Christians and Marriage

The first known statements about Jesus’ celibacy first appeared about a century after his death.  Clement of Alexandria, a theologian and church father who lived from A.D. 150 to A.D. 215, reported on a group of second-century Christians “who say outright that marriage is fornication and teach that it was introduced by the devil.” They proudly say that they are imitating the Lord who neither married or had any possession in this world boasting that they understand the gospel better than anyone else.”

 

Clement wrote that while celibacy and virginity were good for God’s elect, Christians could have sex in marriage so long as it was without desire and for procreation. Other church fathers also invoked Jesus’ unmarried state. Complete unmarriedness was how the holy man turned away from the world, and toward God’s new kingdom.

 

There is a papyrus fragment that suggests Jesus was married. There were early Christians…who could understand that sexual union in marriage could be an imitation of God’s creativity and it could be spiritually proper and appropriate.

 

Questions concerning Jesus’ celibacy may have been rejected because they flowed were contrary to the Christian practice and understandings of marriage and sexual intercourse.

 

Today we look askance at such beliefs but we have to imagine the affect on the church that church leaders advocated such.