The Sexuality of Jesus’ Exhortation: “Do not touch me!” In its present form, the Fourth
Evangelist has the resurrected Jesus tell Mary Magdalene: “Do not touch me”
(20:17). R. E. Brown may well be correct to point out that this imperative
denotes that Jesus has not yet ascended to the Father for salvific purposes for
those who believe in him. Jesus’ ascension is not to prepare heavenly dwellings
for them but to return to establish for them “a new relationship to God by
giving them the Spirit.” This seems to be the meaning within the Johannine
narrative. What, however, was the meaning of the verb haptō in the
Evangelist’s source?
The present imperative of the verb is arresting. It can denote that
Mary Magdalene is already touching Jesus or that she was the one who frequently
“touched” Jesus. This meaning would be more appropriate in the Evangelist’s
source, which continues to be our central concern. More appropriate for this
source is Brown’s comment that “Magdalene is trying to hold on to the source of
her joy . . . .” There seems to be an undeniable physical attraction that
Magdalene has for Jesus; she even wants his dead body (20:15).
We have seen that the account of Magdalene and Jesus in the garden was
interpolated by an account of Peter and the Beloved Disciple. The original
story then is about a man and a woman in a garden “while it was still dark”
(20:1). What might have transpired then has been lost in scholarly discussion
due to the failure of exegetes to examine the full meaning of a verb. The
proofs brought forward to show that Mary Magdalene is the Beloved Disciple
should have led exegetes to ponder the love relationship that clearly links her
with Jesus, not only in John but in all gospels, intra-canonical and
extracanonical.
The Greek verb haptō has many meanings. Most translators of Jn
20:17 choose “Do not touch me” (KJV), “Do not cling to me” (JB and NEB), “Stop
holding me” (NAB), or “Do not hold on to me” (NRSV [cf. Vulgate Noli me
tangere]). The Greek verb means not only “to take hold of,” “to hold,” but
also to have intercourse with a woman. Note, in particular the following
passages in which haptō has clearly sexual connotations.
In “Laws,” Plato carries forth the tradition that Iccus of Tarentum
“never had any connection with a woman or a youth during the whole time of his
training” (8.840a). That is, Iccus never “touched” them. In the Septuagint the
Greek verb haptō denotes sexual intercourse pure and simple, and without
an aside to marriage. Here are the major passages:
Gen 20:4, “But Abimelech had not touched her (Αβιμελεχ δὲ οὐχ ἥψατο αὐτῆς).”
(cf. Gen 20:6)
Prov 6:29, “Thus is he that goes into a married woman (οὕτως ὁ εἰσελθὼν
πρὸς γυναῖκα ὕπανδρον); he shall not be held guiltless, neither anyone who
touches her (πᾶς ὁ ἁπτόμενος αὐτῆς).”
In each of these verses “to touch” denotes to have sexual intercourse
with a woman. In Proverbs 6 the parallelism reveals that “to touch” is
synonymous “to go into” a woman.
The sexual meaning of the verb haptō is obvious in the century
in which the Fourth Evangelist lived and wrote and within the Judaism he
inherited. Two examples must suffice; one is from Paul and the other is from
Josephus.
In 1Cor 7:1, Paul advises that it is “well for a man not to touch a
woman” (καλὸν ἀνθρώπῳ γυναικὸς μὴ ἅπτεσθαι·), and the following comments make
it clear that Paul is referring to having sexual intercourse with a woman. W.
F. Orr and J. R. Walther translate 7:1 as follows: “With reference to the
matters about which you wrote: is it good for a man not to have sexual
relations with a woman?” Orr and Walther correctly add that the sexual meaning
of the Greek verb is “well established in Greek usage” (p. 206).
When he reports on Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt, Josephus described
Pharaoh’s enflamed passion for Sarah, because of her sexual attractiveness.
God, however, averted his passion so the he was not able to “touch” (ἅψασθαι)
her (Ant 1.163). The well-known and popular translation by W. Whitson
astutely brings out the sexual connotation: “Pharaoh the king of Egypt would
not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but would needs see her
himself, and was preparing to enjoy her.”
The present imperative in John 20 may denote continuous action: do not
continue to hold me or touch me. Does the passage in John suggest that behind
the account preserved in the Johannine narrative there is a tradition that
Jesus and Magdalene had enjoyed sex with each other? One can avoid such
reflections by claiming that while the verb can connote sex it need not do so.
Obviously, one should avoid the absurd suggestion that Jesus did not want to be
sexually stimulated or that Magdalene was pregnant; such interpretations
disclose excessive imaginations. They are not guided by textual and historical
contexts.
Harry Attridge rightly points out that Jesus’ imperative is “a
positive and affirming one,” and that does not rule out intimacy in a Jewish
context. As mentioned previously, Brown rightly comprehends that the Fourth
Evangelist seeks to indicate that Magdalene is seeking to hold on to the source
of her joy. The Evangelist may be carrying on and diverting the intention of
the early tradition. The proper exegesis of Jn 20:1–18 has been thwarted by the
failure to perceive and explore the full meaning of the verb haptō. It
is clear that both before and in the first century CE the verb denoted, and not
only connoted, the sexuality of touching (to invaginate) a woman.
Sometimes what biblical exegetes miss is perceived by the great
artists. They are forced to imagine and live within the story the narrator has
described. In 1511, Titian painted Christ and Magdalene in the garden (Noli
me tangere). Magdalene is on her knees before Jesus. Her face and right
hand move up to his masculinity. The bending body of Jesus is also evocative
and suggests an erotic encounter. To what extent has Tatian subjectively
created what was never present in John 20 and to what extent did he envision
the tradition inherited by the Fourth Evangelist? (James H. Charlesworth, “Is
It Conceivable that Jesus Married Magdalene?: Searching for Evidence in
Johannine Traditions,” in Jesus as Mirrored: The Genius in the New Testament
[London: T&T Clark, 2019], 493-95)
