Toto

If Jesus were truly a Jewish man, he would have been commanded to get married and have children

The idea that sex was "dirty" and celibacy preferred has been traced to the Hellenistic elements that fed into to Christianity by Uta Ranke-Heinmann in Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God (now out of print - some excerpts are online here - obviously scanned in and unedited).

Anat

Not only that, but particularly among scholars early marriage was strongly recommended. IIRC Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah was considered especially pure because he married at 14, rather than 16 which was the recommended age for scholars. The rationale was that a married young man wouldn't be spending too much time fantasizing about women. Commoners married at a later age - 18-20 was recommended, but I would guess people waited for when they acquired a trade.

David Bowden

This is interesting. Do we have any records of Jewish men from that period not getting married until at least their mid-thirties?

If so, then Jesus might not have stuck out like a sore thumb in Judea, as this thread seems to indicate he must have (assuming he existed as portrayed). I am wondering whether we really need to drag in Greek influence to explain Jesus' alleged celibacy.

Perhaps I can answer my own question, though, at least as far as scripture supplies answers: John the Baptist was not married, as far as I know. Paul also was not married (and taught that it was better for a man not to marry - though I suspect he had been more shaped by Greek influence than Jesus would have been), and IIRC we have no specific mention in the NT of families for most of the disciples. In fact, Jesus is portrayed as recommending that his followers give up ordinary family life and obligations, in favor of a more "spiritual family" arrangement based on obedience to (his version of) God's will.

With so many NT characters going unmarried, was there maybe a general exemption to the married-with-children rule for Jewish religious zealots, prophets and reformers? (Elijah springs to mind here as the archetype of the unmarried but devout servant of God.) Or perhaps these reformers just boldly asserted their lifestyle choice in the face of public scrutiny. I'd love to know which, or see if there's another explanation.

But again I don't know that it's necessary to draw on Greek influence to explain Jesus' unmarried state in predominantly married Judea. Such influence would introduce other problems: Wouldn't a Greek-leaning Jesus be unappealing to the traditional Jewish peasant culture that supposedly followed him in large numbers? Among other things, wasn't Jesus, like John the Baptist and the Essenes, allegedly trying to reform Judaism of the impurities introduced by Greek-friendly scribes and pharisees? Wasn't that part of his initial appeal?

Anat

David, what would you consider Greek influence on the Pharisees? I thought the Pharisee movement was derived from the Hassidim, the original objectors to Helenist culture? If anything, the greatest foreign influence on their theology was the belief in the afterlife, which isn't something I can see early Christianity objecting to.

Toto

That's not so clear. Paul never explicity mentions a wife, but it is not clear that he is unmarried.

Matt. 8: 14 refers to Peter's "wife's mother."

1 Cor 9:5 states:

which implies (if Peter does = Cephas) that Peter was not only married, but took his wife along when he preached, and that this was a common practice for apostles and "the Lord's brothers".

There is no evidence that Jesus had a big following among the traditional Jewish peasant culture. Parts of the Gospels speak about large crowds, but Acts 1:15 states that there were only about 120 believers after his death.

I've never heard this theory. I think that the impurities that concerned the reformers were more connected with the temptations of political power, greed, etc.

Mosor

Weren't many of the essenes celibate? There was a documentary on CNN a few days ago about the life of Jesus and one biblical historian (forget her name) said it was not unusual at all to find unmarried jews at the time.

I read an article somewhere that there were two types of essenses, the monkish celibate types, and the married "lay" types. The celibates were considered the most holy and pious and were the leaders.

Muan

http://www.islamonline.net/askabouti...uestionID=8836

Cut and paste reduced to comply with copyright laws - please consult the link.

Answerer

Thats the standard christian argument. They claimed that Judaism in Jesus' time was very diverse and the rabbi role was not yet well defined. Furthermore, famous characters like John the baptist and Paul of Tarsus were unmarried teachers.

Marduk

“famous characters like John the baptist and Paul of Tarsus were unmarried teachers�

It’s probably true that John the Baptist was unmarried but I remember reading references to Paul’s wife being active in the early church, especially during the times Paul was in the pokey.