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Essay / Jesus Christ: The Most Controversial Bachelor in Scripture
After the media onslaught surrounding Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, questions about Jesus' celibacy flooded academic and religious circles. However, despite these assumptions, nowhere in the Bible is Jesus' married status explicitly mentioned. Even the Gnostic Gospels, written years after Christ's life, do not explicitly mention or present flimsy evidence to support the case for Jesus' marriage. Although Jesus lived amidst an inflexible Jewish society, where marriage was an essential requirement for a man, Jesus proves through his own counterculture actions that he is both willing and able to break the norms social. Whether it’s dining with tax collectors, teaching revolutionary parables, or even allowing women to be part of his ministry, Christ transforms the sociopolitical structure. Although various sources claim that he was indeed married, whether hinted at by the miracle of the wedding at Cana or by the five major requirements that a Jewish father fulfilled for his son, Jesus remained celibate - a claim supported by communities historical singles, his own revolutionary actions and teachings. , and the general lack of explicit scriptural evidence. During Christ's lifetime, Jewish culture apparently left no room for avoiding marriage, an important rite of passage into adulthood. However, on the fringes of society, near Nazareth, flourished a historically celibate community, the Essenes, concentrated around a city called Qumran. One of the three major religious sects, through their teachings they worked to bring peace among humanity, looking forward to God's intervention on earth. By fostering community relations, they sought to create heaven on earth, help the poor, and live an overall just life. The similarity...... middle of paper ...... The brother of Jesus. Overall, no evidence of Christ's marriage exists. Combining this fact with his overall treatment of female disciples, his radical and revolutionary teachings, and the historical context of the Essenes, Christ's celibacy seems explicit and inevitable. .htm http://www.christianity.com/Christian%20Foundations/Jesus/11543321/http://kevinscull.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/textual-proof-that-jesus-was-unmarried/http: //www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/The-Da-Vinci-Code/Why-Jesus-Didnt-Marry.aspxhttp://www.grailchurch.org/marriedjesus.htmhttp://www.halexandria.org/ dward226.htmhttp://home.comcast.net/~hdieterich/Celibacy.htmlhttp://www.gotquestions.org/was-jesus-married.htmlhttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1178279/the_counterculture_of_jesus.html ?cat=34