Where did the idea that early Christians were profamily come from?

[leftyladyfrommo]

I study early texts and I can't find anything that discusses family much at all. Am I missing something?

James, the head of the church in Jerusalem and really all of the early communities, and Jesus' brother was a lifelong celibate and believed strongly in keeping yourself pure. Paul thought that everyone should remain celibate if they could. And if they couldn't they should have a wife or a husband. The Essenes were celibate.

James, John the Baptist and probably Jesus were strict vegetarians. John the Baptist didn't live off locusts. If you change one letter in the Greek word it says he ate pancakes and honey. They were very careful about eating anything that was impure. Fornication also seems to be a violation of purity.

None of these guys were even married.

I have found references in a couple of texts that indicated that Jesus engaged in homoerotic acts with young men but they are extremely suspicious. They are supposedly from the Secret Gospel of Mark. One is a supposed letter from Clement that is most likely a forgery. A very good forgery. But that document was seen by only one man. He took pictures of it to show to other scholars but the documents was never verified by anyone else and then it disappeared. The man who found the document was capable of doing such a forgery. It might have been his idea of a sick joke and it caused much consternation at the time.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Matthew 10:35? nt

[Scootaloo]

2. -Snicker-

It's a decent question though. Jesus preached against marriage and the early church opposed raising families, arguing that doomsday was soon and the believers all had better things to do.

it's why they proseltyzed, 'cause they only gained numbers through recruitment, not birth.

[Bohunk68]

10. You got it right on, Scootaloo.

The biggest reason used by the Romans against the early Christians is that they were anti-family and would therefore destroy the social structure of the empire.

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. Good point.

That always seemed like such a strange thing to say.

But it seems to me like Jesus was pretty close to his family members. He had brothers and sisters and his mother.

In the Gospel of Thomas his followers asked him what to do if something happened to him and he told them to go to James. Which is kind of odd sense it's different than what the canon gospels said - they had everyone going to Peter. Many of the non canon sources point way more to the powerful position in the early church as going to James not to Peter or Paul. There is a lot written about James. He was a very respected individual when he was the head of the church. But later history seems to have down played his role and played up the roles of Peter and Paul.

It's so hard to make sense of things as there is just so much over writing in the canon works.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. St. Paul was not one of the 12

He never met Jesus. He only had his revelation on his road to Damascus. Paul was a great converter, the apostle of the gentiles. I never heard him as the head of the church.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. He wasn't.

But his influence was huge.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean he was the leader. His letters were the earliest writings that we have. Dated before the canon gospels.

[jaysunb]

3. Many Biblical scholars believe Paul was himself a

tormented homosexual. From some of his writings, it does seem to imply that he had some conflicted feelings about his sexuality.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Don't they always say that when man is not interested in sex?

Paul and James were often really at odds with each other but not about the celibate issue.

Then there is that whole thing about Paul and Thecla. Thecla was a female companion that traveled with Paul. She was also celibate. She was an extremely popular female figure clear up to the middle ages.

But I was thinking about the weird Duggars. The Mrs. believes that women should drop whatever they are doing to have sex with her husband whenever he feels the urge. I have also read that the ultra conservative Jews also believe that.

So what would happen to them if they found out Jesus was gay, and anti family and strict vegetarian? Lord!

[Major Nikon]

6. His ideas seem to conflict with Jesus

Luke 7 tells a story about Jesus healing a loved servant of a Roman caption which was almost certainly a homosexual relationship or pederasty.

Some scholars believe Jesus himself was likely homosexual, which is the simplest explanation for the "disciple whom Jesus loved".

[Nye Bevan]

8. Well, Jesus did attend the wedding at Cana, and seemed to enjoy Himself.

So much so that when the booze was in danger of running out He did the water into wine thing. Seems to me like an endorsement of both marriage and booze.