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{"id":9638,"date":"2012-09-24T19:58:18","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T23:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=9638"},"modified":"2012-09-24T19:58:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T23:58:18","slug":"is-sex-the-reason-some-insist-jesus-wasnt-married","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/09\/is-sex-the-reason-some-insist-jesus-wasnt-married.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Sex the Reason Some Insist Jesus Wasn’t Married?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Whatever one thinks of the authenticity<\/a> or otherwise<\/a> of the papyrus fragment<\/a> that seems to be stuck with the title the \u201c Gospel of Jesus\u2019 Wife<\/a>,\u201d I think it is useful that people are talking about the possibility of Jesus having been married. Some react to the idea with such an excessive dismissiveness, as though their faith were at stake, that is makes me think that some people have a view of Jesus that bears no relationship at all to the human figure in the earliest New Testament Gospels. I made this to sum up their view using the popular meme:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Phil Fox Rose<\/a> has some discussion of whether Jesus having been married would matter, and to whom, and why \u2013 concluding with a few suggestions on how the text might have continued.<\/p>\n

Francis Watson has yet another discussion of the issue of the papyrus fragment\u2019s authenticity, in an article in\u00a0The Bible and Interpretation<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

April DeConick<\/a>\u00a0and James Tabor<\/a> discuss the NBC News piece<\/a> asking whether Jesus<\/a> was \u201ctoo holy for sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is one thing that everyone\u00a0should<\/em> agree about, it is that this papyrus\u2019 authenticity or inauthenticity, and its interpretation, do not tell us whether or not Jesus was married. And there is circumstantial evidence that might suggest whether he was or was not married. But none of those points explains why people react so viscerally to the idea that Jesus was married. If you are among those who do, I\u2019d be interested in discussing\u00a0why<\/em>. \u00a0Is it, in fact, because you think that Jesus Christ<\/a> was \u201ctoo holy for sex\u201d and if so, does that suggest a radically different view of sexuality than is found in at least most of the Bible?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"