THE WIFE OF JESUS
THE WIFE OF JESUS
ANCIENT TEXTS AND MODERN SCANDALS
ANTHONY
LE DONNE
A Oneworld Book
First published by Oneworld Publications 2013
Copyright Anthony Le Donne 2013
The moral right of Anthony Le Donne to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library
All quotations from Jewish and Christian Scriptures are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
ISBN 978-1-78074-305-9
eISBN 978-1-78074-306-6
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To my siblings:
Lisa, Lara, Amber, Tim, and Tara
CONTENTS
*Sourced via Wikimedia Commons
In December 2012, the University of the Pacific invited me to speak at a public forum based on this question: Did Jesus have a wife? The panel of experts came to fairly conservative conclusions. The Coptic expert, a scholar of early Christianity, suggested that the recently publicized Gospel of Jesus Wife might be a modern forgery. The religious ethics professor suggested that religiously minded folks shouldnt be scandalized by (what should be) an uncontroversial question. After all, no less than the Chalcedonian creed (composed in 451 and accepted as doctrine by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and many Protestant Christian churches) stated that Jesus was fully human, like us in all respects, apart from sin. The expert on ancient Judaism reminded us that the ancients were less scandalized by sex than we are. I spoke on the topic from the perspective of a professional historian.
I talked about marriage practices during Jesus time and suggested that Jesus might have been married in his young adulthood. I then offered several reasons why Jesus might not have been the marrying type. All in all, I was grateful to have been involved in a thoroughly sane and open exchange. Unlike recent treatments of this topic in film, documentary, and novel, none of the scholars at this forum were conspiracy theorists. There were no theories forwarded about Jesus and Mary Magdalene or their secret descendants. No one used the occasion to promote a scandal of any kind.
Yet in the weeks leading up to this event, the question itself became fodder for several newspaper blogs around the Stockton, California area. In response to some local publicity about the forum, several social media outlets channeled an outburst of hostility. The question Did Jesus have a wife? was immediately threatening before any answers had been given.
One blog commenter accused the university of having a secret agenda to attack the Christian religion. This same commenter claimed that secular organizations never miss an opportunity to ridicule and mock people [who] claim to be Christian. On a different website, a letter to the editor was published claiming that our forum was speculating on Gods sex life. Another commenter simply wrote: I think it is nonsense. Again, these reactions were published before the forum took place! It seems that the question itself, let alone any attempts to answer it, is cause for great controversy and hostility.
I was anticipating, given this initial reaction, that the event itself would be a bit hairy. But, to my surprise and relief, all in attendance were civil and hospitable. None of the ivory-tower scholars howled at the moon, and the townspeople left their pitchforks and torches at home. What I learned from this experience is that the topic of the wife of Jesus brings a host of expectations with it. This topic has been sold as a scandal for so long that people cant help but be scandalized by it. But and this was the most intriguing aspect for me people tend to be more scandalized by the question itself and less so by the answers. I have found this to be true even when the answers are a bit unexpected and unsettling.
These were the early steps of an unexpected journey. While I have dedicated my life to historical Jesus research (so I am anything but impartial), I really had no idea what I would discover on my quest for the wife of Jesus. I had no predetermined conclusions; I only knew that the topic was worth exploring. Indeed, any topic that enrages and fascinates so many people is important if for no other reason than to tell us something about ourselves. In addition, the fact that so few professional historians are willing to engage with the topic is intriguing.
At times my conclusions surprised me; at times the Jesus I discovered was troubling. More often than I would have hoped, I had to conclude with better questions rather than definitive answers. Sometimes I was compelled to draw an uncomfortable conclusion. The process of writing this book kept me guessing until the very end. I hope that you enjoy the journey in the reading as much as I did in the writing.
Anthony Le Donne
Sebastopol, California
I would like to thank the University of the Pacific for their invitation to lecture on the topic related to this book. It was the fruitful discussions I had with the fine attendees in Stockton, CA that planted the seeds first. My thanks to Larry Behrendt, Chad T. Carmichael, Bruce Chilton, April DeConick, Mark Goodacre, Stephanie Barb Hammer, Joel Kaminsky, Chris Keith, Anne Lapidus Lerner, Joel N. Lohr, Dan Melligan, Christopher W. Skinner, Caroline T. Schroeder, Eric Thurman, and John G. Turner who graciously read portions of the book and made helpful suggestions for improvement. I also extend my gratitude to Ovidiu Creang for providing me with an early draft of his forthcoming book. Any deficiencies that remain belong to me alone.
Im also deeply grateful for the beautiful and discerning eyes of my wife Sarah. Her willingness to fight for the aesthetics of grammar and against the evils of over-hyphenation has made me a better communicator. Finally, I want to thank my five siblings, to whom this book is dedicated. They have been the best Arab, French, African-American, Italians that anyone could ask over for Sunday lunch.
It is a Quest and not a Conquest.
DAGMAR WINTER
Before Jesus rode into Jerusalem, before his clever stories gave way to righteous indignation, before he marched hell-bent toward fate, he was just another overzealous, drawling preacher from up north. At least, this is how he would have seemed to the people of Jerusalem. Indeed, before his crew of castoffs entered the city, few people in Jerusalem knew much about him. Chances are that theyd never heard of him before. But Jesus would soon draw quite a crowd. Jesus preached politics and accused religious luminaries of corruption. There were rumors of faith healings, demons, and revolution
