Jesus and his own wife or marriage

Mark Goodacre has the simplest human reason why he thinks Jesus did not marry - in three words.

It was devotional.

 There you have in three words what I tried to meander about in my last post in many more.

Mark is reading into a human 18-20 year old from 2000 years ago a motivation that goes beyond mere self-satisfaction or obsession. I wonder if we could find additional evidence for such a reading.

I will come as no surprise to you that I would pick the devotion of the Psalms as a model.

Who pours whose self out on behalf of others? The Anointed, who is, by the admission of יהוה, a libation - according to Psalm 2.

I myself have offered as libation my own king

on Zion, my holy hill.

Who is passionate about יהוה ? Who alone? The Anointed - according to Psalm 18.

I am passionate about you יהוה my courage.

This is more than a superficial zeal. It is the only time in the Scriptures that such passion is used of human love for God.

Who drinks the cup that is set apart for the wicked? The one who balances the pillars of earth - according to Psalm 75.

for there is a cup in the hand of יהוה

and the wine is red

full of mixture

and he spills from it

surely they will suck the dregs

all the wicked of the earth will imbibe

This cup - the pouring out - the libation - is taken up in Psalm 116.

the cup of salvation I will bear 

so in the name of יהוה I will call

My picking a few verses at random - and I could pick many more - shows how a human being, in this case the elect poet of the psalms, could be passionate for a form of justice that is unrealized in our world apart from the example of Jesus who poured out his life on behalf of the many, and whose very libation we drink in his remembrance. The Gospel, the Eucharist, the King, the Anointing and the Vindication are all there in a manuscript freely available (but it takes a little work to get into it) that is not a forgery, but a reflection of a devotion that anyone can also enter into who chooses to follow.

In contrast to Jesus, modern kings pour out the blood of their subjects to protect their own place. It is hardly the place where one would want to be found in the judgment. I would rather be in the place of adoration.