Photo by Flickr user catchesthelight. Used under a Creative Commons license.

We don’t know very much about Joseph who, no matter how one interprets the New Testament, was not the biological father of Jesus of Nazareth. But I wish we knew more.

We know he was very poor. Tradition obliged all but the poorest to bring a lamb to the Temple after a child’s birth but permitted the sacrifice of two turtledoves for the poor. Joseph brought turtledoves.

We know he was a righteous man. Righteous but not self-righteous. When he learned the girl he was due to marry was pregnant he initially sought to break off the betrothal, but to do so quietly so she would be protected rather than publicly, which would have led to her death by stoning.

We don’t know for sure but both Apocryphal tradition and custom of the day would tend to have Joseph relatively old (perhaps in his 40s) and Mary possibly very young. For instance we know that, at least in Rome, which ruled Middle East 2007 years ago, girls married as soon after their first period as possible because it was believed that women were so innately wild for children (not for sex, of course, just the children you got from sex!) that staying a virgin for long was out of the question. And, for instance, we know that for much of history poor men in highly-structured societies often had to defer marriage, sometimes for decades, until they were well-established enough to afford it. (Note: some traditions, desperate to keep Mary as alien from actual corporeal humanity as possible, keep her a virgin before and after Jesus by proposing that Joseph was an older widower and therefore Jesus’s “brothers” were actually all step-brothers. This tradition has never been universally accepted, however.) Tradition, and Biblical reference (or lack thereof after Jesus was 12), suggest that Joseph died of old age sometime before Jesus began his ministry.

We also know that Joseph wasn’t the kind of man contemporary conservatives, “family-values” traditionalists, and anti-feminists expect men to be. Rather than getting Mary pregnant himself and then avoiding responsibility he didn’t get her pregnant but took on responsibility! Oh, and by the way, turns out he’s the patron saint of fathers, carpenters, and social justice. One of his two Saints days is May 1, which, except in the U.S., international labor day. Yes, yes, angels told him this, and angels told him that, but what matters isn’t what he was told but that what he did was mature, compassionate, honest, righteous, and responsible.

When you think about it, even though all sources of all persuasions agree that Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, he was a wonderful, responsible, generous man and, when you look at who the boy in Joseph’s care grew up to say and do in life, it’s clear Joseph was a good teacher and a marvelous role model as well.

Funny. I started out this evening more curious than anything else, and now after reading various sources I’ll never think of Joseph the same way, nor the words of the Sermon on the Mount with its blessing of the meek, the merciful, and the pure of heart, nor, certainly, “those of you who are without guilt cast ye the first stone.” (Since Joseph was, as far as we know, both without sin and within his rights to cast stones 33 years before those words were spoken.) Pretty amazing man.

No wonder conservatives, “traditionalists,” “men’s rights” activists, and other anti-feminists generally ignore him.

For this and other reasons, whether people see the event through spiritual or secular eyes I feel pretty good about wishing Merry Christmas to all.