Was Jesus Married?

 

WAS JESUS MARRIED?

Brett A. Todd

We all know that Jesus was married and had children, right?  At least this is what Dan Brown writes in his best-selling book, “The Da Vinci Code”.  But was Jesus really married, and did he have children?  Often I have to remind people that Brown’s book is nothing more than fiction and that more than likely Jesus was not married and he didn’t have children.

However, about 10 years after Dan Brown wrote his book, a shocking discovery was revealed to the world by Harvard Professor, Karen King.  What they discovered was an ancient Coptic papyri fragment no larger than a credit card that read, “Jesus said to them, 'My wife …” Interesting, perhaps Dan Brown was right, maybe Jesus was married, and maybe he had children as well.

It wasn’t long afterward that the tide began to change as did so many forgeries.  One scholar after another began to question the authenticity of this papyri fragment that said Jesus had a wife.  In time, and with further research and testing, it was concluded that this fragment was a forgery created by a con man.  This really shouldn’t surprise anyone, forgeries are big business and big money, even in the field of early Christian artifacts.  

So, where did this idea of Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene actually come from? If “The Da Vinci Code” is fiction and the Coptic papyri fragment a forgery, where do people get the idea that Jesus was married?

In 1945, a farmer in Egypt by the name of Muhammed al-Samman discovered a jar buried in the ground that contained a codex (book) with several Christian scripts.  Among these scripts was a treatise called “The Gospel of Philip”.  As we have already discussed in a past article, there were many other gospels that early Christians were reading that are not found in the Bible.  In this particular gospel, we are told that Mary Magdalene was a companion of Jesus.  Further, we read these startling words concerning the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene:

And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" (Translated by Wesley W. Isenberg). 

But what does the Bible say?  First, even though the idea of Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene can be intriguing to some, it should be noted that when Mary Magdalene spoke to Jesus, she never called him her husband and Jesus never called Mary Magdalene his wife.  Second, there is no place in the Bible that states that Jesus was married.  It mentions his family and even some of the women who faithfully followed him in his ministry, but never, ever does the Bible state that Jesus was married.

Of course, an argument from silence really proves nothing. So it might be best to say, “More than likely Jesus was not married, nevertheless, we don’t know!”

In our next study, we will look at the childhood of Jesus.  What does the Bible have to tell us and what can we know?