Word: jesus
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...Audiences," writes Louise Bourassa Perrotta, author of Saint Joseph: His Life and His Role in the Church Today, "do not generally react well when favorite characters are retired early," citing Sherlock Holmes and Joseph. Nor did early Christians appreciate potshots by contemporaries who suspected Jesus might have been Joseph's son after all, or questioned Mary's virginity when Scripture talked about his having several "brothers" and "sisters." Among the first attempts to address all those issues were the vivid set of books known as the Apocrypha...
...making Joseph an old man, the Protevangelium made his impregnating Mary less likely. By assigning him children from a first marriage, it answered the question of who Jesus' siblings were. The Protevangelium portrays Joseph's initial agitation with Mary far more fully than Scripture. It also tells how the dismayed High Priest later puts them both through a trial by ordeal (they must drink a potentially lethal "water of conviction") before he accepts that the pregnant Mary is still a virgin. A bright light obscures Joseph's view of the birth, but the Protevangelium has already assigned him a beautiful...
...before the dove flies out: the flowering rod became his standard accessory in Western art--and is why in Mexico hollyhocks are known as varitas (little staffs) de San José. Some tales set Joseph's age at the time of the betrothal at as high as 91. Several portrayed Jesus in his father's workshop, keeping busy by magically correcting Joseph's building errors. Most alarming is The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, in which Jesus strikes dead playmates who annoy him, and other adults beg Joseph to teach his "son" how "to bless and not to curse." He tries...
Other Apocrypha speculated marvelously on the "flight into Egypt." In one version, dragons along the Nile bend their knee to the baby, and palm trees bow to offer dates. Another features a robber who will turn out to be the "good thief" crucified with Jesus. The flight made Joseph an early favorite of the Egyptian Coptic Church, which mapped a detailed itinerary reaching as far north as Dimyana, near the Mediterranean, and south far past the pyramids down to Deir al-Muharraq. The Coptic History of Joseph the Carpenter provided one of the first descriptions of his death...
...Western church. Their creativity was a liability. The 4th century church father Jerome called them "deliria." Although Eastern Orthodoxy continues to accept Joseph's prior marriage and children, in the West, Jerome doubly secured Mary's virginity by proposing that Joseph too was a virgin and that Jesus' siblings were cousins, a view still held by most Roman Catholics. (Protestants eventually decided that Joseph and Mary did have additional children.) Church fathers debated earnestly over whether Mary and Joseph's union could actually be called a marriage (yes) and whether Joseph could actually be called Jesus' father (a mixed verdict...