Christians, mainly American Christians, often say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Well then, how inerrant is the Bible? In this article, I will be taking a look at the New Testament while asking a simple question: who was Joseph, the man who is said to be the husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother, but not his father?

This page is a work in progress. Comments are welcome. 

Matthew

As it happens, I seem to be in luck. The very first chapter of the very first book of the New Testament, the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, explains exactly that:

 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

 The generation of Jesus Christ? So the, Jesus isn’t the son of God? Maybe not. But since I am looking at who is Joseph, I won’t worry about this right now.

 There is a rather lengthy, some would say boring, list of ancestors, leading from Abraham to Jesus. Wait a minute, Jesus? Well, yes:

 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

 Don’t Christians say that Joseph is not Jesus’ father? Isn’t this in contradiction with verse 1:16? That is indeed how I see it, but given the ambiguity inherent to all language, I will let this one pass, for the time being, while not forgetting that there seems to be doubt about Joseph’s (non-)fatherhood.

 I put the entire list in a three column table: 

 Matthew likes the number 14 for some reason, but he doesn’t seem to be able to make it fit, so he employs a little ruse:

 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

 If the Babylon reference is lost on you, don’t worry about it. It comes from the Old Testament, and the generational lists in the Old Testament aren’t compatible with this one. Although this pleads against the inerrancy of the Bible, I am not worrying about it here, because I am only looking at the New Testament. 

What else do we know about Joseph?

He was betrothed to Mary (Matthew 1:18)

Mary was impregnated by the Holy Ghost, before she had sex with Joseph (Matthew 1:18)

Joseph wanted to separate from Mary, but didn’t (Matthew 1:19)

Joseph did not have sex with Mary until Jesus was born (Matthew 1:25)

Joseph lived in Bethlehem (Judaea) during the reign of Herod the King (Matthew 2:1)

Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to Egypt, because Herod wants to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:13)

After Herod’s death, Joseph and Mary came back to Israel with Jesus (Matthew 2:21)

After Herod, Archelaus became king of Judaea (Matthew 2:22)

They settled in Nazareth (Galilee) (Matthew 2:23)

Joseph was a carpenter (Matthew 13:55)

Joseph probably has four sons: James, Joses, Simon and Judas (Matthew 13:55). I say “probably” because it is always possible that Mary got these children, including the daughters, from another sperm donor.

Joseph probably has daughters (Matthew 13:56)

Mark

In Mark, we learn nothing about Joseph. He is never mentioned. The only thing that we possibly can infer, is that Joseph might be a carpenter because Jesus is said to be one:

6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

Luke

Joseph was betrothed to a virgin called Mary (Luke 1:27).
Mary did not have sex with Joseph, nor with anyone else (Luke 1:34)
Mary is impregnated by the Holy Ghost or by both the Holy Ghost and God himself, depending on whether they are to be seen as one and the same or as two separate entities:

1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Caesar Augustus decreed that people all over the world should be taxed, for the first time during the period that Cyrenius was governor of Syria. (Luke 2:1-2). According to historians, this means that this must have happened in 6 C.E. [Reference 1]
Joseph and Mary, lived in Nazareth, Galilee, and travelled to Bethlehem, Judaea for the census. Jesus was born there. (Luke 2:4-7)
After Mary’s “purification”, Joseph and Mary travelled with Jesus to Jerusalem to offer him to God. They then returned to Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:39).
Now follows Jesus’ genealogy. According to Luke, Jesus was supposed to be Joseph’s son, and he gives the entire succession up to and including Adam:

People thought Jesus was Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22)
Jesus may not be Joseph’s son, since Jesus is driving out devils, and they claim that he is the son of God (Luke 4:41)
Jesus calls himself the son of man (Luke 5:24, Luke 6:5, Luke 6:22)
A man possessed by a legion of devils calls Jesus the son of God (Luke 8:28)
The people are unsure of Jesus’ identity (Luke 9:18-20):

And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

A voice in a cloud claims that Jesus is its son (Luke 9:35)
Jesus questions that the Messiah is a descendant of David, and suggests he is God’s son instead (Luke 20:41-44)
When asked if he is the son of God, Jesus only replies that the questioners say that he is (Luke 22:70)

References
[1] Quirinius, P. Sulpicius, Jewish Encyclopdia, Retrieved 19 December 2010

John

Jesus is the son of God (John 1:34,49)
Jesus is said to be the son of Joseph:

John 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Jesus claims to be the son of God (John 5:18)
People doubt that Jesus is the son of God:

John 6:42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

People think that Jesus is born of fornication (John 8:41)
Martha thinks that Jesus is the son of God:

John 11:27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Conclusion

After reading the four gospels, it is clear that little to nothing is known about Joseph.

1. He was probably a carpenter
2. He was either betrothed or married to Mary, Jesus’ mother
3. He may or may not have been Jesus’ father
4. He probably had other children after Jesus
5. His ancestry is unknown, since both genealogies of Matthew and Luke are completely different
6. The places where he lived are uncertain at best

Biblical inerrancy

Many Christians, especially of the conservative American kind claim that the Bible is literally true. This is -at least in principle- very easy to challenge. All that is needed is a single fallacy or contradiction.

Even looking at an easy issue as the one of Joseph’s existence, it is virtually immediately obvious that the inerrancy of the Bible is a myth. Two examples:

According to Matthew, Joseph’s father is Jacob.
According to Luke, Joseph’s father is Heli.

According to Matthew, Joseph lived in Bethlehem, went to Egypt and eventually moved to Nazareth.
According to Luke, Joseph lived in Nazareth, travelled to Bethlehem and eventually returned to Nazareth. Egypt is not mentioned.

In other words, the inerrancy of the Bible is a myth.

Last updated on 24 December 2010