You said — “Rather unlikely. I doubt God chose an incompetent to be the foster-father of his son.”
I’ve seen a lot of competent carpenters making absolutely no money at all... LOL! And God wouldn’t choose a foster father for Jesus on the basis of either money or competency in shaving wood from beams.
The fact of the matter was that Jesus and his family were *not connected* and had *no money*. The Scriptures are clear that Jesus had absolutely nothing of worldly wealth or gain of any sort, at all (nothing derived from his family at all).
The account of Jesus and his family indicates that there was nothing holding them (in the way of responsibilities for property and/or any kind of wealth) in one place. They could pick up in a moment and leave and go to another location (which they did, in an instant).
At least God sent the magi and their gifts, which most likely sustained the family for years to come.
When Jesus said — “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” — he would have been lying, if he and his family had a place where he could lay his head. He has let us know that he had no property and no money — nothing at all, not even what the least of those in that society may have had.
Regards,
Star Traveler
I have no doubt that Jesus had no monetary resources of his own after he started his ministry. I suspect he donated any he may have had to his mother and family, living thereafter solely on donations from supporters.
I believe he chose poverty when he started his ministry, just as he chose celibacy rather than starting his own family.
When Jesus returned to Nazareth, the villagers sneered that he was just another one of them. There was no implication in their taunts that he or his family were on the low end of the social scale in Nazareth, which if they'd been the local equivalent of white trash there certainly would have been.