www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Devotion to Saint Joseph

The idea is that an older man would have been a widower...since all men and women married in the Jewish tradition. There were no 'bachelors'.

I find the change/shift in the RC church to make St. Joseph out to being very young, rather than older and more mature, is a bit strange...

I have heard two Christmas sermons to that effect. Cardinal Egan of NYC justified it by saying that an older man would not have been able to make the arduous journey to Bethlehem.

But that is not necessarily so--especially if the older man was forty to fifty years old. Even men older than that can have good physical stamina.

Alice

I could see him as a widower but not as someone who had been divorced.

Whether Saint Joseph was widowed (which is much likelier) or divorced, I don't claim to know. As we all know, divorce was permitted by the Law of Moses.

However, we should remember that Saint Joachim and Saint Anna wanted to leave their daughter in the care of a man whom they could trust, so that they themselves might die in peace. Thus it is only sensible that they would seek for a widower, who had proved himself to be a good father - and they clearly found such a man in Saint Joseph. This fits what evidence we have: he tied long before the Holy Theotokos died; he was able to care for her and for her divine son (implying that he was established in his work and that he had good judgement), and he is often thought to have been the father of Saint James of Jerusalem, the "Brother of God", which indicates that Saint Joseph was competent to raise a good son.

Fr. Serge

Very true Fr. Serge

Thank you! You may be familiar with the Christmas hymn from earlier times:

"When Joseph was an old man, an old man was he;
He married Maiden Mary, the pride of Galilee..."

And so on.

Fr. Serge

Actually I'm not but it sounds like a beautiful hymn

Yes, thank you Father Serge. Such good sense. Could you perhaps have a little talk with Cardinal Egan?!?

In Christ,
Alice

Yes Father Serge I think a talk with the good cardinal is in order!

I had to do some research to answer a question of the ProtoEvangelium of St. James the other day. I found this to be interesting, it kind of relates here.

"Another part of this is important, because when it is read with the Mishnah of the Jews it teaches/brings understanding of the "mishnaic teachings on the process by which girls become women and how they are passed from fathers to husbands provide intriguing parallels. Moreover, the concern in each of the texts is for the preservation and assurance of virginity. The implication for this cultural connection is that the assertion of Mary's postpartum virginity (the real innovation of the Protoevangelium of James) may have come from within a Jewish community (albeit a Christian one)."

Horner, Timothy J.
Jewish Aspects of the Protoevangelium of James
Journal of Early Christian Studies - Volume 12, Number 3, Fall 2004, pp. 313-335

"Mishnah," the derivative of the verb "shanah," means therefore: (1) "instruction," the teaching and learning of the tradition, the word being used in this sense in Ab. iii. 7, 8; and (2) in a concrete sense, the content of that instruction, the traditional doctrine as it was developed down to the beginning of the third century of the common era. "Mishnah" is frequently used, therefore, to designate the law which was transmitted orally, in contrast to "Miḳra," the law which is written and read...
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=660&letter=M