Women in the Life of Jesus, the Christ (eBook)

Although there are works dedicated to the women who had something to do with Jesus during His earthly life-such as his mother and Mary Magdalene (one of mine is included in this group)-there are some works whose authors have been extremely meticulous and counted each and all nineteen women who appear in the canonical gospels, no matter how briefly, and had something to do with Jesus. By adding the mention of some legends, Scottish mainly, in reference to a son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene-John Francis-a new angle has been opened in this study, the one of the sexual relations between Jesus and Mary. Was she the wife of Jesus, as several details seem to indicate?The theme has been complicated by the Roman Catholic Church's attitude toward sex, mainly after its decree obligating all church ministers to total celibacy in order to serve the altar (Second Lateran Council, 1139, confirmed by the Council Trent in 1563). After such a disastrous legislation, sex and sexual relations acquired the aspect of a sort of evil, instead of being what God has planned from the first day of creation: "e;The God Lord said, 'It is not good for the men to be alone: I will make a helper suitable for him'"e; (Gen. 2:18). Later, Jesus Himself confirmed the statement by saying, "e;A man...shall be joined by his wife and the two shall become one flesh"e; (Matt. 19:3-12).