Joseph of Nazareth

Joseph of Nazareth was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus and, therefore, Jesus' putative father. Both his life and his family ancestors are described in the New Testament of the Bible.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, he was a craftsman (in the original Greek, «τεχτων»; Matthew 13:55a), which already in the first centuries of Christianity took the form of a carpenter, profession that he would have taught his son, of whom it is also indicated that he was a "craftsman". He was of humble condition, although the genealogies of Matthew and Lucas present him as belonging to the lineage of King David. The date of his death is unknown, although it is accepted that Joseph of Nazareth died when Jesus Christ was already over 12 years old, but before he began preaching. Indeed, the Gospel of Luke mentions "the parents" of Jesus when he is already 12 years old, but Joseph of Nazareth is not mentioned in the synoptic gospels during the public ministry of Jesus, so it is presumed that he died before this took place. The Scriptures point to Joseph as "just," which implies his fidelity to the Torah and his holiness.

The figure of Joseph was contemplated and admired by various Fathers and Doctors of the Church and is today the object of study of a particular branch of theology, josefology.

Joseph of Nazareth in the Bible

Detail of José de Nazaret at the Rest in the flight to Egypt (1517), oil on canvas by Antonio Allegri da Correggio.

According to Lucas, José was the son of Helí or Eli; nevertheless, Jacob was Jacob's father.

In the Gospel of Matthew shows part of the drama that José de Nazaret lived to know that Maria was pregnant. I was going to repudiate it, in secret because it was fair, because I did not want it to be stoned according to the provisions of the Torah. The French biblical and archaeological school of Jerusalem interprets that Joseph's justice consisted of not wanting to cover up a child whose child whose Father ignored, but also that, convinced of Mary's virtue, she refused to deliver her to the rigorous procedure of the law of Moses. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the angel of the Lord told her in dreams that she conceived by the work of the spirit Santo and his son "would save his people from his sins," so Joseph accepted Mary.

Then, before Herod I the Great ordered to kill children under two years of Bethlehem and the entire region, José took the child Jesus and his mother and fled to Egypt. When Herod died, José entered again with The child and his mother in the land of Israel but, upon learning that Arquelao, son of Herod el Grande, reigned in Judea, was afraid to go there and retired to the region of Galilee, to Nazareth. According to the gospel of Lucas, Nazareth had been the place of residence of Maria, already married to José, when the announcement occurred.

The last time Joseph appears in the Bible is when Jesus was 12 years old, in the story of his loss and finding in the temple. From there, he is only mentioned when Jesus is referred to as his Son as his Son.

Name

Meaning

Saint Joseph carpenter, Georges de La Tour. Oil on canvas painted in the 1640s. Louvre Museum, Paris.

José (or Joseph in its archaic transcription into Spanish, used until the beginning of the 19th century) is a masculine name of Hebrew origin that derives from yôsef (יוסף) «add», from the verb lehosif (להוסיף) «add». The explanation of the meaning of this name is found in the book of Genesis, when describing the birth of Joseph, the favorite son of the patriarch Jacob.

Then God remembered Rachel. God heard her and opened her breast, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And he said, "God has taken away my reproach," and Joseph called him, saying, "Add me Yahweh another son. »

Genesis 30.22-24

Hypocoristic

The fact that Joseph of Nazareth is mentioned as the putative father of Jesus has given rise to a popular etymology of the diminutive of this name: Pepe. According to this opinion, it is an acronym resulting from the set of both initials; P.P. However, it is much more likely that it comes from Jusepe (old form of the name in Spanish), in a similar way to other Romance languages, such as Catalan (Pep, from Josep) and Italian (Peppe or Beppe, from Giuseppe).

Office

The Gospel of Matthew in Greek states that Jesus of Nazareth was "the son of a craftsman" (Matthew 13:55a) and the Gospel of Mark states that Jesus himself was made that trade: "Isn't this the craftsman? » (Mark 6:3).

The Greek term used in both cases, «τεχτων», does not specifically correspond to «carpenter», but to «craftsman», to «laborer», although more frequently it is said of Joseph that he was a carpenter. In fact, this is how it is often translated in most Bibles, including the Jerusalem Bible: "Is not this (Jesus) the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55a).

Joseph of Nazareth in the apocryphal writings

Statue of Saint Joseph by the Duthoit brothers (nineteenth century). Chapel of Saint Joseph (1832), Cathedral of Notre Dame de Amiens.

Santiago's protoevangelium reports that Joseph was a widower with children and that later he took Mary as his wife to guard her virginity.

The apocryphal book The story of José el Carpenter presented as a biography of Joseph dictated by Jesus. It describes how José lived celibate for forty years, then took his first wife, whose name is not revealed, with whom he had four sons and two daughters, namely: Judas, Justo, Judas, Santiago and Simón the men and Asia and Asia and Lidia, women. After forty -nine years of marriage, José sent and a year later married Maria. She, perpetual Virgin, gave birth to Jesus whom Joseph took care of as a father.

at one hundred eleven years of age, Joseph became ill and died, assisted by Jesus who assured him the forgiveness of sins and the entrance to paradise.

The Catholic Encyclopedia points out different passages from the apocryphal writings referring to José's marriage, stories to which he qualifies as unreliable:

When (Joseph) had forty years of age he espoused a woman named Melcha or Escha for some, Salome for others, with whom he lived forty-nine years and with whom he had six branches, two daughters and four sons, the minor of whom was James (the Minor, called “the brother of the Lord”).One year after the death of his wife, when the priests announced throughout the Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Judah some respectable man to marry Mary, then twelve to fourteen years old, Joseph, who was already at that time ninety years old, went to Jerusalem among the candidates, a miracle manifested the election of Joseph made by God, and two years later the Annunciation took place.

José de Nazareth in the patristic

Church's parents were the first to resume the theme of José de Nazareth. Irenaeus of Lyon pointed out that Joseph, just as he loved Mary lovingly and dedicated himself with a joyful effort to the education of Jesus Christ, also custody and protects her mystical body, the Church, of which Mary is a figure and model. To Irene Efrén of Syria joined with a laudatory sermon, Juan Chrysostom, Jerome of Struggles, and Agustín de Hipona, who pointed out in a taxative way referring to Joseph and Mary:

What the Holy Spirit has done, he has done for both of us. It's just the man, just the woman. The Holy Spirit, relying on the justice of the two, gave a son to both.

St. Augustine, Serm. 51, c 20.

According to Hegesippus, Joseph's brother was Cleopas, father of Simeon. Epifanio, Bishop of Salamis, adds that Joseph and Cleofas would be brothers, sons of Jacob, surnamed Pantera.

Epifanio wrote in his work El Panarion (c. 374-375) that Joseph was the father of Santiago and his three brothers (Joseph, Simeon, Judah) and two sisters (one Salome and one María) or (one Salome and one Ana) with Santiago being the older brother. Santiago and his brothers were not children of Mary, but children of Joseph from a previous marriage. After the death of Joseph's first wife, many years later, when he was eighty years old, "he took Mary (mother of Jesus)." According to Epifanio, the Scriptures call them "brothers of the Lord" to confuse the opponents of him.

Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church

Guido Reni, José de Nazaret.

numerous Christian authors, several of them doctors of the Church, referred throughout history to José de Nazareth (Beda el Venerable, Bernardo de Claraval, Tomás de Aquino in his Summa Theologiae , 3, q. 29, a. 2 in c.). Sixtus IV (1471-1484) introduced the feast of San José in the Roman Breviary, and Innocent VIII (1484-1492) raised it to double rite.

Also since the beginning of the order of smaller friars, the Franciscans were interested in José de Nazaret as the Single Paternity Model. Different Franciscan writers since the century xiii al XV (Buenaventura de Fidanza, Juan Duns Scoto, Pedro Juan Olivi, Uberino da Casale, Bernardino de Siena, and Bernardino de Feltre) were progressively suggesting how José de Nazareth could become a model of fidelity, of humility, poverty and obedience for the followers of Francisco de Asís.

However, it was Teresa de Ávila who gave the devotion to San José the definitive support in the XVI . This Spanish mystique recounts her personal experience referring to José de Nazareth in the Book of Life :

And I took as a lawyer and a lord the glorious Saint Joseph, and entrusted much to him. [...] I don't remember until now that I begged you something that stopped you from doing. It is a thing that frightens the great mercedes that God has made me through this blessed saint, of the dangers that He has delivered me, both of body and of soul; that the Lord seems to have given them grace to help in a necessity; this glorious saint I have experience that endures in all, and that the Lord wants to give us to understand that as He was subject to Him on earth (as He had a father's name), [...] Pay me, a few years ago, that every year in your day I ask you one thing and I always see it accomplished. If anything's twisting the request, he'll straighten it out for me. [...] I only ask, for God's sake, to prove it who does not believe me, and will see by experience the great good that is to entrust to this glorious Patriarch and have devotion to him. In particular, people of prayer should always be cared for, that I do not know how to think of the Queen of Angels, in the time that so much happened with the Child Jesus, that they do not thank Saint Joseph for how well he helped them in it. Whoever does not find a teacher to teach him prayer, take this glorious saint by teacher, and will not err in the way.

Teresa of Avila, Book of Life, chap. 6, nn. 6-8.

Canvas cuzqueño depicting Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus. Peru is one of the countries of which Joseph of Nazareth was proclaimed a patron saint.

Pope Pius IX proclaimed him on December 8, 1870 patron of the universal Church.. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Quamquam pluries about him, and on August 15, 1989, on his centenary, Pope John Paul II dedicated the apostolic exhortation Redemptoris” to him. custos. This apostolic exhortation is considered by many to be the magna carta of the theology of Saint Joseph.. On the occasion of the beginning of his Petrine ministry on the solemnity of Saint Joseph in 2013, Pope Francis referred in his homily to the scope of custody that the Catholic Church attributes to this saint; On December 8, 2020, he wrote the apostolic letter Patris corde on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the declaration by Pius IX of Saint Joseph as patron of the Universal Church and for the same reason declared a Year of Saint Joseph, from December 8, 2020 until December 8, 2021.

Joseph of Nazareth was declared patron saint of the family and is considered par excellence the patron saint of a good death, credited with having died in the arms of Jesus and Mary. Due to his work as a carpenter, he is considered the patron of work, especially of the workers, by the decree of Pius XII in 1955, who wanted to give Christian connotation to the anniversary of International Workers' Day. The Catholic Church has also declared him protector against doubt and Pope Benedict XV also declared him patron against communism and moral relaxation.

He has been considered patron of the Asociazione Catoliche Laboratrice Italiana since its foundation, as has the Argentine Catholic Action. He has been proclaimed patron of America, China, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Croatia, Peru, Vietnam, Costa Rica, with the latter having the only archdiocese in the world dedicated to the saint.

Joseph at the Holy Family

Joseph is one of the three pillars that make up the model Christian family, both internally (in the relationships between the different members that make it up) and externally (the family in society).

It can be affirmed that José was not an adoptive father in the strict sense, since there was no adoption, no legal transaction equivalent to it. Joseph was the person that, according to Christian tradition, God chose to constitute a family for Jesus. And such a family was characterized by only three elements, highlighting that of them, José assumed the paternal role.

Joseph, a just man, was characterized in his family relationships by treating Mary with the utmost respect and support and by serving as a model, by God's will, for Jesus. It is these notes that constitute the fundamental aspect of the Christian family seen from within. And they lead us to affirm that Joseph is one of the central figures of Christianity, an exceptional man.

Josephology

It is the oldest image of Villa Insurgentes 1800-1801 and is venerated in the parish of San José del Calabazal

Saint Joseph, portrayed as a young man, with a flowered rod. Oratorio del Hospital Universitario Austral, Pilar, Argentina.

San José de la Hermandad de los Desamparados (San Fernando, Spain). In the image we see the flowery rod, one of the symbols of Joseph of Nazareth from the centuryV.

Today, some Catholic theologians hold that Joseph ascended to Heaven body and soul; some even hold that Joseph was immaculate from his conception. None of these positions, however, has been assumed by the magisterium of the Catholic Church. "Josephology", as a branch of Theology that studies Joseph of Nazareth, is in constant evolution.

Iconography

Early Christian iconography depicted Joseph of Nazareth as a young man until at least the 5th century. This is how it appears on a 3rd century tombstone located in the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus, in Rome, and also on the sarcophagus of Saint Celsus dated from the 16th century IV and located in Milan. Likewise, the Fathers of the Church agreed that it was a young man.

Many later artists depicted him as an old man. Late 16th century 16th, Johannes Molanus (1533–1585) encouraged a change in the way Saint Joseph was portrayed, arguing that the different life experiences reported in the Gospels (including the flight into Egypt and supporting his family in foreign lands) suggested that he was a young man, capable of deal with such situations. After Molanus, many images abandoned the traditional depiction of Saint Joseph as an elderly, bald, or gray-haired man, and gave the saint a youthful outward appearance.

Generally, he was depicted in a scene next to the Virgin Mary, usually wearing a staff (a cane with a curved upper end) or an instrument of his trade as a badge. This is how it is viewed:

• In the San Celso sarcophagus in Milan at the end of the centuryIV appears with a destral or ax.
• In a diptych of the cathedral of that city, with a mountain range (sixteenth century)VI).
• In a mosaic of Saint Mary the Greater of the CenturyV begins to carry the flowery rod that will be drawn from there on.
• In the baptismal pile of St.Isidoro de León has a stall in the form of T and a book.

Biblical quotes