HIEROGAMY & THE MARRIED MESSIAH
(Web Edition)
By
James Wesley Stivers
© Copyright, 2006
Table of Contents
Preface
to the Web Edition
Introduction
Chapter
One: The Married Jesus In Popular Literature
Chapter
Two: The Married Jesus Among the Heretics
Chapter
Three: The Married Jesus According to Academics
Chapter Four: The Case for the Married Jesus
Chapter Five: Hierogamy: A
Primer
Preface to the Web Edition
This
is the web edition of a paperback book Hierogamy
& the Married Messiah, published in 2004. It, in turn, represents an abridged edition
of a much larger textbook bearing the same title. The “big book” is three times longer and
contains information which is critical to a completed understanding of the
doctrine of hierogamy. It is a book
which has been used for almost a decade in the catechumen program of the
Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail.
Since
neither of these books is readily available, the public need – especially in
light of interest generated by The
DaVinci Code – demands that the Internet be utilized to overcome the
institutional bias of the Church Establishment on this question of whether
Jesus was married. But also, the need
exists to correctly explain the presence of “the great rite” in the earliest
Church and how it differs from the pagan versions practiced by the nature
religions.
Long-time
readers will note that this edition replaces an earlier version which has been
available on this website since 2003.
This version includes chapter four, which is substantially longer than
the other chapters and provides the author’s own contribution to this
debate. It will be available for free
for as long as the movie version of The
DaVinci Code is shown in theatres.
Chapter
five, which contains summary discussion of the sex rite of the Messianic
Church, requires a subscription. Go to
that link if you want to subscribe.
Return
to the Promotion page,
if you want to purchase a hardcopy of this book. Happy reading!
* * *
INTRODUCTION
The Message of this
Book
This book is about Jesus - Jesus as a man of
the flesh. It is also about a married Jesus, a Jesus who loved women and was
not afraid to touch them.
This is a taboo topic
in the world of the Church. Even though the Church in its Creeds proclaims a
truly human Savior, our Lord's humanity still remains an embarrassment for
Christians to contemplate. They are willing to admit that Jesus grew tired and
slept. They are willing to admit that when He hungered, he ate. But when it
comes to other bodily functions, like defecating, they grow intensely nervous.
The thought of the Son of God squatting behind a bush to relieve Himself does
not seem very holy to the sanctimonious mind. Imagine the disgust at the
suggestion that Jesus might have fondled a woman's breast!
Even though the Scriptures plainly state
that our Lord bore the "infirmities of the flesh" and was
"tempted in like manner as we are," yet Christians are horrified at
the thought of a sexual Jesus. The quick retort, of course, is that Jesus did
not sin in these temptations. Yes, the pious mind will affirm a sinless
Messiah. But what does a sinless Messiah mean? Does it mean perfection? What
kind of perfection? Does it mean that Jesus dropped no crumbs when He ate His
food? Does it mean He did not lose consciousness when He slept? Does it mean He
had no erotic dreams or nocturnal emissions?
The Creeds of the Church affirm that Jesus
Christ had two natures: one human and one Divine. The natures existed with each
other side by side "without mingling and without confusion." What
this means is that Jesus did not cheat. Unlike the gods of pagan mythologies,
He did not allow His Divine nature to communicate its powers to His human
nature. Even though He had the power to raise the dead, He did not have the
power to prevent Himself from catching a cold. He had the power to calm the
stormy seas, but He did not have the power to avoid smacking His thumb with a
hammer. He had the power to cast out demons, but did not have the power to
prevent an erection.
Have I lost you already? The largest hurdle
to overcome when considering this proposition is not the bare facts. It's the
denial of our humanity that plagues Christianity. If you cannot get through
this Introduction calmly and with determined interest, you are not ready for
this subject. You have problems: emotional problems rooted in a Christianity
twisted by a hatred of the way God has made us.
For the rest of you, consider the beautiful
implications of what I have just said above. Our Savior experienced our humanity. He was
"touched by our infirmities," bore them with dignity, and sanctified
them.
This was the claim of one leader of early
Christianity: Irenaeus. He was a bishop who lived among the Celts of Gaul
during the 2nd Century. He taught what theologians call the
"doctrine of recapitulation." We will visit it again later in this
book. But basically, what it taught was the idea that mankind needed a Savior
for the totality of its humanity. Irenaeus debated against the Gnostics who
were members of various heretical Christian groups during this time. The
Gnostics taught that Jesus saved mankind, not in its humanity, but from
its humanity: that the union with the Divine was metaphysical and not ethical,
as the Christians taught it. One group of Gnostics was called the Docetists. The Docetists taught
that Jesus was not really human. He just pretended to be human. They felt that
had He really been human, His flesh would have disqualified Him from being the
Savior of the world. Leaders like Irenaeus resisted this claim and insisted
that Jesus was truly flesh and blood. They taught that all of the experiences
of humanity were His experiences also. The Doctrine of Recapitulation affirmed
that Jesus entered into every stage of human experience - from cradle to grave
- and sanctified them. Thus, to the Christian, the experience of our mortal
existence becomes one great sacrament; for we are following in the footsteps of
our Lord.
If Jesus entered every stage of human
experience, then what about sex and marriage? Irenaeus didn't say anything, or
at least, we have no record that he did. It is possible that these sorts of
things were edited out by later copyists who were hostile to the idea of a
phallic Christ. I don't know. But the demands of logic require that when
Irenaeus said "every stage of life" he meant to include that period
which is so basic to our existence: the period of fertility and mating. The
Gospel record tells us that Jesus was about 33 years old when He was crucified,
at the time when most men have reached the peak of their virility. The average
Jewish male was married between the ages of 16 and 20. It is difficult to
imagine Jesus avoiding marriage, especially if He came to redeem it.
And that is a part of the message of this
book. I do not stop with the proposition of a married Messiah. I ask the
questions of what it means and how might it change our paradigm of what
marriage is supposed to be. Hence, I introduce the term hierogamy (hi-raw-gamee).
Coined from the Greek hieros (sacred)
and gamos
(marriage), I go beyond the classical view of the Church that marriage is a
sacrament. Indeed, it is. But what kind of sacrament?
Scholars use the term "hieros gamos" to
refer to the ancient pagan practice of mating temple priestesses with
sacrificial kings who make atonement for the land. A part of the old fertility
religions, hierogamy was a ritual union of the masculine and feminine
principles which was designed to maintain balance in the cosmos and times of
plenty on the earth. Is this the kind of hierogamy we see in the Bible?
Some current scholars think so. I don't think so.
Modern scholarship does not take into
account that these fertility cults were often degraded and superstitious forms
of the old paganism of the Biblical patriarchs. While the faith of Enoch, Noah
and Abraham was rooted in natural revelation, many of their ancient
contemporaries engaged in religious rites without knowing their true meaning or
why they came into existence. Modern scholars are also compromised by a
Gnosticism which has propagated many of these ancient beliefs and customs
within a Christian garb, but not a truly Christian paradigm. They do not
understand the mysteries of the Church. You will be introduced to those
mysteries in this book.
However garbled the Biblical record might
appear to be to such scholars, there is one thread which admittedly ties it all
together: the doctrine of the covenant. There
is a unity of the Covenant in the Biblical record. Hierogamy cannot be
understood without first understanding the Covenant. Once that doctrine is
understood, a spiritual awakening occurs. It becomes immediately obvious why
Jesus had to be married to be
the true Messiah. Suddenly, the Scriptures come alive with new meaning and the
sometimes cryptic messages of the Patristic writings become apparent.
That is your privilege in reading this book.
Preview of Chapters
Let me offer some explanation of the
chapters in this book.
The first four chapters deal with the
question of whether Jesus was married or not. The first three chapters focus on
what others have said. I do not profess the reviews to be complete or
exhaustive. But I think they are representative
of what is available on the market right now.
The fourth chapter offers my contribution to
the discussion. In that chapter, I deal with theological questions arising from
the Biblical text, the Creeds, and cryptic messages of some of the early Church
Fathers. It argues the case that Christianity denies its own rhetoric in
failing to affirm the phallic Christ.
With the fifth chapter, "Hierogamy: A
Primer,” I condense the final chapters of the “big book” to give the reader a
sense for the meaning of a married Messiah to Christianity as a religion and
its future influence on the culture.
Don’t ignore the Appendix on the
Bridegroom. It provides some commentary
on an otherwise obscure saying of Jesus and offers a fresh perspective on the
relevance of hierogamy to the larger vision of Bible prophecy.
[There are
some references in this text which can only be found in the printed versions of
this book. They have been retained to
give the reader a sense for what material may be found in them.]
* * *
The Spirit and the
Bride say, Come!
- Revelation 22:17
Proceed to Chapter One