I wonder, though, because John the Beloved lived on Patmos? Ephesus? in his old age with Mary the mother of Christ. Is there any historical information on what happened to Mary Magdalene after Jesus’ death?

I think I had a book called the gospel of Mary—maybe still do. I had a bunch of those gnostic gospels. Somewhere. In a dusty corner. :)

We already have had publications (some rather recent) by Mormons claiming Jesus had children and that Joseph Smith was a direct descendant of Jesus, blah blah blah, etc etc etc, and trust me, it does make a difference to them whether someone is a direct descendant or has simply been “spiritually re-born of,” therefore now claiming to have his “royal blood.”

Either you are being naive or you need to read a lot more about LDS history in the contexts of lineage, adoption, patriarchal blessings, tribes, fore-ordination, the allegory of the olive tree, etc, etc, etc. You seem to be missing a huge chunk of classic Mormon world view, can’t help you with that.

CJ, you probably need to elaborate on that statement. I’m not at all clear on what you think backs you up.

I actually hold the view that the marriage requirement for our own exaltation should not be assumed for members of the Godhead. In know we Mormons believe in a sort of limited God that abides by laws of the universe, but I tend to believe that God’s laws for us on this earth are probably specific to us in many cases. The only reason I’m compelled to believe in a Heavenly Mother is because of modern GA statements. We teach that we can become like God – not as/or above God.

Anyway, It may sound like an inconsistent God (not an orderly one) but a review of the development of Mormon doctrines and teachings back me up, I think.

This is not the first time a Coptic document suggests a husband/bridegroom relationship between Jesus and an actual woman (not the Church). So, I guess the surprise or “news” comes from the usage of the term “wife,” which may be unprecedented in the context of an actual woman (not the Church).

I have always considered the possibility of Jesus being married. In my mind it only makes sense. On the other hand, I also think of the serious consequences of actual “descendants” of Jesus Christ due to our current understanding of his mission.

We claim Jesus is indeed God. We claim he “needed” to be human so he could suffer and understand human suffering, but also that he “needed” to be divine so that he could endure the amount of suffering he had to endure to redeem the sins of all humanity and to be able to “conquer death” and complete a resurrection, so that in turn we may one day do the same.

In this narrative, this is how we differentiate Jesus from us, he is divine because we was conceived by a divine father (God the Father) and a human mother (Mary).

Therefore, Jesus having had children would mean these descendants are somehow of a more special lineage than the rest of humanity. They posses in their genes, part of what differentiated Jesus from the rest of us. They would be direct descendants of God the Father in the time of Jesus through the Virgin Mary. I find this very unlikely.

With the historical obsession with elitism shared by races and religions (and unfortunately the seemingly current obsession with racial elitism based on the importance of different lineages in the LDS world, which I believe to be both absurd and anti-Christian), I prefer to think he did not have direct descendants and that he most likely did not have a wife.

We don’t need this blue, royal, chosen, or whatever “blood” or “lineage” bullshit (as much as some LDS try to keep those false traditions alive). I personally believe Jesus was about the very contrary, and knowing the human nature of wanting to always create a “superior” or “more special” or “more chosen” lineage for whatever reason, his mission focused on bringing humans closer to God.

After all, populating the earth is the commission of an Adamic calling not a Messianic one (Jesus is in a Messianic stage of existance in the eternal continuum, while the rest of us humans are in an Adamic stage of existance per classic Adam-God==human God early LDS tradition, although not other ramifications of the Adam=God theory). Therefore, I have decided in my mind, Jesus did not have a wife during his mortal experience.

The truth is that we are more like other religions than we are unlike. And that we have only a limited understanding of eternal realities.

I think it’s probably not helpful to compare the doctrine of eternal marriage with the WoW. Not really comparable ideas in any way.

I don’t look at the Jewish laws regarding marriage and our doctrine of eternal marriage as necessarily separate things. They could both be based on the same idea, received as revelation at different times.