#7 Joseph,
Husband of Mary
Please first read: Matthew 1:18-25
Annunciation to
Joseph
After the
visit of the angel Gabriel, Mary left her home and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. She
now returns home and is probably showing her three-month pregnancy. Joseph
has not yet been visited by the angel and told of the circumstance involved. Is
Joseph possibly being tested? No doubt Joseph is crushed and decides to break
their betrothal. Because he loves Mary he plans to have her put away
privately, (a divorce procedure) which under Jewish law he has the right to do.
This will spare Mary public ridicule and embarrassment, plus there is the
potential of a serious crime having been committed. Under Jewish law
unfaithfulness (adultery) by the bride-to-be during this time was punishable by
death. Marriage occurs in two separate ceremonies: 1. betrothal (engagement) which
is considered as binding as marriage, and 2. the actual solemnizing of the
marriage itself. The period between these may be long as one year. The woman usually continues to live with her
family during this time.
The angel
now comes to Joseph in his grief and explains the situation. (Matthew Chapter
1): “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for
he shall save his people from their sins.” We cannot imagine the flood of joy
that swept over Joseph with those words!
Mary’s conception is of the Holy Ghost … He
will be the Son of God, and his name is to be ‘Jesus’… Joseph proceeds and makes
Mary his legal wife. Under Jewish law this will make him her guardian and
give legal protection to both Mary and the baby. Joseph was no doubt aware of
the prophecies of Jewish prophets about the birth of a Messiah and how this was
to occur. We would expect that he received this news with great joy and
recognized the choice blessing that had come to Mary, and now to him.
Only a
few things are written in the scriptures about Joseph. We know that he was a
just man, a strict observer of the law, and that he had great love for
Mary. We also get some small bits of information from a few latter-day prophets
and apostles, but that's it. However, there is much known about the world,
history, and culture within which he spent his life. When we look at, and
place, Joseph within these settings, we can gain a fairly- good look at who and
what kind of person he was. To me it is a picture of a very good, faithful
and choice son of our Father in Heaven. When we carefully make assumptions that
Joseph was much like his "good" peers of that day, about whom quite a
bit is known historically, we can begin to understand basic characteristics
about him.
At the
time of the Savior’s birth, Israel was ruled by alien monarchs. The rights of the
royal David family were unrecognized, and the ruler of the Jews was an
appointee of Rome. Had Judah been a free and independent nation, ruled by
her rightful sovereign, Joseph the carpenter would have been her crowned king, and
his lawful successor to the throne would have been Jesus of Nazareth, the King
of the Jews." (Apostle James E. Talmage, "Jesus the
Christ".) Joseph inherited his legal status as Son of David
from his father and Jesus would be the lawful successor to the throne.
All the
nation knew that its' Savior would be born through the royal line of
David. Both Matthew and Luke give accounts of the royal
lineage. Matthews' is generally accepted as that of Joseph, establishing
the order of sequence of successors to the throne of David. Joseph was
recognized by Jewish law as the legal father of Jesus thus making Him the
rightful heir after Joseph to be king.
The
account by Luke is generally accepted as that of Mary. Many scriptures confirm
Mary as a descendent of David. The blood line of David would, of course,
come to Jesus through Mary alone. During His ministry Jesus was repeatedly
referred to as Son of David. He never repudiated this title, and we have
no evidence that He was ever challenged about His Messiah-ship because of His
lineage.
Daniel H.
Ludlow:
“Robert
J. Matthews, Dean of the Religion Department at BYU wrote about the fact
that Joseph was chosen in the preexistence to serve as the earthly father to
Jesus. He was a choice son of God to be thus selected. Jesus was
instructed and taught by God the Father as He grew and matured, but it
stands to reason that Joseph would teach and counsel correct principles and set
an example for Him. Joseph would demonstrate moral, intellectual, and social
qualities, and observe the requirements as they pertained to the Baby, the
Child, and the Young Man. “’Joseph was a just man, a strict observer of the
law, yet no harsh extremist; moreover, he loved Mary ...’”
Alfred
Edersheim:
“At five
years of age, reading of the Bible; at ten years, learning the Mishnah; at
thirteen years, bound to the commandments; at fifteen years, the study of
the Talmud; at eighteen years, marriage; at twenty, the pursuit of trade or
business (active life); at thirty years, full vigor; at forty, maturity of
reason; at fifty, for counsel; at sixty, commencement of aged-ness; at seventy,
grey age; at eighty ,advanced old age; at ninety, bowed down; at a hundred, as
if he were dead and gone, taken from the world.”
Apostle
Bruce R. McConkie:
“We are
left to conclude that Joseph was certainly not older than twenty years when he
took Mary as his wife and she was at least fourteen, perhaps fifteen or sixteen
years of age.”
Joseph
received four separate “dreams” from the Lord in a short period of time,
instructing him regarding the birth and protection of Jesus and
Mary. Joseph Smith, in his translation of Matthew, corrects the term “dreams”
to “visions.”
There is
a course of study at BYU entitled “The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His
Apostles.” The study manual reminds us that Mary returned to Nazareth, to
Joseph. Three months pregnant, and Joseph proceeded with steps to protect and
care for Mary before the angelic visitation telling him who the father of
Mary's baby was. Joseph is truly a special Priesthood brother and son of the
Father. He was “foreordained to the honored station that he held.”
The Prophet
Joseph Smith:
“Every
man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained
to that very purpose in the Grand Council of Heaven before this world was.”
Joseph's
trade was that of a carpenter. Given the traditions and culture of the
time, his father was probably a carpenter and taught his son that skill, as
Joseph so taught Jesus. The term “carpenter,” translated from Hebrew and
Greek texts, had a little different meaning than our word “carpenter”
today. It included furniture, cabinetry, wood carving and more general
wood handicraft than we think of today when we think of a “carpenter.”
Glenn R.
McGettigan
December
2011; Revised September 2018
References:
“Our Lord
of the Gospels.” Clark
“The
Mortal Messiah.” McConkie
“Jesus
the Christ.” Talmage
“Life and
Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles.” CES NT Manual
“The Four
Gospels.” Ludlow
“Doctrinal
New Testament Commentary.” Volume 1. McConkie
“The
Gospels.” Jackson-Millet
“Mormon
Doctrine.” McConkie
“The Life
and Teachings of Jesus Christ.” Volume 1. Holzapfel-Wayment
“The Life
of Christ.” Farrar
“The Life
and Times of Jesus the Messiah.” Volume 1. Edersheim
“Doctrines
of Salvation.” Volume 1. Joseph Fielding Smith
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ReplyDeleteThanks for this glen. There wasn't anything here that I knew before, such a great read and really informative. Me being a newly father i was able to connect to Joseph through your words.
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