"Because Jesus was a Jew," Langdon said, taking over while Teabing searched for his book, "and the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood."
Whether or not the book is true or not (I think not...) this fact (?) seemed very plausible and interesting to me. The Jews, like most peoples of their time, were obsessed with procreating -- preferrably males but children, nonetheless. How many passages in the bible underscore having children, needing to have children, the very large families, the importance of male children, and on and on? It was a big deal!
So, OK, we have jesus starting to get to an age where marriage was pretty much a given, if not outright required. Why or how would he escape needing to be married to fulfill established custom and practice at the time? That and his "perfect" hormones would probably be kicking in right about the age of puberty so his "perfect" horniness" would be raging.
Mary Magdelene was a reasonable choice. I'm sure marrying a prostitute was frowned on, but jesus didn't generally go for conventional and she was available, so why not? And if not MM, then why not some other woman? Marriage was a big deal, plus jesus was probably ready for some fun after all the years of celibacy.
Just a thought, but it makes a lot of sense...
