CONTRADICTIONS: No, Jesus Did Not Make Himself ‘Untouchable’ for Women
There are skeptics who claim the resurrected Jesus was a misogynist because at John 20:17 He told Mary Magdalene not to touch him, but then allowed His male disciples to cling to His feet as He ascended into Heaven.
Hammer it as you will, the anvil of God’s Word never breaks.
Eric Lyons, author of “The Anvil Rings,” Volume 1, cites as an example of such skeptics Steve Wells, author of “The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible,” which famous atheist Sam Harris endorses as a “volume that belongs in every thinking person’s library–and in every hotel room in America.”
Wells puts the skeptical point in these words: “Jesus tells Mary Magdalene not to touch him because he hasn’t yet ascended – as if the touch of a woman would defile him and somehow prevent him from ascending into heaven.
“One wonders why he insisted that Thomas touch him later that evening and why he permitted his apostles to touch him and hold him by the feet before his ascension. Was it OK to touch the risen Jesus?” (Emphasis added)
Lyons points out that the “Doubting Thomas” was not invited by Jesus to touch Him “later that evening” on the day Mary Magdalene first saw Him. Just a few verses after John 20:17, he said at 20:26 that it was “after eight days” when the disciples gathered, Jesus appeared to them inside their gathering place and invited Thomas to touch His wounds.
Beyond this timing problem, Lyons points to the abundant evidence in the New Testament that demonstrates beyond any doubt that Jesus was not a misogynist, that He did not have a problem with either touching women or being touched by them (in a non-sexual manner).
“This was the Man Who Touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law and healed her (Matthew 8:15), allowed a sick woman to touch the hem of His garment and be healed (Matthew 9:20-22), took the hand of Jairius’s daughter and raised her from the dead (Mark 5:22-43), touched a women crippled for 18 years and restored her to health (Luke 13:10-13) and permitted Mary, Lazarus’s sister to anoint Him with oil and wipe His feet with her hair. Jesus was not the male chauvinist that critics sometimes suggest.”
Finally, Lyons notes that the Greek verb aptou that is translated as “touch” in John 20:17 means “to cling to,” thus suggesting that Mary Magdalene may actually have been touching Jesus, but He was telling her not to keep grasping at His body. His instruction appears to have nothing to do with her and everything to do with Him in His resurrected body.