As I understand, there was no word for “bachelor” in ancient Hebrew–a Jewish man simply wouldn’t have been single. Their whole focus was on growing up to be married and raise a family, that was fulfilling the law. As a good Jew, I believe Jesus fulfilled the law and would have to have been married. He couldn’t be respected by any in his community as a teacher, a leader, or a religious man otherwise. We know Peter was married since Jesus healed his mother-in-law. Most men married at about 18-19, so that would give Jesus a good dozen years to raise a family before his ministry began. There are many female disciple candidates in the accounts to consider, the prime being of course Mary, Martha, but most certainly Mary Magdalene as the first he appeared to at the tomb. We wonder how Joseph Smith fit in time for marriage (and polygamy!) amidst all his legal cases, administrative and church duties, jail time, etc–it was probably similar for Jesus, who spent a few years preaching and traveling, perhaps with his family at his side (and he set a little child before them–his own?). I loved this textual find since it gives some validity to alternative beliefs.

As a good Jew, I believe Jesus fulfilled the law and would have to have been married. He couldn’t be respected by any in his community as a teacher, a leader, or a religious man otherwise. … Most men married at about 18-19, so that would give Jesus a good dozen years to raise a family before his ministry began.

I’ve often wondered if this is the reason we hear nothing about Christ from the time he was about 12 and was found teaching in the synagogue and the time of his ministry. Perhaps he was attending to family life.

I’ve often thought being Christ’s mother was a tough gig. I don’t think I’d sign up for being his wife, either. “Hey, Jesus, sweetie… Could you please not throw your wet towels on the bed after you bathe?” Na… Can’t quite see it. ;-)

I loved this textual find since it gives some validity to alternative beliefs.

Me too! I kind of felt vindicated in the belief that all people, regardless of their righteousness, must be married to attain the celestial kingdom. Of course, this tiny piece of paper doesn’t say that, but I like the human side of Christ. I feel like a lot of mainstream Christianity doesn’t want to focus on that element at all.

Here’s another little wrench: I don’t think Christ was “perfect.” I think he was sinless, but that’s not the same as being perfect. The scripture below says it all for me. He didn’t arrive as a glorified Christ. He arrived as an infant and had to learn everything we learned on earth as a mortal human being. And learning includes mistakes. Mistakes, however, are not necessarily sins. [Now I will be struck by lightening.]

D&C 93:12-13 “And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received bgrace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from agrace to grace, until he received a fulness;”

Yep, totally agree, annegb. I trust scripture, but only so much. We know a lot was taken out and we know a lot of it was written decades after Christ’s death. I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday no less a sermon I heard 10 years ago!

I always laugh when non-members criticize the Church for “adding to the Bible.” Anyone who knows anything about the history of the Bible knows it was never a complete book the way we know it now. I wish we had access to many of the books we know were taken out. Of course, I struggle just to read what we have. I don’t know if I could add more scripture to what we’re supposed to know!

I need to go get some Jewish scriptures. They have several books not included in the cannonized Christian Bible.

I was taught to accept the possibility that Jesus was married, which I still do, but I don’t find anything anywhere, this new discovery notwithstanding, that makes it seem more likely that he actually was. The thought of Jesus having to be married while on this earth strikes me as another attempt to Mormonize the scriptures for our convenience. Whether Jesus was married or not makes absolutely no difference to me.

Btw, marriage/sealing is not required of all in the CK, only the exalted ones, or Church of the Firstborn. The lower two levels in the CK live “singly and separately” as do the lower two kingdoms, TrK, and TlK. That’s in sec 132, I believe.

Are you sure about this, Bookslinger? That’s not how I interperet that section and haven’t we been told that there will be time for marriage and families in the millenium? I believe we’ve been told that parents who have lost small children will have an opportunity to raise them in the millenium and they will still get to grow up. {LDS.org is having issues at the moment so I’m working on memory right now.)

Everyone else in in the CK and lower are effectively single. So if I die childless (which is a good assumption at my age), and without a spouse, and only make it to the Terrestrial Kingdom (or a lower level in the CK), the only sealing I’ll get is to my parents.

I am 99.9% certain this is innacurate. But I’m looking for proof to back that up…

I continue to think on this point, and I have to say I think Christ would be better at understanding our trials in this life if He had been married. Not to disparage another religion, but I’ve always thought it’s odd that Catholic priests offer parenting and marriage advice (my father was raised Catholic and many of my family members still are). I think it’s pretty challenging to offer advice on something you’ve never experienced, kind of like a pediatrician who has a lot of academic experience dealing with children but who has never stayed up all night with a newborn or had to have “the talk” with his own pre-teen daughter.

This is also why I like the doctrine of Heavenly Father having once been like us. He knows what it’s like to be mortal and deal with the challenges related to mortality(though I’d still like to have a chat with Heavenly Mother at some point, too-*-yep, I’m working toward that lightening strike again!).

“I believe we’ve been told that parents who have lost small children will have an opportunity to raise them in the millenium and they will still get to grow up.”

Yes, but that comes under the heading of those who are guaranteed exaltation, little children who die before the age of accountability, mentally handicapped, etc.

Plus, according to another section in the D&C, the one about Alvin, those who _would have_ accepted the gospel come under that heading. Alvin gets his spouse/sealing/exaltation at some point.

Plus, accoring to various passages in the Bible, BoM and D&C, those who die, even as adults, without ever hearing _any_ portion of the gospel are inheritors of at least some degree in the CK. (But details are sketchy on that one.) I’m referring to those passages that say “those who die without law are judged without law.”

And maybe I’m not explaining all the possible situations you’re envisioning.

Everyone, the good, the bad, and the ugly, gets either a live-sealing ceremony themselves in the temple (ie, has a temple rcommend, etc), or gets a proxy-sealing ceremony (if they were at least married in mortality, or are a special exception), regardless of where they go, CK-1, CK-2, CK-3, TrK, or TlK.

But the fact that the ceremony/ordinance (either live married Mormon couples, or by proxy) gets performed doesn’t mean the sealing takes effect on the other side of the veil. Only CK-1 people have it “take effect” on the other side. That’s not the right wording, but I can’t think of how else to put it for now. Think of the D&C scriptures that say that only the ordinances that are “sealed by the holy spirit of promise” endure in the eternities.

As I understand, all temple ordinances that we perform in mortality are conditional. Live ordinances depend on the faithfulness of the participants. Proxy ordinances depend on the acceptance of it by the spirits, but also depend on the the final judgement of those spirits.

If two people we proxy-seal in marrage in the temple don’t end up going to the CK level 1, then those two people are _not_ married to each other on the other side of the veil, nor in the resurrection.

Now of course they ‘accept the gospel’ in the spirit world. Everyone “accepts the gospel” in the spirit world, even the TrK and TlK folks. Everyone does except the sons of perdition.

In other words, no temple ordinances are binding until sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

Therefore, the only ones who _stay_ (or are “really”) sealed/together/married for time and all eternity, are the group in CK-1, the exalted bunch. CK-2 and below live “singly and separately”.

Of course there are the “special exceptions”, the babies, missionaries who die on their missions, the Alvins, and the “heathen” as some scripture passages say. If they are guaranteed exaltation, and don’t have any sort of spouse/sealing when they die, they will still get a spouse/sealing at some point.

We don’t know how the babies and the Alvins are matched up or how their sealing ceremonies will work. Like you say, it will likely be in the millennium. Will Alvin get married before his resurrection, or after his resurrection? We don’t know.

However, according to D&C 132, and 135, perpetually single people like me, who die without ever being married in any earthly fashion, and assuming the person doesn’t make it to CK-1, there looks like no sealing will take place.

In that latter case, firstly there is no record of an earthly marriage for a proxy-sealing to be based on. Secondly, if the person is not going to CK-1, there is no over-ride or special exception to “give” that person a spouse on the other side as there is with the babies/Alvins.

It’s like the GA’s tell us single guys. If we don’t get married, we’re screwed. Single sisters, because there aren’t enough temple-recommend holding men to go around, have an excuse.

That’s another line the GA’s have repeated over at least the last 30 years that I’ve been paying attention: worthy women who die without a spouse will not be denied any blessings in the eternities. The GA’s make no such promise to worthy single men.

PPP: Back to your OP. I do agree with you in that according to our theology, we seem to be logically required to accept the deduction or extrapolation that the Savior has been or will be married.

However, prior to this recent discovery at least, it needed to be put on the shelf, out of respect. There is a parallel to other deductions or extrapolations that the gospel as we know it seems to logically require, but we don’t (or shouldn’t) talk about them either, as in the case of a Heavenly Mother.

LL: “Little children who die before they reach the age of accountability will automatically inherit the celestial kingdom, but not the exaltation in that kingdom until they have complied with the requirements of exaltation.”

I’ll go along with that. But I think you parse it wrongly.

“until they have complied with the requirements of exaltation” is a reference to sequence and timing, not a matter of if. “Not… until” is different than “if”. And I don’t think JFS meant “if”.

In other words, _of course_ all children who die before they reach the age of accountability will eventually comply with the requirements (learning, accepting, committing, ordinances) of exaltation. I don’t think there’s any “if” about it.

To clarify what I may have wrote or implied earlier, I did not mean to imply automatic equates with immediate.

Ask someone in your ward’s HP quorum, and see what they say. :-)

Hi All- I haven’t been ignoring your comments, I just have come down with some kind of strange cold/sinus infection.

I think we got off topic just a bit with all the “who’s going to be exalted and who’s not” discussion. I agree with annegb that I believe most of us will be “exalted.” However, what that means precisely, I don’t know. I have faith that our HF will sort us to the places we’ll be the happiest and most comfortable. And I think we’ll have our family relationships forever regardless of where we end up (just the gospel according to me, mind you).

annegb: I thought you were aiming for the Terrestrial Kingdom? :-)

Or maybe I’ll be in the bottom of the Celestial Kingdom. Anywhere I can be alone most of the time, have twice daily massages (full body, including feet), satellite TV and a hot tub.

I truly believe heaven’s going to be more fun than the Mormon idea of heaven. I swear, those times that I sit in Sunday School when people are discussing the prerequisites for exaltation, I think “are you kidding me? Why don’t we all just stay here?”

I just discovered Jon Stewart! He gets that the election this year is really pretty funny.

I have no problem that Jesus was probably married. For some reason, he has chosen not to reveal specifics about that part of his life, probably because we humans would take it “the wrong way,” as we do most things about him.

To be truly accepted as a teacher at all in society, Jesus would almost assuredly would have to have been married. Why would he expect us to get married if he was not? Why would he be so eager to do “fulfill all righteousness” and get baptized, yet abstain from marriage? The scriptures mention that he descended below all things so that he could know how to succor us in all things. There are few things in life more painful than marital problems! Even though Jesus had attributes of God, it’s his humanity that strikes me as what is most touching. he could have simply appeared on the earth, fully grown. But, he was born of an earthly mother, grew to adulthood, lived as a mortal, and died. I can’t understand why marriage wouldn’t be part of this journey.

Also, in “oh my father,” it mentions that “In the Heavens are Parents Single? No the thought makes reason stare, truth is reason, truth eternal, tells me I’ve a mother there.” If Jesus was to inherit “all that the father hath” and be like the father, why then would also not Jesus be married? Nuf said.

Does it really matter to us if Jesus was married? If God had of wanted us to know for sure, and had thought it was something that was critical to tell us, the information would have been included in the Bible. Since the Bible omits any mention of His marriage, we’ve all assumed that it never happened. Maybe we just weren’t meant to know, and I honestly don’t see how this issue would be more important than the information about true marriage God has already provided us with.