I told you I would write about Mary Magdalene’s celibate life. Well, we have to consider that Mary Magdalene’s and Jesus’s (such as Mary’s and Joseph’s) relationship is a ‘royal’ dynastic one. Jesus came from the line of King David, and Mary Magdalene’s father was the Jairus-Priest Syrus. The married couple were subject to strict dynastic rules which drastically differed from the usual Jewish marriage-laws. The requirements for a dynastic marriage were clearly defined. They demanded a celibate life style, strictly regulating the periods where the conception of a child was allowed.

Engagement – First Marriage – Second Marriage

It started with a sort of engagement which was actually a contractual marriage. Three months after the ‘engagement’ there was a formal ‘First Wedding’ with an anointment ceremony (let’s remember the scene where Mary Magdalene anoints Jesus with nard!). In the following September marriage began. Afterwards a physical relationship was allowed, but only in the first part of December. If this did not result in pregnancy, they had to lead a celibate life again until the following December.

Did the woman get pregnant, though, there was a ‘Second Wedding’, and the marriage was legal. The legal status of marriage was not acknowledged before pregnancy. This gave the husband the chance for a legal divorce in case the wife was infertile. Therefore, the ‘Second Wedding’ never took place before the third month of pregnancy (in fear of a miscarriage).

Why the Virgin Mary could conceive a child

These marriage laws explain why Mary, to whom these laws also appealed, could conceive a child as a virgin. Women only became wives after the ‘Second Wedding’. Before that, they were ‘virgins’, young women, if we translate the word almah correctly.