Joseph -- what do we know ?

socalepilot

socalepilot

“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1:24‬ ‭KJV‬‬
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Does any one know how old was Joseph, when Jesus was born ?
 
socalepilot said:
“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1:24‬ ‭KJV‬‬
..

Does any one know how old was Joseph, when Jesus was born ?
Click to expand...
Welcome! :D

As to your question, only tradition could entertain a date. The scriptures never bring it up.
 
Of course it's not mentioned in the Bible. .. But what does the Bible scholar know... About tradition how old they expect Joseph to be ?
Perhaps Merry was 14-16 when she became pregnant. Is Joseph was same age or No?
 
socalepilot said:
We never had no mention of Joseph after Christ was born ... What happened to him?
Click to expand...
Bible does not get into what happened after that. During this Christmas time, I have been looking into the life of Joseph a little. Not really trying to study anything outside of scripture. But what is talked about him in the Scripture. He is just like Ananias! While lot of focus goes on Mary, we loose sight of the tremendous faithful life of Joseph. It is an amazing study when we try to put ourselves in shoes of Joseph. There is hardly a time when he resisted in following God's plan. He was always faithful and obedient. Be it marry a virgin girl carrying a baby! Or moving to Egypt. Or moving back to Nazarene instead of Bethlehem (which would have made more wordly sense). Then he drops out of the scene. Joseph was part of God's plan of bringing redemption to mankind. He fulfilled that perfectly and bows out. The same applies for us also. Not everyone will be called to become Billy Graham. But even Billy Graham would have needed someone to bring the Gospel message to him.

All I am trying to say is, it is of more value to study what is told about Joseph that trying to understand what is not told about him. If something is not mentioned in scripture, then we can be assured it is not going to be edifying!
 
There are a couple of traditions about Joseph. The Eastern Orthodox tradition is that Joseph was quite old, a widower with James and others his children from his first wife, and that Mary was his second wife who bore only one child. This rather makes sense taken in context with the lack of respect Jesus' brothers show him in scripture. But there isn't much real information about him.

I think that the purpose of the OT verses Genesis 11:12-34 is to normalize the general age that men after Noah had their first children, generally in the early thirties (except, of course, "miracle" cases like Abraham). While Mary may have been only 15 or 16, I think it's very likely Joseph was at least 30. Considering he's not mentioned further and is clearly out of the picture at Jesus' crucifixion, the speculation that he was actually much older has some merit.
 
From scripture we know:
Joseph is betrothed to Mary.
Then he finds out she is pregnant. He keeps her out of the public eye for safety reasons.
I am sure Mary tells him that this is God's son, but he has to think about it, for he is not sure what to do about it.
Joseph then receives a visit by an angel in a dream confirming what Mary has told him.
He does take her to be his wife but does not "know" her (sex), until some point after the birth. I am not sure how the tradition of Mary not having other children could be believed since Matthew 1:
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

So Joseph does "know" her later and usually that results in children. We have this confirmation in Matthew 13:
54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him.

Here we see Mary being named and also His brothers, along with sisters unnamed. Joseph does not get named here though, which seems to me to be a sign that Joseph had died prior to Jesus' ministry. If we figure that Joseph was in at least his twenties when he married Mary, then Joseph would have been in his fifties during Jesus' ministry, since we know Jesus was around 30 years old. For a carpenter, it was likely that he would have died by that age. We know people didn't live that long on average in the working class.

We also see Joseph when Jesus is twelve and is amazing the teachers in the temple. Mary and Joseph had left without Jesus, probably thinking He was with others in the caravan of family and friends which they traveled with. This is believable knowing Mary and Joseph would have been keeping after the younger siblings of Jesus. Myself growing up in a large family, the older ones often are left to venture about while the little ones are being tended to.
 
socalepilot said:
We never had no mention of Joseph after Christ was born ... What happened to him?
Click to expand...

There is one more mention when They went up to the temple much later and Jesus remained in the temple and they left to go home .
What happened to him? He died.

in Christ
gerald
 
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