At around age 30 Jesus walked away from his family, his livelihood, everything he had to that date, and went off to follow John the Baptist, and later start his own mission to the Jewish people. His own family thought him mentally ill, as did many in his old hometown.
I have often wondered if some personal crisis caused him to walk away from everything he had in his previous life. As we all know, it was generally customary for a Jewish man to marry around the age of 20. Is it possible Jesus did marry, possibly have one or more children, then have wife and children die of disease and/or accidents. Such a thing could have caused him to re-evaluate everything in his life up to that time. Perhaps he chose to leave his old and then very sad life and follow a charismatic figure like the Baptist, who assured him God’s Kingdom would soon arrive, and wrongs would be made right, such as the cruel loss of loved ones.
When John was killed Jesus could not let this message of the coming Kingdom fail, he had to pick up John’s mantel and keep working to bring the Kingdom to a living reality, a reality where he would be re-united with his wife and children.
Its just a thought. What do some of you all think?
Dinilfox said
At around age 30 Jesus walked away from his family, his livelihood, everything he had to that date, and went off to follow John the Baptist, and later start his own mission to the Jewish people. His own family thought him mentally ill, as did many in his old hometown.I have often wondered if some personal crisis caused him to walk away from everything he had in his previous life. As we all know, it was generally customary for a Jewish man to marry around the age of 20. Is it possible Jesus did marry, possibly have one or more children, then have wife and children die of disease and/or accidents. Such a thing could have caused him to re-evaluate everything in his life up to that time. Perhaps he chose to leave his old and then very sad life and follow a charismatic figure like the Baptist, who assured him God’s Kingdom would soon arrive, and wrongs would be made right, such as the cruel loss of loved ones.
When John was killed Jesus could not let this message of the coming Kingdom fail, he had to pick up John’s mantel and keep working to bring the Kingdom to a living reality, a reality where he would be re-united with his wife and children.
Its just a thought. What do some of you all think?
It seems like Jesus captured some of John’s disciples when John was still alive, although once himself a disciple of John.
Just joined (hence the late response).
I’ve had the same thought (my version: widower, no surviving children). The arguments are arguments by absence: although there are charges that Jesus was a glutton, associated with people he shouldn’t have, etc. there are no charges about wife/family abandonment. Even if one says ‘those are the gospels, written later’ it seems that the early church attracted women, slaves etc. who might have been encouraged by examples of Jesus leading a holy life despite leaving his family. Instead we have only sayings that might provide similar encouragement.
In addition, if Jesus was conspicuously unmarried and single his whole life, that might have been mentioned by his critics. That’s a harder argument, as you don’t have firm biography and, even if we did, ancient biographies didn’t always mention family situations if they weren’t noteworthy (We think that of course biographies talk about their subject’s family situation in order to understand the subject better, but ancient biography wasn’t necessarily aimed at understanding the subject but more about documenting what he had done.) So the argument in the first paragraph is hard; the one in this paragraph is even harder.
If Jesus was a widower, then it’s still a question whether that was an inspiration or not, and whether that inspiration was immediate or not. We’ll just never know. And it doesn’t really seem to matter. By the Gospel accounts, it’s likely that any inspiration would have been to join John the Baptist’s group.
I think (hope) it goes without saying that all could occur without – and doesn’t indicate – any soap opera fantasies about Mary Magdelene.
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