In many societies a man is not considered to be fully adult until he is married. He would be excluded from full participation in "adult" institutions such as tribal or village councils. This has caused many problems for Catholic missionary priests both past and present. In fact, the Catholic Church in Canada has several times unsuccessfully petitioned the Pope for an exemption from the rule of priestly celibacy for those priests serving in the far North. The Jewish attitude at the time of Jesus was similar and is dramatically summarized by the first century rabbi, Eliezar Ben-Asai, who wrote "Whoever renounces marriage violates the commandment to increase and multiply; he is to be looked upon as a murderer who lessens the number of beings created in the image of God." These are strong words indeed! Of the several hundred rabbis known to us from that time only one is known to have been unmarried. More correctly this rabbi had been married, lost his wife and refused to remarry. He was severely criticized for this by his fellow rabbis. It is also worth noting that the anti-sex, anti-female pro virginity attitude that quickly developed in the Gentile branch of the early church was the product of the strong influence of Greek philosophy and not the result of any authentic teaching of Jesus himself. The Jewish tradition, then and now, is strongly family centered and has even been described as somewhat "earthy". Of course the traditional presumption has been that Jesus was unmarried. This really is a presumption since, of course, the Bible says nothing definite whatsoever one way or the other on the issue. However, considering the very strong views the Jews held on marriage, it is strange indeed that there is no record that he was ever criticized or questioned on this account. He was accused of being a glutton and a wine biber and of associating with low life. Why not an accusation regarding his unmarried state. The very silence of the Bible on this point is, in my view, highly suggestive that perhaps he was married. We also know that there were a number of female disciples of Jesus - Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, the sisters Mary and Martha, Joanna, Susanna and Salome are all named. Whenever the female disciples are mentioned in the Bible, Mary Magdalene is always the first named. In the literary tradition of the time the first named is always the most important. Mary Magdalene is even named ahead of Mary his mother. Even the name Mary Magdalene may be informative. Mary "of Magdala" seems not to be correct since there is no solid historical or archaeological evidence that there ever was such a town. Another possible interpretation of the word "Magdalene" is that it is derived from an Aramaic word meaning roughly "the most important". Early Christian writers have sometimes referred to her as "Mary the Great". Why should such importance be attached to this woman? Christian, particularly Catholic tradition, has been very unkind to Mary Magdalene. She has been variously identified as the woman taken in adultery or the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair or possibly both. She is portrayed as a great sinner who became a great saint. The Gospel of John says that Jesus cast seven demons from her. Some might jump to the conclusion that demonic possession is indicated here. However, we must examine this in the context of the times. Scripture does indicate that she should be ranked on a level with the apostles among the disciples of Jesus. She was the first to the tomb to do what a wife was expected to do for a deceased husband. When she encountered the risen Jesus and finally recognized him, she called him "Rabboni" and "Lord". "Rabboni" is the familiar or affectionate form of "Rabbi", and "Lord" or "Master" is how a Jewish wife would have addressed her husband in that very patriarchal age. Many people believe that the Bible says Jesus also warned her "do not embrace me". However, this is totally inaccurate and in fact, the original Bible text quotes Jesus as saying" "do not continue embracing me." All this is certainly suggestive of a close relationship between the two but stops short of anything definitive.

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