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.