"Pass on still further in their history, and look at their course and conduct, if you will believe the writers that lived in that age. What does old Celsus [Aurelious Cornelius Celsus; ca. 25 B.C.-A.D. 45] say, who was a physician in the first century, whose medical works are esteemed very highly at the present time. His works on theology were burned with fire by the Catholics, they were so shocked at what they called their impiety. Celsus was a heathen philosopher; and what does he say upon the subject of Christ and his Apostles, and their belief? He says, "The grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was, because he had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed him." After Jesus went from the stage of action, the Apostles followed the example of their master. For instance, John the beloved disciple, writes in his second Epistle, "Unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth." Again, he says, "Having many thing to write unto you (or communicate), I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full." Again--"The children of thy elect sister greet thee." This ancient philosopher says they were both John's wives. Paul says, "Mine answer to them that do examine me is this:--.
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas." He, according to Celsus, had a numerous train of wives.
The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were "Mormons." (Journal of Discourses, Vol.1, p.346, August 7, 1853)
The reader will note that President Grant quotes from a non-LDS historical source as the basis for his comments. The scriptures are silent on this issue of marriage or polygamy but as shown there are some ancient scattered writings that give support to the theory that Christ was not only married but he may have also been a polygamist.
This is a startling claim from an allegedly early source. There is a hint of a polygamous Jesus in The Apocalypse of James, a writing from the Nag Hammadi discovery, where James the Just is quoted as saying to Jesus:
“Yet another thing I ask of you: who are the seven gune [wives] who have been your disciples? And behold, all women bless you.”
At the crucifixion the gospels have several lists of the women who were present.
Epiphanius writes about the early Christians saying:
“They force the young people to marry even before they reach maturity ... They allow not just one marriage, but if anyone wants a divorce from his first marriage, and to contract another, they allow it - they do not hesitate to permit anything - up to a second and third and seventh marriage.”(30.18.2-3)
The Ebonite's also had writings about Christ being a polygamist as well as the early Christians.
Terrance Sweeney, in his Forward to Margaret Starbird's book, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, presents us with this one: if Jesus was never married, why didn't St. Paul use Him as an example of celibacy instead of himself? Would that not have clinched the case for celibacy, the fact that Jesus was celibate? Undoubtedly, if Jesus was not married, Paul would have used that in His argument. The fact that Paul was constrained to use himself as a standard for emulation - even at one point admitting that it was his own doctrine with no authority from Jesus (1 Corinthians 7:6 & 12) - seems to be a compelling contradiction of the traditional view.
The most academically disciplined and useful study on the question of a married Jesus is the book by William E. Phipps, Was Jesus Married? The Distortion of Sexuality in the Christian Tradition, published in 1970. Long out-of-print, it was republished in recent years as The Sexuality of Jesus. In the opinion of scholars, it remains the standard in the field by which all other works must be measured. Any rebuttal to the proposition of a married Jesus which does not address the issues raised by Dr. Phipps is necessarily truncated and useless.
Now, Dr. Phipps is no cult freak. He is a Presbyterian and was for many years the department head of Philosophy and Religion at Davis-Elkins College in West Virginia. When Harper & Row first published his book in 1970, it raised some eyebrows and in a brief moment of fame, he made the pages of some important newspapers across the country. As a scholar, he was not given to sensationalism and speculation. Consequently, his book never circulated like the more flamboyant and iconoclastic books of Baigent and Company: Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy. Yet, these authors, and others like them since then, have relied upon Phipps' scholarship as the chief cornerstone for their historical revisionism. What is remarkable, more than anything, is that no other academic has dared to follow in his footsteps. He remains alone in this field of inquiry.
