The New Testament: more on divorce

[sistawendy]

So I read the part in The Gospel According To Mark that talks about divorce. Jesus's take in Mark is substantially the same as the (probably later) one in Matthew: nope. Mark doesn't even make an exception for "sexual immorality". And I note that while Mark's language is commendably not sexist – either party could initiate a divorce, which has been Jewish law for millennia – the possibility of divorce by mutual consent appears not to have occurred to Jesus. Speculation: Matthew was trying to inject some sanity with his mention of "sexual immorality".

This to me seems weird. The ancients weren't that different from you & me, for better or worse. Uncontested divorce is commonplace now, and in both the recent and distant past most people were fine with that. The objections in between stem mainly from – wait for it – the Gospels. People who don't want to be married to each other really shouldn't be; you don't have to live very long to find that out now, and with the lower age of marriage you could probably learn it even faster in ancient times.

Which brings me to Jesus and his own domestic situation, or lack thereof. Would no woman have him because of his crankiness? Jesus Christ, incel? Or did a woman he loved die or divorce him? Any of the above seems plausible of a man who wanders around acting like a prophet, telling people not to divorce, and credibly claiming not to care that the Romans were about to kill him.

Edited to add: I think I'd rule out death. Mark names all kinds of names we don't really need to know, a unique feature of his Gospel, and surely he wouldn't hesitate to mention Jesus's late wife, had she existed. No, I'll bet you a denarius with Caesar's face on it that a lady broke Jesus's heart. The question is, who and how?

Comments

[staxxy]

Possibly Mary Magdalene. Possibly one of the other women that were part of his posse. some of the gospels that didn't make it into the bible make mention of there being women in his group of followers but between women not being taught to read and write regularly, and the rampant mysogony of those who found the gospels just picking and choosing who gets to be 'heard' in the collection... well the women all get the snip. Hell, KJV cuts like 20 women out of the old testament alone, or trims their influence and power down significantly.

[ouranophobe]

Concur with staxxy; there's even a prominent Christian sect that believes Mary Magdalene to be Jesus' wife in their not-so-deep doctrine.