Did Jesus Marry?
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Footnotes
Gnostic Christianity teaches that knowledge, rather than faith or observance, is the basis for salvation. “Knowledge” in this tradition is basically knowledge of the human self as divine, and salvation involves the soul’s escape from the body and its return to its transcendent origins. This teaching is rejected in the later writings of the New Testament (1 Timothy 6:20–21). Valentinus, who taught in Alexandria and Rome, was the greatest of the second-century Gnostic Christian teachers. The Valentinian “heresy” persisted into the seventh century.
Endnotes
William E. Phipps, Was Jesus Married? The Distortion of Sexuality in the Christian Tradition (New York: Harper & Row, 1970; repr. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986).
The Gospel of Philip is the third tractate in Nag Hammadi Codex II (hereafter, NHC II), and the Gospel of Mary is the first tractate in the closely related Berlin Gnostic Codex (BG). See James M. Robinson and Richard Smith, eds., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 3rd rev. ed. (Leiden: E.J. Brill; New York: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 139–160 and 523–527 respectively. The translations given here are from that volume. The translations given in Dan Brown’s novel are rather free.
Phipps (Sexuality, p. 137, cf. p. 173) also suggests that the Gospel of Philip may preserve authentic tradition to that effect.
Angular brackets indicate an emendation to the text. Here the manuscript reads “her,” but one should emend the text to read “his.” Otherwise the second Mary would be Jesus’ aunt.
For an excellent discussion see Antti Marjanen, The Woman Jesus Loved: Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi Library and Related Documents (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
The Coptic language, the latest form of the language of the pharaohs, is written in a modified Greek alphabet and has incorporated into its vocabulary numerous Greek words.
In the Second Apocalypse of James (NHC V,4), Jesus kisses his brother James on the mouth (56, 14–15). It would be absurd to conclude from this that Jesus was a bisexual.
For a recent translation, with extensive discussion, see Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 2003).
Mary is the only follower of Jesus named in the Gospel of Mary, and it should be noted that she is simply called Mary—not Mary Magdalene. It is usually taken for granted that Mary Magdalene is meant, but that is by no means certain. Although I continue to be persuaded by this majority opinion, Stephen J. Shoemaker (“Rethinking the ‘Gnostic Mary’: Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 [2001], pp. 555–595, esp. 581–589) has made a strong case for identifying the Mary of the gospel with Jesus’ mother, Mary of Nazareth, rather than Mary Magdalene.
Translation (slightly modified) in Abraham E. Millgram, Jewish Worship (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1971), p. 154. Nowadays the Kaddish is normally used in connection with intercession on behalf of a deceased person.
My translation. There can be no question that Jesus modeled his own prayer (“the Lord’s Prayer”) on the Kaddish.
The prohibition is absolute in Mark and Luke, while Matthew adds a loophole: “except for unchastity.” Matthew’s version is probably secondary, and reflects the Pharisaic teaching of the “School of Shammai.”