF.)

[Paul Atreides]

I've been waiting for them to claim that God is a homosexual. When they do, and the will, I want to ask them why, if He is a homosexual, He created TWO sexes.

[Friend of thunder]

But there is no incontrovertible proof that he claimed a unique sonship not open to other persons

Two points here really:

1 there is no incontrovertible proof that he claimed a unique sonship

I don’t know what he means by incontrovertible, but John 14:1-4 ”1’Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.’” seems to answer nicely.

2 unique sonship not open to other persons

Besides being redundant – any unique relationship is, by definition, not open to other persons – this misses the Point. While Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, we are all sons and daughters of God.

[JesseHousman]

ABC News relied too heavily on the opinion of the Rev. Richard McBrien of Notre Dame, who believes Mary Magdalene's importance has been historically understated and that it's possible she was his wife...

Notre Dame has come a long way. From a Catholic university in communion with Rome to a hotbed of satanic activity.

[Oztrich Boy]

And He let her suffer for 10 years while living with her only to heal her later? Bit of a stretch.

Ans as thetre is no evidenve of when Mary's troubles occurred or when she was healed your speculation is just that.

It is only a theory that requires the healing to have occured after the point in time you assume the ministry began.

< pure spuculation> Marriage to Mary M was in 16CE Her troubled time was 26-27CE< /speculation> You have a problem with that?

[nightdriver]

It supports their positions of "There is no god - therefore I am god." and "If there is no god, I don't have to answer to anyone but me."

You have just stated the very pillar of liberalism!!

Jesus could NOT have been married and still be who He is. The Old Testament prophesies concerning Him would all be invalidated.

This is nothing more than an agenda feeding on people's ignorance of the Scriptures.

[JesseHousman]

I'm outraged because Jesus Christ is God and all this foul crap being scraped off the bathroom wall is making our Lord mighty angry.

Jesus gets especially angry when evildoers make disgusting insinuations about his Mother, The Blessed Virgin Mary!

[fish hawk]

Was Mohammed gay???? I don't know but it would make an interesting TV show don't you think.

[StupidQuestions]

Actually, there is some support for the marriage of Jesus in the Bible. The supporters of the idea have long pointed to the marriage in Cana of Galilee at which Jesus is believed to have turned water into wine. The critical passages are in John 2:1-12.

The suggestion is that the wedding was Jesus' because his mother was there and appears to be responsible for providing the wine. She gives directions to the servants to do what Jesus tells them. She would have been in charge at her son's wedding and would have given directions to servants.

But the strongest suggestion that Jesus was the bridegroom at the wedding is here:

"They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, 'Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.'

[BlueNgold]

Mostly re-hashed stuff that can be found in more exhaustive form in "Holy Blood Holy Grail"

How is this a slap at Christianity? There is very little about Jesus' life that we know, and what record we have was not written until many years after his death. The Bible says nothing, either way, about Jesus being married. It never explicitly says he was not, nor does it tell us that he was. And I have yet to figure out how the 'tradition' of Mary Magdalene being a fallen woman has become 'fact'. In my studies I have yet to find specific scripture to this effect.

[NeoCaveman]

I agree with you. Like I said McBrien is a heretic.

[Oztrich Boy]

Ooh! you are so going to get flamed!

[BlueNgold]

There is a least a decade of life of the adult Jesus for which there are no records.

Everyone seems to forget that Jesus lived on earth as a 1st century Jew. He would have been an 'adult' at roughly 13. That leaves 2 decades of 'adult' life unrecorded, not one.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

Before long there will be claims that Jesus was gay, now that he was black and married.

Jesus was a married black metrosexual, originally from Nairobi, who had 4 kids, a villa outside of Jerusalem, and drove the first-century equivalent of an SUV.

This is obviously true because a series of clues that reveal this astonishing history are carefully, secretly and incontrovertibly encoded into the paintings of Vincent van Gogh, the architecture of the Vatican, and the Kama Sutra.

[Friend of thunder]

McBrien is a heretic

At best. You are clearly more familiar with his work than I am, but I would call him an idiot.

[freeangel]

"Vargas said ABC found no proof that Jesus had a wife, but couldn't discount it, either."

We have no proof that Vargas is a prostitute and drug dealer, but couldn't discount it, either.

There are sluts, and then there are sluts.

[Oztrich Boy]

That leaves 2 decades of 'adult' life unrecorded, not one.

I would agree with that.
By saying "at least a decade" I was being "uncontroversial" and giving a figure that could not be disputed (although frequently ignored)

[MEG33]

As the bridegroom isn't named ,one of Jesus's brothers could be the bridegroom.

[Toespi]

If Christ were married at some time in his life, I could not fault that. Christ became man, and one of the purposes of doing so was to humble himself and experience the joys and pains of the human experience. Inorder for him to take our sins away from us, he needed to understand the many emotions of mortals. How better to understand a woman than to live with her as man and wife? How better to understand human love than to give birth to a child? How much greater was his sacrifice as he looked upon his wife and child in his earthly dying moment? The thought only makes me love Jesus more and realize what he gave up for me.