The question of whether Jesus was married has been canvassed here before. There is no conclusive evidence either way, although it does seem unlikely that the NT authors would have left out such an important piece of biographical information. On the other hand, we only know that Peter was married from indirect references (Matthew 8:14 and parallels, and 1 Corinthians 9:5).

In Jesus day, a single man, wandering the countryside in the company of a group of other men, would have been viewed with some suspicion. He certainly would not have had much credibility as a Rabbi. So far as I know, amongst conservative Jewish communities in the ancient world (and to this day) a Rabbi is expected to be a married man, by definition.

The suggestion that the wedding at Cana might have been Jesus’ wedding, perhaps to Mary Magdalene, is fascinating. It would answer several questions, not least the issue of why Mary Magdalene is the first mentioned in just about every list of named women in the Gospels, and why no-one suggested a scandal surrounding the group of women who seem to have travelled about with Jesus and the Apostles. It would also explain the servants going to Jesus’ Mother for advice, and her sending them to Jesus. Some have suggested that it was because Jesus and his friends were such enthusiastic drinkers that the wine ran out, but that too is a statement impossible to prove or disprove.

Of course, to those who have a Puritan view of sexuality (and that includes conservative Catholics as well as many Protestants), the very idea of Jesus having a sexual relationship is bizarre and totally unacceptable. For most of us today, however, I suspect that the idea of Jesus being ‘fully human’ would require that he have sexual feelings, and legitimately give expression to those feelings in some way. I suspect that this is why the question is asked these days. In the past, people just assumed Jesus was unmarried, because anything else would have been unthinkable. Today, few people would be bothered by such a suggestion, so given that the scriptures are silent on the matter, we are free to speculate.

There is a great deal of biographical data we do not know about Jesus. We do not know what happened to his father. We do not know the names of his sisters, or all of his brothers. We do not know for certain how or where he spent his years growing up. We do not know whether, or to whom, he was married.

We do know that Mary and Martha of Bethany, and their brother Lazarus, were especially close to Jesus, but more than that is pure speculation.

Nigel B. Mitchell