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Look, I am not a punching bag for your comments on my intelligence.

I wasn't intending you to be - it just seemed that you didn't understand what I or my friend had said.

Whether or not Jesus was married has absolutely nothing to do with what His life was all about.

And I agree - as I said, his being married or not does not reflect upon his divinity.

That is a deflection into areas that will lead to diminishing Jesus into not being here as the Savior but as merely a good man.

I disagree - it doesn't diminish him in the least to say that he could have been married, just as it doesn't diminish him in the least when discussing whether or not he was a carpenter or what color his hair was.

- If we were not told in the Bible, it is not needed for our understanding.

I disagree - keep in mind that the NT was written at a time when people would have known much of what was going on around them or during the time of Jesus. When you just read the NT and nothing else, you are getting an isolated look at things, because you see it with 21st Century eyes - not the eyes of those living then. If you study the culture, the lifestyles of people living then, and the geopolitical history, it makes the sacrifices and actions of Jesus and his followers even more important than they already were.

In fact, some of what went on around Jesus and within a few generations before and after him, has caused reprecussions that have carried down to this very day, outside of religion - I'm talking social/historical changes that have led to conflicts that are still simmering today. I believe it's very important to know what life would have been like for those in the Bible.

- We are given the lineage of Jesus - but, a fact hardly ever mentioned is that the lineage did not actually give birth to Jesus because it lead to Joseph.

In Luke, Chapter 3, many believe that is Jesus' ancestry through Mary - after all, Jesus is referred to as the Son of David almost 20 times. Something mentioned that often is obviously very important. We could debate that for the rest of our lives (what Luke is referring to).

Therefore, I am always leery when a rabbi, or a Jew starts determining the validity of Jesus. The marriage issue is a prime example. They are looking at Jesus as a good man - not the Savior generally.

He wasn't looking at it as the validity or divinity of Jesus, but as a "if you were living back then and you were a Rabbi as Jesus was, it's very probable that you were married and people would have assumed you were married" - it's the same as if saying Jesus were a carpenter or Jesus wore this type of clothing or had this kind of beard or ate this kind of food. It has nothing to do with his divinity, but rather the way things were.

As far as your comments about Judaism, why we don't follow the Old Testament, or why those laws and beliefs were not all carried forward for the most part (although many were), that's something Biblical scholars could argue for decades to come - we don't have access to the Q document(s) or the original Gospel of Mark, or anything else that the New Testament was based on (the Nicene Creed doesn't help much either - we know the final results of course, but not all that went into those councils). There was so much turmoil in that time - it took many years before Christianity was truly seperated from Pharisaic Judaism (which became Rabbinic Judaism), and so there is a lot we don't know in how the Old Testament was viewed among those followers.

1 Corinthians 7
The Unmarried and the Widows
25 Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord,
but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is
trustworthy. 26 I think that, in view of the impending
crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are. 27 Are
you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free
from a wife? Do not seek a wife. 28 But if you marry, you
do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin. Yet
those who marry will experience distress in this life, and
I would spare you that. 29 I mean, brothers and sisters,
the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even
those who have wives be as though they had none, 30 and
those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and
those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and
those who buy as though they had no possessions, 31 and
those who deal with the world as though they had no
dealings with it. For the present form of this world is
passing away.
32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man
is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please
the Lord; 33 but the married man is anxious about the
affairs of the world, how to please his wife, 34 and his
interests are divided. And the unmarried woman and the
virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that
they may be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman
is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please
her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to
put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and
unhindered devotion to the Lord.