Why is marriage so important if Jesus didn't get married


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Hey :) So this is a question I posed to the missionaries in my most recent lesson, and they said I should just ask online to look for an answer.

The Church places a lot of importance on marriage, and having kids. It's considered a part of the Plan of Salvation.

But the Church also says that it's important to live like Christ and that, by being baptised, you agree to follow Christ's example.

Yet Christ never got married. If marriage is so important, and if we're meant to live like Christ, why didn't He get married or have kids? Is that a sign that marriage/family isn't as important as the Church says it is?

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I am a little surprised they said to look to the internet for an answer.

The church has no official position on the marriage of Jesus, however it has been speculated by modern prophets that he was. That the marriage in Cana in which he turned water to wine was his own marriage. However this is not the doctrine of the church and does not nullify Christ's teachings on marriage. Read your bible.

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Guest MormonGator
14 minutes ago, TilKingdomCome said:

 

Yet Christ never got married

Right, He never did get married. If He had a wife, there is 100% certainty that she would have been mentioned in the scriptures. 

Maybe the rules of salvation don't apply to the Savior himself. 

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2 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Right, He never did get married. If He had a wife, there is 100% certainty that she would have been mentioned in the scriptures. 

Maybe the rules of salvation don't apply to the Savior himself. 

Or maybe he was married and that was one of the many plain and precious truths that have been lost

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Guest MormonGator
4 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

Or maybe he was married and that was one of the many plain and precious truths that have been lost

The possibility is quite slim. Someone as important as His wife would have been mentioned in the scriptures for sure. There are also passages like the famous (Ephesians? Sorry, doing this from memory-love your wives as Christ loved the Church) that would been phrased much differently if He was married. 

Edited by MormonGator
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3 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

The possibility is quite slim. Someone as important as His wife would have been mentioned in the scriptures for sure. There are also passages like the famous (Ephesians? Sorry, doing this from memory-love your wives as Christ loved the Church) that would been phrased much differently if He was married. 

Given that the scriptures went through various hands with different agendas including one that considered Celibacy of Priest to be very important... I would expect such references to be pretty thoroughly eliminated 

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Guest MormonGator
1 minute ago, estradling75 said:

Given that the scriptures went through various hands with different agendas including one that considered Celibacy of Priest to be very important... I would expect such references to be pretty thoroughly eliminated 

That's where we will have to agree to disagree. The bible wouldn't mention His brothers/half-brothers, cousins, uncles, etc and then not mention His wife. Something that important would have been saved by history. 

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I believe that he was married, virtually every jewish man during the time he was alive was married especially if they were to be Rabbis. This and other circumstantial evidence lead me to believe that he was. Logically it makes sense that he was married. However not doctrine

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8 minutes ago, omegaseamaster75 said:

I am a little surprised they said to look to the internet for an answer.

The church has no official position on the marriage of Jesus, however it has been speculated by modern prophets that he was. That the marriage in Cana in which he turned water to wine was his own marriage. However this is not the doctrine of the church and does not nullify Christ's teachings on marriage. Read your bible.

They actually said to search the internet for many of the questions I had (eg the fate of Sariah, who basically disappeared after the first book of Nephi), which surprised me as well - I thought missionaries were supposed to discourage searching the internet, in case I came across people who wanted to disrupt the church (eg ex-mormons)

Do you have any sources where modern prophets suggest the wedding in Cana is Jesus' one?

4 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Right, He never did get married. If He had a wife, there is 100% certainty that she would have been mentioned in the scriptures. 

Maybe the rules of salvation don't apply to the Savior himself. 

The rules don't apply to Him? But surely He's supposed to have led by example. We're supposed to follow His example.

Also, inb4 Mary Magdalene: I'm aware that there are various theories suggesting that Jesus had a significant other. Some suggest Simon the Beloved was Jesus' literal beloved while a lot more people suggest that Jesus had a romance with Mary Magdalene, and fathered a bloodline. However, I don't think the Church has officially stated that any of this is true.

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2 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

That's where we will have to agree to disagree. The bible wouldn't mention His brothers/half-brothers, cousins, uncles, etc and then not mention His wife. Something that important would have been saved by history. 

And yet... we have a marriage ceremony recorded in the bible where Christ is recorded as turning water into wine... and you ask anyone familiar with Jewish marriage customs of the time "Why Jesus would be the one people turned to deal with the wine problem" and the answer is almost always the Groom would be the one responsible and if Christ was the one turned to it was most likely be because he was the Groom in question.... If that hold true then we very much have a record... we just don't understand it like they did

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3 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

The possibility is quite slim. Someone as important as His wife would have been mentioned in the scriptures for sure. There are also passages like the famous (Ephesians love your wives as Christ loved the Church) that would been phrased much differently if He was married. 

Personally, I think if Christ had a wife, he would have wanted the world to forget about her (and their children?) the moment he was no longer physically present - for her (their) protection.  Given how little is recorded about women in general from that time, and every other thing said in this thread, it would not surprise me at all if he were married, had children, and made sure the world forgot all about them.

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Guest MormonGator
3 minutes ago, zil said:

 Given how little is recorded about women in general from that time, and every other thing said in this thread

Exactly. Mary Magdelene and the mother of Jesus were important enough to mention-so if He had a wife she would be as well, for sure.  

5 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

And yet... we have a marriage ceremony recorded in the bible where Christ is recorded as turning water into wine... and you ask anyone familiar with Jewish marriage customs of the time "Why Jesus would be the one people turned to deal with the wine problem" and the answer is almost always the Groom would be the one responsible and if Christ was the one turned to it was most likely be because he was the Groom in question.... If that hold true then we very much have a record... we just don't understand it like they did

We have a marriage recorded, and we have evidence that Christ and his family attended it. All true. We no not have evidence that He was the groom.

We need to look at the evidence for both sides, not just assume He was married than look for evidence to back it up. 

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Guest MormonGator
3 minutes ago, zil said:

 Given how little is recorded about women in general from that time, and every other thing said in this thread

Exactly. Mary Magdelene and the mother of Jesus were important enough to mention-so if He had a wife she would be as well, for sure.  

5 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

And yet... we have a marriage ceremony recorded in the bible where Christ is recorded as turning water into wine... and you ask anyone familiar with Jewish marriage customs of the time "Why Jesus would be the one people turned to deal with the wine problem" and the answer is almost always the Groom would be the one responsible and if Christ was the one turned to it was most likely be because he was the Groom in question.... If that hold true then we very much have a record... we just don't understand it like they did

We have a marriage recorded, and we have evidence that Christ and his family attended it. All true. We no not have evidence that He was the groom.

We need to look at the evidence for both sides, not just assume He was married than look for evidence to back it up. 

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1 minute ago, MormonGator said:

Exactly. Mary Magdelene and the mother of Jesus were important enough to mention-so if He had a wife she would be as well, for sure.

Important enough to mention, yes (though the mentioning of wives doesn't seem terribly common - understatement).  But I still there there are plenty of good reasons why we have no sure record of her or his family.

As for evidence - if Christ wanted everyone to know this beyond doubt, he would reveal it through prophets.  If he hasn't made it "plain", clearly he doesn't want it any plainer than it currently is.

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Guest MormonGator
3 minutes ago, zil said:

(though the mentioning of wives doesn't seem terribly common - understatement)

It's important to mention wives, for sure. After all, when you met wives #1-3 you were quite irritated I didn't mention them before! 

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It is not doctrine as there is no hard evidence for it, however it makes perfect sense for him to have been married.  And to even blow minds more, it is possible that he was in a polygamous marriage, Martha and Mary? 

I personally believe he was married.  Jesus fulfilled all of God's commandments. 2 Nephi 31 tells us that Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.  He would do the same with marriage.  Why isn't it mentioned? Initially it was probably kept pretty quite as to protect her, they weren't too kind back in those days with the spouses of convicted criminals. Afterwards it was probably just lost, shoot 300 years later the Christian council at Nicene couldn't even decide on the nature of God and Christ.  How could Christ be a God if he engaged in such a thing as marriage, right? Marriage according to those folks is simply a mortal thing, afterwards we are all to be angles. If we are all angles afterwards then marriage isn't necessary.  With no concept of an eternal progression, there is no need to put in such things that Christ might be married.

There are lots of scriptures that have been lost and twisted, the Apocrypha for example.

Edited by yjacket
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1 hour ago, TilKingdomCome said:

Yet Christ never got married. If marriage is so important, and if we're meant to live like Christ, why didn't He get married or have kids? Is that a sign that marriage/family isn't as important as the Church says it is?

If you're making the correlation that because you don't have any physical proof of Christ being married means that marriage isn't as important as doctrine and revelation has proven it to be, then I think there is a different problem here than just the question of whether Christ was married. 

I understand why you're making that correlation from your previous statements of how we are supposed to live a Christ-like life, but it goes a little beyond what the purpose of that statement is. The importance of marriage and the Plan of Salvation is to become like our Heavenly Father, who we do know has a wife. Thus, to become like them, we must enter into the most sacred covenant. So yes, marriage is essential to the doctrine of the Church. Whether or not Christ married in this life isn't important for our own salvation. How He lived (i.e., his actions towards others, his charity, kindness, love) and the acts He performed for us are what we are to focus on. 

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19 hours ago, MormonGator said:

Right, He never did get married. If He had a wife, there is 100% certainty that she would have been mentioned in the scriptures. 

We know Peter was married, at least he had a mother-in-law. But aside from the Savior healing her, there is no mention of her daughter's being married to the chief Apostle.

No, there is far less than 100% certainty that the scriptures would have mentioned Jesus' wife/ves.

Lehi

Edited by LeSellers
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Guest MormonGator
4 minutes ago, LeSellers said:

No, there is far less than 100% certainty that the scriptures would have mentioned Jesus' wife/ves.

 

Disagree. It's fairly certain Like I mentioned before, if we know Peter was married (and you are right, we do) there would have been at least a passing reference in the bible to His wife. . A woman of her importance-and her importance would have been huge-would have been mentioned. 

Edited by MormonGator
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9 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Sorry. It's fairly certain. A woman of her importance-and her importance would have been huge-would have been mentioned. 

Not if the writers wanted her (and her children) ignored.

Your position is mere assumption on your (and others') part. Just as the position that He was married is assumption. The evidence is inconclusive and "bi-polar".  Nonetheless, when Parley P. said He was married to Mary Magdalene and Martha, it leads me to accept the fact of His following the same rules we all do, just as He always did and has.

Lehi

Edited by LeSellers
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Guest MormonGator
11 minutes ago, LeSellers said:

Not if the writers wanted her (and her children) ignored.

Your position is mere assumption on your (and others') part.

Wrong. it's an educated guess based on the lack of evidence. You assumption there was a big conspiracy where the writers ignored him is a much bigger assumption. 

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Just adding my two cents:

The bottom line is that the prophet and apostles teach the importance of marriage. It is a core doctrine of the LDS gospel.

Lack of evidence is not proof of anything. Not everything is in the Bible. It's a very sketchy account, if you consider that it covered, what, three years of Jesus ministry. And, yes, Mormons believe (as stated by the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith) that some things have been lost from the Bible.

As far as I remember, marriage is not commanded in the Book of Mormon either. I suppose Nephi and Moroni took it for granted that people get married.

 

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2 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Wrong. it's an educated guess based on the lack of evidence. You assumption there was a big conspiracy where the writers ignored him is a much bigger assumption. 

I don't know MG . . .atheist can say the same thing.  One man's evidence is another man's non-evidence . . . 

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