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Old 10-03-2011, 02:37 AM
 
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi View Post
His disciples did not as yet comprehend the true nature of God's Son, and were unneccessarily concerned that he was risking his safety by remaining in the midst of the large mass of people pressing in upon them. Jesus was well aware that He was in no danger.
Well, I just came across this old-timey commentary by a standard Protestant called Barnes - his writings are no longer copyrighted, they're in the public realm. He wrote way back in the 19th century:

Mar 3:21
When his friends - Greek, “they who were of him.” Not the apostles, but his relatives, his friends, who were in the place of his nativity.

Heard of it - Heard of his conduct: his preaching; his appointing the apostles; his drawing such a multitude to his preaching. This shows that by “his friends” were not meant the apostles, but his neighbors and others who “heard” of his conduct.

They went out to lay hold on him - To take him away from the multitude, and to remove him to his home, that he might be treated as a maniac, so that, by absence from the “causes” of excitement, he might be restored to his right mind.

They said - That is, common report said; or his friends and relatives said, for they did not believe on him, Joh_7:5. Probably the enemies of Jesus raised the report, and his relatives were persuaded to believe it to be true.

He is beside himself - He is delirious or deranged. The reason why this report gained any belief was, probably, that he had lived among them as a carpenter; that he was poor and unknown; and that now, at 30 years of age, he broke off from his occupations, abandoned his common employment, spent much time in the deserts, denied himself the common comforts of life, and set up his claims to be the Messiah who was expected by all the people to come with great pomp and splendor. The charge of “derangement” on account of attention to religion has not been confined to the Saviour. Let a man be made deeply sensible of his sins, and spend much of his time in prayer, and have no relish for the ordinary amusements or business of life; or let a Christian be much impressed with his obligation to devote himself to God, and “act” as if he believed there was an “eternity,” and warn his neighbors of their danger; or let a minister show uncommon zeal and spend his strength in the service of his Master, and the world is not slow to call it derangement. And none will be more ready to originate or believe the charge than an ungodly and infidel parent or brother, a self-righteous Pharisee or professor in the church. At the same time, men may endanger themselves on the bosom of the deep or in the bowels of the earth for wealth; or may plunge into the vortex of fashion, folly, and vice, and break in upon the hours of repose, and neglect their duties to their family and the demands of business, and in the view of the world it is wisdom and proof of a sane mind! Such is the consistency of boasted reason; such the wisdom and prudence of worldly men!
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Old 10-03-2011, 03:30 AM
 
Location: Gaston, North Carolina
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Woof View Post
Right, there's no specific age requirement (nor minimum requirement, a political marriage could take place at a very young age and not be against the Bible). But from what I've read, the way they interpreted that was by when a man had learned his trade well enough to leave his parents' home and afford a wife and family, he should start looking. Generally speaking from what I've read, this would have been in the late teens (boys everywhere in the world usually learned their father's trade since they were very young, so it didn't take longer than that to master it).

The girls were generally married off much earlier, soon after their first period, so that they wouldn't screw around with the wrong guy and shame the family, not to mention reducing her chances of being anything better than a prostitute in life).

I'm not at all saying that it's certain Jesus was married, but in my opinion very possible, even likely. We don't know what happened to him between the ages of 12 up to his ministry which is estimated to have been in his early 30s.

Of course if Jesus and his family were of such low social standing that nobody wanted to marry their daughter off to him, he might have remained single. That's possible if the villagers didn't buy Mary's story of having been impregnated by God before marrying Joseph. They could count months back then too, and if further he didn't resemble Joseph there might have been some gossip.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate you opinion even if I don't come to the same conclusion. IMHO I would think a wife would have been mentioned even if she was no longer around because Christ did care for the widows and orphans and if He was a widower it would have been an good point to have made either by His followers are by those who didn't like Him.
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Old 10-03-2011, 05:09 AM
 
Location: New York City
5,553 posts, read 7,988,180 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinD69 View Post
Many throughout the OT did not marry until they where 40 and were not frowned upon.
Who were the many??? Also, weren't the earlier OT folks living to 5 zillion years so marrying at 40 was considered marrying in infancy?
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Old 10-03-2011, 07:14 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
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When Mary was young, she was strong in her faith, as evidenced by 'be it unto me'.

However she was a Jew living in a Jewish community under Levite rule. We assume that Joseph had died before Jesus reached 30. So Mary would have been a widow raising all of her children. Without a husband to defend her in the city gates. She would have fed her children by way of harvesting the corners of the fields as was custom.

She was in fear for her household, in case the Sanhedrin or Levites had decided that her household was no longer worthy of living there.
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Old 10-03-2011, 08:27 AM
 
5,925 posts, read 6,929,638 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Woof View Post
Mark 3:20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family[b] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Strange thing to think of someone who seems to be very successful in his ministry.

Maybe he'd been acting strangely before, and she had decided something like, "one more time, and we're going to go bring him home."

Maybe Jesus had been literally out of his mind at times - I tend to think that, as an observant Jew, he had been married at one time and maybe had gone almost out of his mind with grief if his wife had died. Maybe that's why he went out on that mysterious long fast in the desert.

What do you think?

It's an interesting look at ancient attitudes toward mental illness, that it must have been common enough back then, and that families were considered to be responsible for the afflicted.


Appears to be a typical human responce that is based upon the situation at the time.

As believers we have centuries of thought about Jesus and what he did and what he stood for that today we can sort through and think about. At the time, I suppose Jesus still may have been seen as a man with great gifts, his death and ressurection had not come about as part of the thought processes yet.

To them, all Jesus may have been doing was signing hios death warrant, so it would be easy to see someone going "He's crazy" as he continued doing the things that were upsetting those who could have him killed.
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