Did Jesus Have a Wife?

Alice C. Linsley

Karen L. King, the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, notes that Jesus refers to a wife in this Gnostic Coptic fragment.  The specific phrase in question reads, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife..." and many assume that this must be a literal wife.



Photo: Karen L King

The document says very little about a wife. Here is the entire text of the fragment: (The ellipses indicate unreadable material.)

1 ] “not [to] me. My mother gave to me li[fe…”
2 ] The disciples said to Jesus, “.[
3 ] deny. Mary is worthy of it
4 ]……” Jesus said to them, “My wife . .[ [
5 ]… she will be able to be my disciple . . [
6 ] Let wicked people swell up … [
7] As for me, I dwell with her in order to . [
8] an image [
1 ] my moth[er
2 ] three [
3 ] …[
4 ] forth which … [

In this article in the New York Times, King makes the point "that this fragment should not be taken as proof that Jesus, the historical person, was actually married. The text was probably written centuries after Jesus lived, and all other early, historically reliable Christian literature is silent on the question."

The Vatican has declared the fragment a fake.

The fragment represents Coptic Gnosticism or late Egyptian mysticism. Mysticism of the Nile Valley often involves allegories about taking a wife. The ruler's second wife was taken at the time of the ruler's ascension to the throne, so the metaphor of a wedding is linked to the beginning of the kingdom. Jesus might naturally use such language in referring to his ascension and the dawning of His eternal Kingdom.

Jesus Christ never married but He has two brides, following the marriage and ascendancy pattern of his Horite ruler-priest ancestors. A second bride was taken shortly before he ascended.

The second bride is the Church, represented by Photini. As was the common practice among Abraham's people, grooms met and courted their brides at wells.

The pattern of two wives characterizes the Horite marriage and ascendency structure. This is evident with Abraham's father, Abraham, Jacob, Esau and Moses' father.

The first wife is his sister bride, represented by all who lived in faithful expectation of His coming into the world in the flesh. They repose in the "Bosom of Abraham." Among these are the priest Simeon and the Prophetess Anna.

Related reading:  Who Were the Horites?; Moses' Horite Family; Jesus' Horite Ancestry; Yes, Georgia, there is a Kingdom!; Dr. Albert Mohler, The Gospel of Jesus' Wife? When Sensationalism Masquerades as Scholarship; The Wife of Jesus Hoax; The Pattern of Two Wives

Who was the Bigger Liar, Abraham or Issac?

Alice C. Linsley


It is commonly believed that Abraham lied to Pharaoh and Abimelek when he said that Sarah was his sister. In fact, Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister as well as his wife. Abraham explained this to Abimelek, “She is the daughter of my father, but not of my mother” (Gen. 20:12.)

The text doesn’t actually say that Abraham lied. It indicates that he asked Sarah to lie when he said to her “say that you are my sister so that it might go well with me.” The explanation given was that Sarah was very beautiful and that it might cost Abraham his life to fight for her (Gen. 20:11).

The key to understanding this ploy is to place these stories in the proper cultural context. Sarah was a high-ranking woman and as such was valuable. Women such as Sarah were prized not simply for their beauty, but also for the political leverage that they could bring. The sister-wife narratives of Genesis 12, 20 and 26 involve a powerful ruler who unknowingly takes the patriarch’s wife as his own. This action appears to be motivated not by lust but by the desire for status and territorial ambitions.

The interest in Sarah is explained when we remember that she was the daughter of Terah, a great Kushite ruler who vast Mesopotamian territory extended from Haran to Ur, virtually the entire length of the Euphrates River.

It is also significant that both rulers recognized in Sarah a woman who was not to be violated. In both accounts the rulers are portrayed as righteous leaders who do not wish to bring evil upon their people by committing adultery. The rulers of Egypt and Philistia (who were kin) were bound by a common moral code. They recognized in Sarah not only a beautiful woman of high standing, but also a devotee of Horus, the deity to whom these rulers showed devotion.

E.A. Speiser writes, “All three passages [Gen. 12:10-20; Gen. 20:1-13; Gen. 26:1-14] give essentially the same story: a patriarch visits a foreign land in the company of his wife. Fearing that the woman’s beauty might become a source of danger to himself as the husband, the man resorts to the subterfuge of passing himself off as the woman’s brother.” (Anchor Bible Commentary on Genesis, p. 91)

This is a troubling picture of Abraham and Sarah. Yet both rulers respond positively to their ploy by giving gifts to Abraham and making provision for them to move safely or dwell safely in their territory. In other words, the information which Abraham provided the rulers enabled them to see that Abraham and Sarah were Horite kin, as this kinship pattern was unique to the Horites.

The Patriarchs married according to the pattern of their Horite ruler-priest caste. The half-sister wife held the rank of the first wife. So Sarah held a higher social rank than Keturah, Abraham’s cousin bride. Only through her was Abraham going to establish a territory to pass on. The firstborn son of the sister wife was the heir-designate to the throne of his biological father.

This raises an interesting question. Was Isaac the biological son of Abraham? Nowhere in Genesis does it say that Abraham “knew” his wife and she conceived. It is provocative that the story of Sarah conceiving comes immediately after her dismissal from Abimeleh’s court. Genesis 21:1 says “Now YHWH took account of Sarah as he had said, YHWH dealt with Sarah as he had spoken. Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son…” There is a suggestion here that Sarah was overshadowed by the Lord. This aspect of the story is important because there is evidence that Abraham believed that Isaac was the promised “Seed” of Genesis 3:15 whose coming the Horites anticipated. This belief puts the story of Isaac's "sacrifice" in a very different light.

Genesis has fewer narratives involving the sister-wife than the cousin/niece wife. Isaac’s sister wife isn’t even named. She is hidden in the text and only discovered through analysis of the Horite kinship pattern whereby all the rulers had two wives by the time they ascended to the throne.

In Genesis 26:7 we are told that Isaac attempted the same ploy as his parents, only in this case he tried to pass off his cousin/niece wife as his sister. If anyone can be called a liar, it is Isaac, since Rebecca wasn’t his sister wife.

 
Related reading: The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; The Pattern of Two Wives; Did Abraham Believe Isaac to be Messiah?; Terah's Nubian Ancestors