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 married 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

Still to come

John

Still to come