Why do we know not Joseph?_122203

Posted: 12/19/03

Why do we know not Joseph?

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Poor Joseph.

For someone who is otherwise a crucial character in the Christmas story, the earthly father of Jesus is often overlooked, some would say neglected, or worse, ignored.

Each year, the Madonna and child are featured on a postage stamp, but not with Joseph. In the Bible itself, Joseph appears briefly at the beginning in Bethlehem, again when Jesus is 12 years old, but then disappears from the story. There is no mention of his life, or curiously, his death.

“Churches named after him are everywhere, his altars and statues abound, yet he is seldom referred to and often seems to be the forgotten saint,” writes Ann Ball in the new Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices. “At Christmas, Joseph is always depicted at the nativity, yet the songs sing of the child and mother, the star, wise men, angels and shepherds. Joseph is there, yet hardly noticed.”

A mosaic portrait of Saint Joseph from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Scholars who have examined Joseph–and there aren't many–seem to agree on one thing. While he may seem to play a minor role in Jesus' life, he was by no means insignificant and should not be overlooked.

If nothing else, Joseph was an “unsung hero” who provided Jesus with protection, royal lineage, a livelihood and, perhaps, a worldview that shaped his outreach to the poor and downtrodden.

“All of us are kind of bit players in bringing about God's purposes,” said Stephen Davis, a professor of philosophy and religion at Claremont McKenna College. “The vast majority of us, like Joseph, will not get headlines or our 15 minutes of fame, but we all have our parts.”

The main reason Joseph is such an enigma is that the Bible says so little about him–only that he was a pious carpenter from Nazareth, although some think he was an architect, or maybe a general contractor.

Other texts that never were accepted as Scripture go into much more detail. The Protogospel of James, written about 150 A.D., says Joseph was an elderly widower when he was chosen by lot to be with Mary, who was only 12.

“I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl,” Joseph protested in the account. “I am afraid, lest I become a laughingstock to the sons of Israel.”

The Legend of Joseph the Carpenter, from the 4th century, goes further, saying Joseph was a 93-year-old father of six when he met Mary and died at 111, when Jesus was about 18 years old.

The Christian gospels are less precise–Matthew calls him “a just man” who is betrothed to Mary and tempted to “send her away quietly” when she becomes pregnant with Jesus. An angel appears in a dream and convinces him to stick by the virgin.

Both Matthew and Luke trace his lineage back to King David, which provides the family pedigree necessary for Jesus to be the Messiah. Still, Jesus is dogged by questions of his legitimacy, frequently called “the son of Mary.”

“It is uncommon, and somewhat insulting, to refer in that day to a man as the son of his mother,” said Timothy Friedrichsen, assistant professor of New Testament at Catholic University. “That's sort of like calling someone a mama's boy.”

After Jesus was born, Joseph fled with the family to Egypt to escape the death sentence imposed by a paranoid King Herod. Paul Perry, author of the new book “Jesus in Egypt,” spent two years tracing local legends about the refugee family and discovered a “rousing chase scene up and down the Nile.”

“Jesus kept getting the holy family into trouble in Egypt,” Perry said. “He was destroying idols and getting them run out of town. That was a concern for Joseph because we wanted to slow down and rest easy.”

When the family returned to Israel–Perry said Jesus was probably 7–they resettled in Nazareth. Again, colorful legends emerge that never were accepted as part of the Christian canon.

Joseph is portrayed as a vexed father of an impish teenage son with super powers. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the adolescent Jesus is a source of constant headaches for his father, even striking dead a teacher who threatens to whip Jesus for petulance.

“Henceforth we will not allow him to go out of the house,” Joseph says, “for everyone who displeases him is killed.”

There is no biblical mention of the family again until Jesus goes missing at age 12 and is found by Mary and Joseph instructing rabbis in the temple. From then on, Joseph is not mentioned. The popular explanation is that he died without so much as an obituary.

“I have the image of a fading picture, where a character just starts to disappear,” said Philip Sellew, a professor of New Testament at the University of Minnesota. “Eventually you look around and he's not on the stage anymore.”

Some scholars think Joseph, like other members of Jesus' family, takes a secondary role in order to keep the focus on Jesus. Others say the family was strained to the point of dysfunction because of Jesus' radical ministry.

“The truth of the matter is, we're not surprised not to hear about the demise of Joseph, because frankly, the family had little to do with Jesus,” said Ben Witherington, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. “Jesus was so out of the box, such a radical figure, that his family couldn't figure him out.”

The debate over Jesus' family and conflicting views on Mary's virginity are crucial to Joseph's secondary role, scholars say.

Most Protestants say it is clear that Joseph and Mary had other children after Jesus. Catholics say no, because they believe Mary was a perpetual virgin and say Jesus' siblings are actually cousins.

Orthodox Christians, meanwhile, say the siblings were Joseph's children from an earlier marriage. They refer to Joseph as “the betrothed of Mary” who never married the woman who helped incarnate God in human flesh.

“Joseph is kind of a neglected saintly figure,” said Theodore Stylianopoulos, professor of New Testament at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. “Compared to the Roman Catholic tradition, one could talk of a silence about Joseph in Orthodoxy.”