Thursday, August 21, 2014

Did Jesus have a wife? Was He ever married? What about the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife”?

In 2012, Harvard Divinity School historian Karen L. King unveiled a fragment of papyrus she called the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. The fragment says, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...,'" and the rest of the sentence is cut off. Another segment says, "As for me, I dwell with her in order to…" but the speaker is not named. (Christianity Today - Emmert).
It seems that every few years a theory about the life of Jesus rises in popularity. Some of these ideas are new and others are rooted in antiquity. Recently an idea has resurfaced that Jesus (The Son of God) was married.

Was Jesus married?

All trustworthy documents from the time of Jesus do not ever show Him as being married. There have always been those who speculated that He was married to Mary, Martha or Mary Magdalene, but what do the Scriptures state?

Ultimately, Scriptures never give even a hint to the idea that our Lord, while on Earth, was married. Just because a papyrus fragment from centuries later says that a person named Jesus mentions a wife, does not give any evidence to the theory that He was married. 

If Jesus was married, the Bible would have eluded to it. The Bible mentions, friends, Father, Mother, and siblings of Jesus, but never a wife. Jesus was never in one place for a long period of time and was dedicated to His ministry. It would not have been practical for him to be married. Even when on the cross, He asked John to take care of His mother....but never mentions a wife.

It may make for entertaining movies and interesting story-lines, but there is nothing historically and Biblically that give any credence to the thought that Jesus was married.