Thanks so much! The sexuality of Jesus is fascinating—and I’m hardly arguing that Jesus is “gay.” But I wonder why Christians haven’t wanted Jesus to have sexuality. There is a self-shaming involved, as if to say, our sexuality is what marks us out as sinful and not-divine.

There are many references that Christianity doesn’t like. In church I was taught—as many Christian teachers teach—that the Song of Songs is not referenced in the NT writings. In fact, scholars lately realize this was false. Jesus’ scene with Mary Magdalene in John 20:1–8, for example, clearly re-stages the Song 3:1–6.

We might ask: Why is Mary occupying the place of the girl in the Song? Why does Jesus say he’s not available to her in that way? These are pieces in a theological puzzle that the Christian tradition isn’t going be helpful in solving.

In John 1:18, Jesus is in the “bosom” of the Father, as in 13:23, the Beloved Disciple is in Jesus’ “bosom.” The translations shift this into emotional closeness, but as this paper documents, “bosom” is the usual Greek word for a female “womb.”

The tradition didn’t want female imagery applied to God? But it seems that imagery from human reproduction, male and female, is used to describe divine processes.