Jesus is the son of God

[ericc]

There are three commonly held beliefs about what constitutes a marriage in the eyes of God:
1.The couple is married in the eyes of God when the physical union is consummated through sexual intercourse.
2.The couple is married in the eyes of God when the couple is legally married.
3.The couple is married in the eyes of God after they have participated in a formal religious wedding ceremony.

Did Joseph and Mary do any of these?

That would make an interesting NEW thread. I haven’t done much reading on ancient Jewish marriage laws so I can not comment fruitfully just yet. I am sure there will be others who are able to.

 

[ericc]

There are three commonly held beliefs about what constitutes a marriage in the eyes of God:
1.The couple is married in the eyes of God when the physical union is consummated through sexual intercourse.
2.The couple is married in the eyes of God when the couple is legally married.
3.The couple is married in the eyes of God after they have participated in a formal religious wedding ceremony.

Here is how the birth of Yeshua the Messiah took place. When his mother Miryam was engaged to Yosef, before they were married, she was found to be pregnant from the Ruach HaKodesh. 19 Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame. 20 But while he was thinking about this, an angel of Adonai appeared to him in a dream and said, “Yosef, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam home with you as your wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach HaKodesh. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, [which means ‘Adonai saves,’] because he will save his people from their sins.”

Did Joseph and Mary do any of these?

I couldn’t find much on ancient Jewish marriage laws pre-Jesus era. But this is what I found out. Wives were like the property of the man and could be divorced rather easily and abandoned. I guess the husband owner could if he so desire to consummate or not to as he pleases. Marriages were very often arranged between parents of the bride and groom with an agreed bride-price with very little emotional considerations of the bride and groom. The temple authorities were not a major part of the marriage process at all since marriage is basically a contract between 2 families.

The 3 commonly held beliefs that you have put forward were a much later modern concept which you tried to apply to the 1st century. Sorry, but you really do have a serious timing tissue. I don’t think you can find your 3 common beliefs that you have put forward in the OT at all. I could be wrong, so, please share your documentation.

 

[AmbroseSJ]

nmgauss:

Bishop Butler did not have the advantage of research results by Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin. His arguments are quite good at concluding that life shows the hand of a master designer. However, he had little evidence of the failures and successes of the various designs that had been tried. The fossil record shows many failures. If these are failures, why were they allowed to happen?

You aren’t really familiar with Bishop Butler’s book The Analogy of Religion are you? First of all, Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin would actually ADD to the arguments of Bishop Butler! Butler was arguing AGAINST the Deists of his time who DID argue from Nature. So try doing some reading first before dismissing.

 

[nmgauss]

You aren’t really familiar with Bishop Butler’s book The Analogy of Religion are you? First of all, Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin would actually ADD to the arguments of Bishop Butler! Butler was arguing AGAINST the Deists of his time who DID argue from Nature. So try doing some reading first before dismissing.

Telling me to read a book does little to edify me. That’s like telling someone to read the entire Bible to be able to discuss a Biblical issue. If you have some information that would help the discussion, I would like it.

 

[Tom_Baum]

Hello nmgauss

Where did I say God has to be neuter?

He isn’t. He is the Father. He is the Son. He is the Holy Spirit. God revealed Himself to us humans as a Man. I am a woman. I guess since you are non-denominational I can write off some silliness and confusion, but when I person claims Christianity for him or herself, I kinda expect that the fundamental belief that God is in the person of Jesus Christ, a Man is an accepted fact of their chosen religion and that they’ve pretty much given up any beliefs they may have previously had regarding the vague and nebulous notions about God’s gender. Gender madness. If they don’t believe that much then perhaps they shouldn’t call them selves Christian and find honest shoes to walk in till they can again. Perhaps that seems harsh, but I am a firm subscriber to this little bit of Platonics: “To thine ownself be true.” Why pretend you believe when in fact you don’t?

Glenda

You wrote, “God revealed Himself to us humans as a Man.”

God didn’t reveal Himself to us as any gender, it was God-Incarnate Who revealed Himself as Male.

Just because God the Father is referred to as Father does NOT mean that He Is a Male.

If that were the case, than man, as opposed to mankind, would not have needed to be created, only woman.

I do not believe that God is a He, a She nor an It (neuter) but that God Is a Being of Love and to attribute a gender to God, belittles God.

To become One of us, God had to become either a male, a female or a hermaphrodite and God appears to have chosen to become a Male born of a woman who had to give her freely given consent to God for God to become One of us.