justinangel
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- Feb 19, 2011
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I'm glad you finally pointed this out. Until now you gave me the impression that to remain celibate (unmarried) or chaste in a marriage was always and unconditionally viewed as a sin. It would have been a greater evil if Joseph had honoured Mary's oath "to afflict herself" and then changed his mind and demanded that she break it. I've already explained this to you above by citing Numbers. This is an exception to the rule. Joseph would have transgressed against the Torah and sinned if he reneged on allowing Mary to keep her vow. Moreover, although the command to procreate did apply to men, there were exceptions even in this case. We find an example in the Talmudic tractate Yevamot (63.b). Here there is the story of the Palestinian teacher Simeon ben Azzai (early 2nd century B.C.) who preached a sermon on procreation. When his colleagues reproached him for not practising what he preached since he himself was celibate, he answered: "What can I do? My soul is in love with the Torah. The world can be populated through others." Not unlike the apostle Paul, who was still a devout Jew after his conversion, ben Azzai chose not to marry, since he felt the responsibilities of the married life would interfere with his diligent and devoted study of the Torah. Also, he felt that his studies would interfere with his responsibilities as a husband and a father. Thus it does appear that ancient Jewish tradition did exempt men from the injunction to marry for the sake of studying the Torah and getting closer to God. Certainly ben Azzai couldn't have been the lone exception. A number of mediaeval authorities didn't think so. “Anyone whose soul is constantly in love with the Torah like Ben Azzai so that he cleaves to it all his days without ever taking a wife such a one commits no sin, provided that his [sexual] inclination does not get the better of him" [Shulhan Arukh (Even Ha-Ezer, I. 4)].
Now, in the Litany of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus is invoked as "most chaste" since the Catholic Church is more inclined to believe that Joseph was a virgin himself and a bachelor when his marriage with Mary was arranged. Jerome bears witness that this was a belief among Christians in the West during his time. He rejected the Eastern tradition of Joseph being a widower with children as read in the PoJ. " "We believe that God was born of a virgin, because we read it. We do not believe that Mary was married after she brought forth her Son, because we do not read it. . . . You [Helvidius] say that Mary did not remain a virgin. As for myself, I claim that Joseph himself was a virgin, through Mary, so that a virgin Son might be born of a virginal wedlock" (Against Helvidius, 25). I mention this because, from what we know of ben Azzai and Paul, Joseph himself may have chosen to remain celibate for religious reasons and vowed to remain unmarried. Couldn't his soul have been in love with the Torah, too.?This could explain why Mary and Joseph were paired. Catholic saints and mystics have received private revelations that confirm Joseph was a virgin who was chosen by priests of the temple where Mary had served since she was a little girl. It was her mother Anna who consecrated her to God before she was born. Personally I see it as an aberration that an old widower with children would be called to head the Holy Family. Joseph was about 30 when he married Mary who was 14 at the time. The priests wanted her to be married when her temple service came to an end. Anyway, besides the Essene community, there were two other social groups in Nazareth at the time in which celibacy and chaste marriages were practised.
Returning to the Gospel of Luke, the Greek for both "will conceive" (sullēmpsē) and "[will] bear" (texē) in Luke 1:31 are in the future middle indicative tense. The future indicative means that it indicates something that is to take place in the future. The middle voice means that the subject of the sentence (in this case Mary) acts in some way that concerns herself or that she is involved to a large degree in the action or the results of that action. The use of the middle voice, then, is not surprising since Gabriel is speaking of pregnancy and birth; quite obviously the mother is involved to a very great degree in pregnancy and birth - although she tells the angel in v.34 "I have no relations with a man". [Active Indicative as opposed to the Aorist Indicative]
I beg your pardon. I had the impression until I read your last reply that you were implying that all Jews today view this first command of the Torah as carrying the penalty of sin with equal gravity of the Ten Commandments given to Moses. Some biblical scholars and Church historians see Paul as a revisionist of Judaism. He did in fact first try to convert the Jews before he preached to the Gentiles. Hebrew converts to the Catholic faith have said that they do not feel that they have converted to another religion because of the Church's connection with the Old Covenant. They find the fulfilment of their Judaic faith in the Catholic faith.
Anyway, celibacy and chaste marriages are neither unnatural nor unbiblical. "Be fruitful and multiply" is not unconditionally binding upon every individual; rather, it is a general precept for the human race. Otherwise, every unmarried man and woman of marrying age would be in a state of sin by remaining single, and Jesus and Paul would be guilty of advocating sin as well as committing it.
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