Posted on 12/11/2006 6:29:15 AM PST by xzins
What happened to Joseph the father of Jesus
We know very little about the years of Jesus prior to His public ministry. The gospels are without notation of any childhood events beyond Christ's birth except one reference that is found in Luke. It is the very last time that Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, is ever mentioned.
Luke 2:41 reads: "Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?' But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
It is supposed that Joseph, the father of Jesus, died during the quiet years of Jesus' life. We do know that he trained Jesus in his trade, as that of a carpenter. He do know that Joseph and Mary had children after Jesus was born: James, Joses, Simon, and others.
Perhaps the cause or timing of his death is not nearly as important as the strength of character he displayed. In first hearing about Mary's pregnancy, Joseph did not want to subject Mary to public scorn. After hearing from the angel who confirmed Mary's incredulous story, Joseph obediently accepted the role as surrogate father for the baby Jesus, the Christ child. Matthew 1:24-25 says, "When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."
The last reference about Joseph in Luke confirms that Joseph was a devout follower of the customs of his religion with his observance of Passover. It implies that Joseph made certain of good spiritual training for the children in his family. Joseph proved his integrity and willingness to be obedient to God's direction and guidance.
Luke 2:41 makes no mention of anything other than His parents. Are you suggesting that other children were born AFTER Jesus remained in the Temple?
I think the others could also be apprentices.
One should ponder greek before making such assertions.
As I understand it Greek (as is the case in Russian which I speak) has a longer version of the word for brother or sister when reffering to cousins. For this reason I thought my wife (then fiance) had several brothers and sisters when in fact she has only one brother, and several cousins; however they commonly shorten this to simply brother or sister.
Who is the older woman?
The myth of Mary's perpetual virginity comes from the Gnostic apocryphal literature of the early church [the Gospel of Peter, and the Protevangelium of James] --- books that the RCC magisterium insists from time to time that it does not consider authoritative, except, of course, when it finds some immaculate concoction therein to challenge the facts of the Scriptures.
I know nothing about this painting but could that be Elizabeth? the other young one could be St. John the baptizer; he looks like he is wearing hair pants (instead of hair shirt), and is carrying water like he is ready to baptize.
So what happened to the biological brothers of Christ? Are there still relatives living today, people who are genetically related to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity?
I think that's very good - at least as far as John is concerned. He appears to be just enough older.
She looks rather like Kate Winslet there.
I don't know who the model is for Mary; he did the painting before he met his major model (and mistress, and wife) Lizzie Siddal, and certainly before he met Jane Morris.
"So what happened to the biological brothers of Christ? Are there still relatives living today, people who are genetically related to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity?"
Possibly, but also Mary could just be a surrogate mother.
One of these would be James, who would become a patriarch of the church in Jerusalem and author of the Book of James. He's mentioned in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3. It's entirely possible that James had descendants, but I know of no historical documentation for such an assertion.
Mary cannot have had any other children. They would have to have been younger than Jesus, and for Jesus to give Mary to John at Calvary would have been sinning, by permitting his younger siblings to avoid the commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother".
And to claim that the error that Mary had other children is "the Protestant position" dumps Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli out of the Protestant fold, because none of them agreed with it, as their writings clearly attest.
The likely relationship is that "Mary wife of Clopas" was the sister-in-law of Mary the mother of the Lord, and Alphaeus/Clopas was either her blood brother, or her brother-in-law.
Ok, how?
Meaning to Joseph's children?
"Honor thy Father and thy Mother" is essentially natural law anyway, and nobody can absolve anyone of obedience to that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.