"Jesus was asked...‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’
Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise.
And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died.
At the resurrection [when they arise] whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.” -Mark Chapter 12
From our modern perspective this seems like one of those arcane "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" theological blind alleyways.
But we are oblivious to the context.
In the time of Jesus, wives (and children) were PROPERTY.
The question on the table was "Which brother (all men, of course) has primacy on the claim to her AS PROPERTY and those rights and privileges that can be exclusively claimed of such property. (I am being discrete, here. Please feel free to read between the lines)
Jesus responded:
"...When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are (all) like the angels in heaven..."
Jesus did not differentiate between men-and-women. They were all "like the angels in heaven". One cannot "give" people. One "gives" property.
Jesus was repudiating the cultural norm that women were "property".
That was incredibly radical!
Context...
620 years after Jesus said that, a major religion started that made "72 virtuous women" the property of a faithful member man who died promoting that particular faith. That is, 72 women would be his property for eternity.
In the mid-1800s the United States was a hotbed of native or indigenous Christian-like movements. A few of them transcended the ephemeral nature of most fads and are still with us today long after their founders died. One of those survivors believes that marriages initiated in this temporal, mortal plane are honored in heaven and in effect for eternity.
At one level, I don't have an issue with this. I cannot think of a finer companion for eternity than Mrs ERJ. But it is at-odds with the Bible as I understand it.
There is no shortage of casual observers who will claim that all religions are the same. I disagree. Common Christian doctrine (as opposed to how some who call themselves "Christians" might behave) does not claim that women are "property". Rather, it claims women have souls that are no greater and no lesser than those housed within the bodies of those of us who were born as men. That is radically different than many other religions.
Galatians 3:28 KJV There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.... We are now all one in Christ Jesus.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDelete"Jesus did not differentiate between men-and-women" - "When they rise from the dead."
ReplyDeleteMost marriages have a clause, "Until death do you part." We are no longer married when we die.
It is just as well that the things of this life end before eternity.
Just imagine if I went to Hell, as I deserve, and my wife went to Heaven (as I like to think she deserves). How happy would my wife be in Heaven with her husband in Hell? (OK, don't answer that!)
Sad to say, everyone does not go to Heaven. We can, but we won't.
sam
there are many religions on this planet.
ReplyDeleteNone of them force people to worship their way.
There is a death cult that does.
If you don't join, you have to pay a jizya tax or be killed.
If you leave the "faith", its a death sentence.
Women are property.
Gays are to be killed.
We need to wipe out that death cult.