Published by Despite the fact that family is given a high priority in the Bible and in the teachings of Jesus Christ, it remains unclear whether Jesus himself was a family man? Meaning, did he has a family of his own?
The sanctity of the family is highlighted in the Bible on several occasions. Jesus was supposed to have said, ‘Let these children come to me for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to those as pure as they.’ And his answer to the Pharisees who asked him, ‘Is it right for a man to divorce a woman?’ was ‘Don’t you know that God created man and woman. And therefore, a man shall leave his parents and be united with his wife. They are no longer two, but one. Let man not separate what God has united.’
Several Christian writings have brought out the allegorical figure of Jesus as a husband and a father. Nikos Kazantzakis novel, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ addressed the temptation of Jesus to become a family person, while on the cross. The book has always been regarded as controversial and has topped Vatican’s list of banned books since it approaches the life of Jesus from His own perspective.
A more recent book about the domesticated Jesus was by Dan Brown. His fictional book, ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ sheds a light on the possibility of a family-relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that Jesus fathered Mary’s child, Sarah – ancestor to the French royal family.
All of this is very interesting, and no one camp can disrepute the other. And we may never find the answer to the question of the many accounts that Jesus enacted on earth. Nonetheless, there seems to have been a reinvigorated interest in the life of Christ – about the history of the Church, the principles for which it stands and a debate as to what and whom God can accommodate. And that kind of a debate is vital for the Christian person and body (church) to flourish!
