What Can We Learn From The Obedience Of Joseph In Matthew 1

2. Joseph, the Stand-In Begetter (Matthew 1:eighteen-25)

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Audio (27:44) | YouTube (22:44)

Guido Reni, "St. Joseph with Infant Christ in his Arms" (1620s), oil on canvas 126x101 cm, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Larger prototype.

"¹⁸This is how the nascence of Jesus Christ came about: His female parent Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, just before they came together, she was constitute to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous human being and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰Only afterwards he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home every bit your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will requite birth to a son, and you are to requite him the proper name Jesus, because he will relieve his people from their sins.'

²²All this took identify to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³'The virgin will be with child and will requite nascence to a son, and they volition call him Immanuel' -- which ways, 'God with u.s.a..'

²⁴When Joseph woke upwards, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his married woman. ²⁵Simply he had no marriage with her until she gave nascence to a son. And he gave him the proper noun Jesus." (Matthew 1:eighteen-25)

The Gospel of Matthew begins with a detailed genealogy, beginning with Abraham, tracing through David, Israel'southward greatest king, and catastrophe with:

"Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ" (1:16).

The genealogy traces Jesus' lineage dorsum to David, placing him in line for the ultimate Kingship -- Messiah, the anointed One, the heir to David's kingdom, who would rule over the Kingdom of God forever. But information technology's not that simple is it? Not well-nigh, since Jesus is born of a virgin mother, non of Joseph's seed at all. Therefore, was Jesus really a descendent of David afterwards all?

Matthew begins with a genealogy of the Messiah, of who begat whom, simply at present he must explain why it is relevant. This conception, this birth, bears some explanation.

It's pretty clear from what is not said in Matthew that his readers were familiar with the story of the virgin nascency that Luke recounts, which had been told from Mary's point of view (Luke 1:26-38) and which nosotros considered in a previous chapter. Matthew'southward account, on the other hand, is told from Joseph's perspective.

Matthew begins but:

"This is how the nascency of Jesus Christ came well-nigh: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was plant to exist with child through the Holy Spirit." (one:eighteen)

Notice that he just states but the facts of what his readers already knew, without embellishment:

1. Mary and Joseph were betrothed.¹
2. They had non "come together," that is, had sex with each other.^two
3. Just Mary had begun to "show," she was significant.
4. The conception was fromⁱⁱⁱ the Holy Spirit, non homo.

We knew these things and so did Joseph -- except for indicate iv. In Matthew's account nosotros learn how Joseph came to understand. The story is familiar to the states, just let'southward examine it in detail and then that we might begin to understand the stand-in father that the Heavenly Father chose to raise His Son.

Joseph'southward Name

Joseph'due south proper name was a proud proper noun, recalling the ancient Jewish name of one of the twelve patriarchs, Joseph the son of Jacob who was sold by his brothers into Arab republic of egypt and who later became 2nd to Pharaoh in ability over all Arab republic of egypt, saving his family from famine (Genesis xxx-50). His name ways "to add."

Joseph the Husband

Joseph was no dubiety older than Mary. While girls were married by xiii or xiv -- sometime enough at that age to bear children -- husbands on the other paw needed to be established plenty to support a wife before they could enter into marriage. They were legally obligated to provide with nutrient, clothing, and shelter.

But they didn't accept to do information technology all by themselves. In the Due west, newly married couples get their ain apartment and alive independently, simply not in Palestine. In offset century Galilee, however, Joseph would take Mary home to the house in which he lived with his parents, and perhaps grandparents, also as brothers and sisters who might be at dwelling. Only as his own family grew, would Joseph and his family likely get their own house. This may sound very crowded and not-individual to you, but it had its advantages. Instead of a young couple out on their ain, in a large household, each member contributed to the economy of the family past their own work, making enough for the whole to subsist on. A couple cutting off from the economy of the extended family unit would have to fend for themselves, as Mary and Joseph had to do in Bethlehem. Those were mighty lean times.

Joseph the Carpenter

Georges de la Tour (French painter, 1593-1652), "Christ in the Carpenter's Shop" (1645), Oil on sheet, 137 x 101 cm, Mus�e du Louvre, Paris. Larger image.

Nosotros know from later in Matthew's gospel that Joseph was a carpenter⁴ by trade (Matthew 13:55). But the town of Nazareth was small enough that carpentry wouldn't have been all he did. Carpenters and other tradesmen would also keep a garden and a couple of animals for nutrient and mayhap exercise some subsistence farming to eke out a living in this agrarian gild of rural Galilee. Only when townspeople needed some carpentry done that was beyond their own skills and tools, Joseph would be the one they came to.

As a rule the common man built his own house, probably with the help of family and neighbors. A family might have a knife and hammer of some kind. But a carpenter would possess both specialized tools, some adequately expensive, and the skills to use them -- saws, axes, awls, drills, plumb lines, chisels, and planes, some of which take been recovered by archeologists.⁵

With these tools, a skilled carpenter might fashion doors, beams, and perhaps gates. He would brand plows and yokes and other wood implements. There was no local Nazareth Piece of furniture Store;  all furniture would be made past hand. Each town had a rich family unit or two. They would exist wanting some nice things made and their money would help the economy of the carpenter's family.

But carpentry didn't make Joseph wealthy -- not by any means. The offering Mary and Joseph brought to the temple on the occasion of Mary's purification from childbirth was the offering of a poor man, a pair of doves or pigeons (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:8).

Carpentry was Joseph's earth, and the earth that Jesus grew up in. He played in the forest shavings on the floor of his father's shop. Carpentry was Joseph's trade and the merchandise he taught his son. Jesus learned from Joseph to saw and plane, drill and shine. He watched his male parent -- the local contractor -- brand business organisation contracts and deal with customers. Jesus saw information technology all.

Mary's Predicament, Joseph'due south Dilemma

But nosotros're getting ahead of ourselves. Correct now Joseph was faced with the pregnancy of his betrothed. You lot tin bet that tongues in this small town were wagging furiously with the news. Mary is pregnant! Couldn't Joseph and Mary await? They know improve!

Joseph has been deeply embarrassed by the whole incident. Only he lone knows that he is not the father. He supposes that Mary, who every bit a matrimonial adult female and legally his wife, has had an thing with someone or some other. Unless she had been raped, only she had said goose egg of the sort! The only conclusion he can reach is that she has been unfaithful. His betrothed is an adulteress!

Mary'due south pregnancy had placed her at considerable chance in this society:

1. Husband. Her matrimonial hubby would pass up her. Her pregnancy would embarrass him and reflect on his character. She couldn't expect him to sympathise or accept her condition.
2. Penalty. At worst she could be stoned. The constabulary provided in cases like this for possible stoning (Deuteronomy 22:13-30), particularly if the man and married adult female are caught in the deed of adultery. Stoning for adultery still took place in commencement century Palestine.⁶
3. Shunning. At best, her family would allow her to alive at home, though her supposed adultery would hurt their continuing in the customs. She and her bastard child would be shunned.
4. Remarriage. No upstanding man would e'er marry her, since the stigma of her supposed adultery would remain with her and taint the reputation of any hubby.
5. No where to become. She couldn't become to the city and exist lost in its anonymity. Unmarried women merely didn't alive solitary. This was a family-centered civilisation where a woman'southward work centered around abode and family. There was no work for single women, except perhaps equally a housekeeper in a wealthy habitation -- or prostitution.

Mary's prospects were grim. She had agreed to the pregnancy. She had said to the affections, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be to me according to your give-and-take" (Luke i:38), simply now the price of this decision had become painfully apparent. Notwithstanding, the grace of God at present comes into play.

Joseph, the Righteous Human (ane:19)

We begin to see the grapheme of the man to whom she was betrothed:

"Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (1:19)

Bartolom� Esteban Murillo (Spanish painter, 1617-1682), detail from "The Holy Family with a Pocket-size Bird" (c. 1650), Museo del Prado, Madrid. Full prototype.

Matthew says that he was "a righteous man." "Righteous" (NIV, NRSV) or "just" (KJV) is dikaios, "pertaining to being in accordance with high standards of rectitude, upright, only, fair," here probably, "interested in doing the correct thing, honorable, just, good."⁷

"Righteous" meant that Joseph advisedly observed the law and valued his own reputation. According to the community of that time, adultery would brand her unmarriageable to either her betrothed husband or a paramour, if one had been discovered. By marrying her, Joseph would compromise himself in the eyes of the law. Merely his righteousness went deeper than a mere external righteousness before Jewish police force. He was honorable and wanted to exercise the right thing.

The wrong affair, he decided, was to demand prosecuting her for adultery. "Expose to public disgrace" (NIV, NRSV) or "make a public case" (KJV) is deigmatizō, "expose, make an instance of, disgrace."^viii He couldn't marry her, of course, since he knew that her baby was not his. Simply instead of a messy public trial, he had decided to divorce⁹ her quietly.¹⁰ He would simply write out a certificate of divorce and nowadays it to her in the presence of 2 witnesses, every bit required past law.¹¹ And to avoid the allegation of adultery as the reason for the divorce, Joseph could have offered less serious grounds, acknowledged by Pharisees of the school of Hillel. Brown suggests that "to divorce quietly" may mean to divorce leniently.¹²

And and then Joseph decided to divorce Mary, but to do it in such a style as to protect her equally much equally he could, given the situation. We meet in Joseph a gentleness and maturity. A righteous man, but non a man total of himself. Joseph was a man seeking to do the right thing.

The Angel'due south Revelation in a Dream (1:20-21)

God changed Joseph's listen:

"But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be agape to accept Mary home as your wife, considering what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She volition give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will salvage his people from their sins.'" (i:20-21)

The three times we have a tape of God speaking to Joseph, it is through an "angel of the Lord" appearing to him in a dream. Each time when he wakes up, he immediately obeys the messenger (1:20; 2:13, nineteen). The grade of address, "Son of David," emphasizes Joseph's honored position as a directly descendent of David, Israel'southward greatest king, and from whose descendents the Messiah should come.

The message was, "do not exist agape to take Mary dwelling house every bit your wife." Of course, according to Jewish law she was already his wife. But the messenger assures Joseph that it is right and just for him to proceed with the relationship.¹³ Her pregnancy¹⁴ is not adulterous, merely "from the Holy Spirit."

The Name "Jesus" (ane:21)

Side by side, the angel tells Joseph the proper name to be given to the child -- Jesus. "Jesus" (Greek Iēsous) was not an uncommon proper name at this time, since the Hebrew proper name Yēshūa� is a shortened grade of Joshua (Yeh�sh�a�), who was one of State of israel's most celebrated heroes. But the significance of God's insistence that he be named Jesus is not to honour a national hero, only considering of the pregnant of the proper noun: "Yahweh saves."¹⁵

"... Yous are to give him the proper name Jesus, because he will salve his people from their sins" (1:21)

Jesus' name from the time he was a babe was to signal his mission. Both Mary and Joseph were given this name past the angel so neither would e'er forget who he was -- Yahweh'due south conservancy embodied in human form. As a little baby, "Yahweh saves" might have been born and raised in the humblest of circumstances, but that never diminished who he was. His destiny was to save. The Greek verb sōzō means "to preserve or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions, salve, go on from damage, preserve, rescue," here, "to save/preserve from eternal death, bring Messianic salvation."¹⁶

Seeing the Messiah as Savior was the pop Jewish agreement of the Messiah'southward role at the fourth dimension. But the angel made it articulate to Joseph that this salvation would not exist political or armed services. Jesus' mission was not to overthrow the Roman oppressors and reinstate the Jewish kingdom. His mission was to save his people from a far more insidious enemy -- sin. Jesus came to destroy the power of sin.

Joseph Shall Adopt the Kid (1:21)

Before we leave it, let'due south take 1 concluding await at this control:

"... You are to give him the proper name Jesus" (1:21)

Joseph is commanded to personally name¹⁷ the child. This is securely meaning. It means that Joseph, in naming the child,  acknowledges him every bit his own son and thus becomes the legal father of the child according to Semitic law. As a result of this legal adoption, Joseph's beginnings equally a descendent of David transfers also to his legal son.¹⁸ Biologically, Jesus is begotten past the Holy Spirit and is thus the "Son of God" (Luke i:32a), simply legally he is the son of Joseph and heir to the promises of David, Joseph's ancestor.

The angel Gabriel had promised Mary, "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David" (Luke one:32b). In Joseph naming the male child, and therefore adopting him, David becomes Jesus' earthly ancestor.

The Virgin Will Conceive (one:22-23)

The affections's message is complete. Now Matthew explains all this in terms of an ancient prophetic word:

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give nascency to a son, and they will phone call him Immanuel' -- which means, 'God with u.s.a..'" (1:22-23)

Matthew is quoting Isaiah 7:fourteen because he sees in information technology a prefiguring of the Virgin Birth of Jesus.

In its original setting, Isaiah is exhorting Ahaz King of Judah (the southern kingdom), who faces the daunting threat of a siege of Jerusalem by the armies of Israel (the northern kingdom) and its ally Aram-Damascus, a petty Syrian kingdom. Isaiah tells Ahaz not to fright, just to stand firm in faith. Every bit a sign, the Lord says that a virgin will excogitate and behave a kid to be chosen Immanuel as a reminder that God is with his people in times of trouble. In the time it will have this baby to become just a immature kid, the King of Assyria will have destroyed Judah's enemies.

Some believe that the reference is to some child built-in in Isaiah'south day.^xix Others run into in it a brief prophetic insight, a glimpse far into the future of a kid who will be born to a virgin and bring God's very presence to deliver his people.²⁰ Clearly, Matthew sees the virgin formulation and the name Immanuel equally having a fuller pregnant in Christ. The discussion "fulfill" (plēroō) means "to make full, make full(full)," then "to bring to completion, consummate, finish" and as here "to bring to a designed end, fulfill" a prophecy.²¹

Prophecy in the Erstwhile Testament takes several shapes, including:

1. Exhortation, a directive word from God to a item person or people at a detail time. For example, the Prophet Nathan confronts David with his adultery: "Thou art the human!" (ii Samuel 12).
2. Prediction, a clear foretelling of the future for a person or nation. For example, the Prophet Isaiah foresees the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 and declares his atonement for our sins.
3. Acted prophecy, such equally Hosea marrying a prostitute to illustrate Israel'due south unfaithfulness (Hosea one:ii).
4. Foreshadowing, where a gimmicky prophetic event or insight foreshadows a afar one, so in that location is a double fulfillment -- a present-time fulfillment (the type) and a future completion (the antitype) which brings the prophecy to fullness or completion.

I see Isaiah's words in Isaiah 7:xiv equally the latter kind of prophetic word. The initial fulfillment presumably took place in the prophet's fourth dimension, while the ultimate fulfillment and completion of this word is constitute in Christ.

Emmanuel, God with Us (one:23)

"Emmanuel" or "Immanuel" (depending upon how 1 spells it) is a transliteration of the Hebrew proper name in Isaiah 7:14, literally "with us is God,"²² originally symbolizing the presence of God (�el) to deliver his people from the Assyrian army that threatened their very existence in Isaiah's day. Though to our knowledge, the name Immanuel was never given to Jesus, it certainly applied to him, since "God with us" is a perfect way to describe the nativity of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who is fully homo and fully God.

Joseph's Obedience (one:24-25)

²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had allowable him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵But he had no matrimony with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus." (Matthew 1:24-25)

As soon as he woke up,²³ Joseph obeyed. He accepted Mary as his wife, and took her habitation, but didn't have sexual activity²⁴ with her until Jesus was born.

Did he take normal marital relations with her after Jesus' birth? Protestants come across poetry 25 as evidence that Mary and Joseph lived together every bit husband and wife afterward Jesus' birth and diameter boosted children together, since at that place is no suggestion that Jesus' brothers and sisters (Matthew 12:46-l; 13:55-56) were not also children of Mary and Joseph. While the Greek conjunction heōs, "until" doesn't demand that they afterward had marital relations, that is certainly the implication.²⁵ Catholics, on the other paw, believe that these children were Joseph's by a previous matrimony and that the Virgin Mary was a perpetual virgin.

 Joseph'due south Protection of Jesus

The final things nosotros learn about Joseph happen a few years afterwards Jesus' nascence, just let'south consider them briefly. First, later on the wise men came to worship Jesus -- and had tipped off King Herod as to the presence of a possible rival heir to the throne -- an angel commanded Joseph to flee (2:thirteen-15). Joseph obeyed immediately and left in the heart of the night for Arab republic of egypt. It was a good thing he did. Within a short time, Herod'southward soldiers slaughtered all the male babies in Bethlehem.

Later Herod's death -- when he perceived that the threat was over --Joseph brought Mary and the Kid dorsum to Israel, returning to Nazareth (ii:nineteen-23). Even then, he is careful not to return to Bethlehem, since Herod'south brutal son Archelaus at present reigned in the territory of Judah.²⁶ So he brought his family dorsum to Nazareth, in spite of what scandal still might remain there. In Nazareth, the family now lived. It was here that Jesus was raised, and learned the trade of carpentry from his begetter.

The scripture tells us nothing of Joseph's death, though presumably he was non living during the time of Jesus' ministry, or Jesus would not accept felt the need to entrust his mother Mary'south care to the beloved disciple (John xix:26-27).

What we learn from the Scripture almost Joseph is that God chose to father his Jesus a man who was devout, full of faith, obedient to God, simply, merciful, and one who loved and carefully guarded both Mary and the Child Jesus.

Prayer

Begetter, thanks for Joseph who proved worthy of your trust to raise Jesus. Aid u.s.a. to be every bit believing, as true-blue, as zealous as he was to take on the diverse tasks that you assign to us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Central Verses

"Because Joseph her hubby was a righteous man and did not desire to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (Matthew 1:xix)

"When Joseph woke upward, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife." (Matthew 1:24)

References

1. "Pledged to be married" (NIV), "engaged" (NRSV), and "consort" (KJV) translate the verb mnēsteuō, "woo and win, betroth," passive, "exist matrimonial, become engaged" (BDAG 656).
2. "Came together" (NIV, KJV) or "lived together" (NRSV) is sunerchomai, hither "'to unite in an intimate relationship, come together' in a sexual context" (BDAG 969-970).
3. In i:18 the Holy Spirit'southward agency is indicated by the preposition ek, here, a "marker denoting origin, crusade, motive, reason, 'from, of.'" (BDAG 295-298, 3.a.)
4. Greek tektōn, "one who constructs, builder, carpenter" (BDAG 995).
5. R.1000. Harrison, "Tools," ISBE 4:874-876.
6. Raymond E. Brownish, The Gospel According to John I-XII (Anchor Bible; Doubleday, 1966), 333, citing J. Blinzer, "Die Strafe f�r Ehebruch in Bible and Halacha zur Auslegung von Joh. 8 v," NTS 4 (1957-58), 32-47.
7. Dikaios, BDAG 296-297, 1.a.α.
8. Deigmatizō, BDAG 214.
9. "Divorce" (NIV), "dismiss" (NRSV), and "put away" (KJV) is apoluō, which is a technical term for "to grant acquittal, set costless, release, pardon." Here it means, "to dissolve a spousal relationship human relationship, to divorce one's wife or matrimonial" (BDAG 118, 5).
10. "Quietly" (NIV) is lathra, "(to practise something) without others existence aware, secretly" (BDAG 581).
11. Brownish, Birth, p. 128, citing Strack and Billerback, I, 304-305.
12. Dark-brown, Birth, p. 128.
13. "Take home" (NIV) or "accept" (NRSV, KJV) is paralambanō, "to take into close clan, take (to oneself), take with/forth." Here of 1's married woman, "accept (her) into ane's dwelling," here and in 1:24. (BDAG 767)
14. "Conceived" is gennaō, "beget" by procreation (BDAG 193-194).
15. The original meaning is "Yahweh helps," or in popular etymology connected with the root ysh�, "to salvage," and the noun yesh���, "conservancy" (Dark-brown, Nativity, p. 131).
16. Sōzō, BDAG 982-983.
17. The verb is kaleō, "call," here with the significant "name, provide with a name" (BDAG 502-504, ane.c.).
18. See the discussion in Dark-brown, Birth, p. 139.
19. John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters ane-39 (New International Commentary on the Old Attestation; Eerdmans, 1986), p. 209-213. Oswalt sees Isaiah'southward son Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:3) as the immediate fulfillment, only with 7:14 pointing to "the ultimate Immanuel" (p. 213).
20. For example, Edward J. Immature, The Book of Isaiah (Eerdmans, 1965), vol. ane, pp. 283-294. He quotes the classic work of J. Gresham Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ (1930), who paraphrases the thought: "I encounter a wonderful child, the prophet on this interpretation would say, a wonderful child whose birth shall bring salvation to his people; and earlier such a flow of time shall elapse as would lie between the conception of the child in his mother's womb and his coming to years of discretion, the state of Israel and of Syria shall be forsaken." Immature comments, "In vision Isaiah was immune to see the virgin, and information technology is the proclamation of what he is permitted to meet in vision that he declared unto Ahaz and the nation" (p. 286).
21. Plēroō, BDAG 827-829, 4.a.
22. BDB 769.
23. "Woke up" (NIV) or literally "existence raised" (KJV), is the Aorist passive of egeirō, "wake, agitate," or passive, "wake upward, awaken." (BDAG 271-272, i, two.). The word too is used in a command to the dreaming Joseph in 2:xiii.
24. "Had no union" (NIV), "had no marital relations" (NRSV) or "knew" (KJV) is ginōskō, "know," here a euphemism for "to have sexual intercourse with," both here and in Luke i:34 (BDAG 199-200, 5.).
25. "Until" is heōs, "to denote the end of a menstruum of fourth dimension, till, until." i.b.β, Aleph). It is used both here and in ii:15 where it refers to the period of time that the Holy Family lived equally expatriates in Egypt.
    Cosmic New Testament scholar Raymond E. Dark-brown (Birth, p. 132), in protecting the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, notes that in English when something is negated until a particular fourth dimension, something happening after that time is usually causeless. Even so, he cites K. Beyer (Semitische Syntax im Neuen Attestation (M�ttigen: Vandenhoeck, 1962), I, 132) to the effect that in Greek and Semitic such a negation often has no implication most what happened afterwards. Notation this argument only provides the possibility that heōs ("until") doesn't imply that Mary and Joseph engaged in marital relations later; it doesn't prove the point. Although Brown asserts, "The immediate context favors a lack of hereafter implication here," in the lite of Matthew 12:46-l; 13:55-56, I don't concur. If Matthew had intended to teach Mary's perpetual virginity, he would have said something like, "Though Joseph took Mary dwelling as his married woman, he never had sex with her." Instead, he uses heōs ("until") with a specified time period, "until she gave birth to a son." Brownish concludes, "In my judgment the question of Mary's remaining a virgin for the residual of her life belongs to mail-biblical theology."
26. Herod the Bully'due south death is probably to exist dated equally March/Apr four B.C. (Brownish, Birth, p. 166.) Succeeded in Judea past his son Archelaus who was technically an ethnarch in Judea. He was known for his brutality and dictatorial ways, and then much so that the Jews sent a deputation to Rome seeking his removal. He was deposed by Rome in 6 Advertisement Simply Joseph could take no chances with a ruler with such a barbarous reputation. Joseph was a known and marked human being. If someone recognized him in Bethlehem, the kid might well have been killed by the son Archelaus. So instead Joseph led his family to Nazareth. In spite of the scandal of Mary'southward pregnancy there, he would non be identified with the wisemen's visit to Bethlehem. The Child would be safe.

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