Was He Married with Children? | Paul Gondreau

Integral to Jesus's full humanity was his manhood or maleness. As the "exemplum virtutus," he thus imbibed all the virtues in a male-structured and male-conditioned manner. This includes the virtue of chastity (or, more specifically in his case, the virtue of virginity). Though men are neurobiologically oriented to sexual desire and pleasure and to the visual aspects of sex, to the extent that the male fallen condition is particularly prone to lust, the struggle with lust was not characteristic of Jesus, even if he possessed the natural male neurobiological structuring. The Gospel evidence shows a Jesus who enjoyed unfettered, virtuous relationships with his female (and male) disciples and who insisted that his followers exercise strict sexual self-mastery. He was the model for this. The Gospel evidence also indicates that Jesus held an extremely high estimation of marriage. Though he did not struggle with lust, he could however have experienced sexual temptation, given his recognition of the good of sex and the good of marriage. This talk will examine all of this.