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Original poster

If God is Jesus' real dad, who is his real mum?

32 replies

ESSgonnaBEEafabchristmas · 22/12/2006 00:18

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
VeniVidiVickiQV · 22/12/2006 00:19

God.

ItalianJob · 22/12/2006 00:19

the Virgin Mary?

Original poster
ESSgonnaBEEafabchristmas · 22/12/2006 00:22

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
nearlythree · 22/12/2006 00:24

Mary.

Although you could also say that God can take both male and female characteristics, and so could be Jesus' Mother also.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 22/12/2006 00:25

Yes.

immaculate conception. no human products used. Mary was a surrogate.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 22/12/2006 00:25

Gosh its such a load of arse, isnt it?

Sorry....!

nearlythree · 22/12/2006 00:26

x posts!

My five yr old is happy with things as set out in the Nativity. It drives me nuts that she sticks to the patriarchal language of her Bible books, but whenever I talk ti her about God being Mother all I get is a pitying look.

busybusymum · 22/12/2006 00:27

whenever my DC ask such questions I tell them to ask the vicar or curate next time they comes into school or next time we are in church!

nearlythree · 22/12/2006 00:29

It depends on how you define 'Mother', doesn't it? And I'm not sure it's unbiblical (although it may go against church doctrine) to believe that Mary wasn't a biological parent. 'You will concieve a Son'...

Ceolas · 22/12/2006 00:30

Actually, Mary is the immaculate conception...

ParanoidSurreyHousewife · 22/12/2006 07:18

Isn't that a rather Catholic view? I would say Mary - Jesus is both human and divine. Also the Jewish lineage was fairly important too.

uwila · 22/12/2006 07:48

In the eyes of a 5 year old, I would go with God is dad and Mary is mum. I guess that makes Joseph step-dad. And I think I'd leave the holy spirit half divine half human bit for later (unless other kids at school are talking about it).

Personally,I haven't gotten beyon "Today is Jesus birthday and we're gonna have a party". But then my oldest is 3.

sotheycalledmeparapapillon · 22/12/2006 09:02

Depends how you perceive the past. It is said both by religion and by many who study geneology that Mary was a direct descendant of King David, which gave Jesus the right to ascend the Jewish throne, both through Mary and through adoption by his foster father, Joseph.

God is his spiritual father.

nearlythree · 22/12/2006 09:27

Someone sent a question to Church Times asking what Jesus' DNA would show. There were lots of convoluted answers, then a priest wrote in and said - look, it would show that Mary and Joseph were his parents, okay?

Whether you agree or not it's a brave opinion to express in the CofE these days.

Pruni · 22/12/2006 09:29

Message withdrawn

nearlythree · 22/12/2006 10:07

Pruni, there's no definitive answer to that. Some people believe it, some don't -IME it's more of a Catholicbelief. I suspectthat many Christians don't give it a great deal of thought tbh.

JingEllBells · 22/12/2006 10:41

Interesting comparison Pruni. But the Zeus/Leda thing is couched in sexual terms (as rape) and - as is the way with all things sexual in these stories - leads to no end of problems! (As with Eve in the Creation story.) Whereas all the emphasis on Mary's virginity goes to counteract that.

In response to the OP, I'd go with the God is Dad and Mary is Mum version, and then explain that Jesus is half-God and half-man.

JingEllBells · 22/12/2006 10:42

By 'these stories' I mean stories to do with creation and the relationship between the human and the divine in general. Please no-one take offence [nervous emoticon].

Happy Christmas!

welshmumwithsparklybits · 22/12/2006 10:47

I go with Mary is his mum and Joseph is his dad but he was a very special baby and from the moment he started living in Mary's tummy he was especially blessed by God. I think that's fine for 4 and a half year old dd.

DumbledoresFairy · 22/12/2006 11:02

I don't see the difficulty. It was Mary. Is there any other answer?

As Christian, I would have said that God was the father, but as a non believer, I would go along with what welshmum.

welshmumwithsparklybits · 22/12/2006 11:17

Oops and me a believer too - obviously of the sort more like the priest who wrote to the Church Times.

nearlythree · 22/12/2006 11:21

I'mwith you welshmum, and I'm a Christian too. I go along with God being Jesus' fasther atm because I see it as symbolically true - also for me it was true for much of my life so I'm leaving it up to the dcs to decide where they stand.

Jingle - Christian belief is that Jesus is fully divine and fully human - not half and half. If you believe in the divinity of Jesus to begin with, of course.

JingEllBells · 22/12/2006 12:28

Yes, nearly3, but that's a bit difficult for a child to grasp, isn't it (going back to the OP)? Whereas the half-and-half idea is simpler (like our dog being half whippet half jack russell or something...!).

I have to say that I like welshmum's solution too. After all, we'd probably say nowadays that Joseph had 'parental responsibility'.

sotheycalledmeparapapillon · 22/12/2006 12:39

how about Jesus had a mummy and daddy- Joseph and Mary and God was the godfather

DumbledoresFairy · 22/12/2006 12:42

LOL at Joseph and his parental responsibility! If they had had such things in those days, his name would definitely have gone on the birth certificate!

No offence Welshmum, but my understanding of Christian belief is that Jesus is divine, the son of God, immaculately conceived by Mary after she had been visited by the angel of the Lord. What you describe, is that whay you belives, or what you are saying you tell your dd?

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