We know that Joseph was from Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:3-5). We know that Joseph was betrothed to Mary. Now, their betrothal was quite different from ours today. Since almost all marriages were arranged in those days (and, by the way, for much of history, up to and including today in parts of the world), Joseph's parents, then, would have engaged in a contract, as it were, with Mary's parents for their children to wed, including paying a mohar -- kind of a dowry -- paid in cash, goods, and/or services. There was a period of engagement in which the fact that they were to wed was made known. Then there was a ceremony that started the betrothal period. During that time, they were not actually married -- living together, etc. -- but they were classified as husband and wife (Matt 1:16, 19). The betrothal period was the time allowed for the groom to prepare a place for the bride. He set up a business and a home, etc. When all was ready, he would return and retrieve his bride. (Does any of that sound familiar (John 14:2-3)?) They would go through a marriage ceremony that could last a week or more and then be married. When we meet Joseph, he and Mary are in that betrothal period (Matt 1:18). We know that Joseph was a kind and conscientious man. We know this because when he found out Mary was pregnant, he knew she had been unfaithful. He had the option to publicly disgrace her, but he opted instead to divorce her quietly so as not to disgrace her (Matt 1:19)1. We know that he was a man of faith because before he could divorce Mary, an angel visited him and told him this bizarre story about Mary being with child from the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20-25) ... and Joseph believed and obeyed. When Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt because Herod would try to kill his son, he didn't hesitate to obey (Matt 2:13-14). He left the same night. Joseph doesn't last long in the Gospels. He was around until Jesus was 12 when they took Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover (Luke 2:41-42). Joseph was not mindful that Jesus was God Incarnate -- the Son of the Living God -- because Jesus had to remind him (Luke 2:49). We don't see Joseph again in Scripture. We know that Joseph was a carpenter because they referred to Jesus as the son of a carpenter (Matt 13:55). We don't know much else about him.
Frankly, we don't know a whole lot about Jesus's earthly father. The Roman Catholics are pretty sure he was married (polygamist), but history tells us that polygamy was all but gone in Jesus's day. They are also quite sure he was a lot older than Mary, but, that's in order to support the perpetual virginity of Mary (because, after all, how could a husband go his whole life without sex?). We know no such thing from Scripture. What we do know is that he was a conscientious man, diligently pursuing God's instructions, obeying dreams from God without question, and taking care of his family. Asked to do some amazingly difficult things (like marrying a woman that everyone was sure had cheated on him), he obeyed without blinking. He seems to have died at a young age, given his absence from any texts after Jesus's 12th year, but God used him mightily to be a dad to His Son and an example to all us who follow. Thanks, Joseph.
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1 In Matthew 19 in the discussion of divorce with the Pharisees, Jesus said not to divorce ... at all (Matt 19:4-6). They questioned Him about giving her a certificate of divorce from Moses (Matt 19:7). Jesus said, "I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Matt 19:9). Jesus did not mention adultery as the exception. The word for adultery was in that sentence (moichaō), but Jesus used "porneia" as the exception. While porneia refers to any kind of sex outside of marital sex (which would include adultery), it seems strange that Jesus would use two different words in one sentence if He meant the same thing. The rational explanation was that the divorce that Jesus allowed on the basis of sexual immorality was not for adultery, but for sexual infidelity during the period of betrothal. (Note: In biblical times, the penalty for adultery wasn't divorce; it was stoning (John 8:1-5).)
3 comments:
That note on divorce really puts another wrench in the modern era of divorce. I've opposed the "allowance" for adultery on the basis of, "you are only doing so out of the hardness of your heart", which I would argue is a bad place for a Christian to do anything. But the reminder that the divorce in the passage is about betrothal divorce and that adultery was punishable by death...
By your own explanation, the adultery exception is indeed in play.
First, you say Christ mentions porneia and then go on to say it would include adultery. That pretty much says it right there. Adultery is an acceptable reason to divorce as it is one form of immorality.
Second, the reference to adultery in this verse is the status of a second marriage should a man divorce for any reason but immorality, which again, as you say includes adultery.
Thus, He didn't use two words to express the same thing. He used them in the context of two different things: adultery being an acceptable (or tolerated) reason for divorce and the adultery being the state marrying another after divorcing the first for any reason but immorality. He was expressing two different things.
This is one of those points on which I stand with, "Well, if that's the way you see it ..." When they asked Jesus, "Is there any lawful cause for divorcing your wife?" Jesus responded, emphatically, "No!" "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt 19:4-6). They countered, "But ... Moses said it was okay." Jesus's answer was that Moses allowed it "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matt 19:8). Jesus's "exception clause," then, was not for divorce, but remarriage. "And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery" (Matt 19:9). (Odd that He used "sexual immorality" and "adultery" in the same sentence, but everyone reads them as synonymous in this text.) As far as I can tell, the answer to "Is it okay to divorce?" is "No." “But … what if I can’t let it go?” “Then you can divorce because your heart is hard.” To the question of "Well, what if divorce occurs? What about remarriage?", the answer is "If the divorce was for sexual sin, remarriage is possible." From the text. (This is not including the 1 Cor 7 passage.) (By the way -- full disclosure -- I am divorced and remarried.) What is fascinating to me is this aim we all seem to have to push our options to the limit. "How far out there can I go?" As if, "I don't want to get to heaven and find out I did too much for God." Regardless, divorce in any case is not the unpardonable sin. We can make that a real problem for people. I suppose we can make it a real problem for a lot of sins, though, can't we? "Oh, you did that? God may have forgiven and accepted you, but I won't."
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