The Biblical and Non-Biblical Story of Joseph

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The Biblical and Non-Biblical Story of Joseph

r&I Nv — There is less than a month to go before the festive season is upon us once again. Bringing a new generate of children to be indoctrinated into the mythical story of baby Jesus. Who supposedly was born some 2,000 years ago in a manger. What is intriguing is the circumstance of how baby Jesus was born in the manger, if we can get past the disagreement between the Gospels. Then what happened next! Baby and his mother take back seats while Joseph the father takes centre stage before he is lost forever within the biblical story.  

Jesus became a God, with Mary becoming the Theotokos (Mother of God) in 431 CE. However, no deity title for the supposed father, whose written out of the plot, whilst the mother takes centre stage alongside the Son.

The age-old question of who was the biological father of Jesus is still raging after two millennia: with three characters or two and a rapist-spirit being the top contenders. Christians over the millennia have pleaded ignorant and that God the Holy Spirit is the father of Jesus. Stating the Bible is the legitimate words and works of God! That was until 1859, when German work-men building a new railway in Bingerbrück, Germany, unearthed a lost ancient Roman cemetery. Several tombstones were discovered, with one, in particular, causing historians to revisit their history books of classical authors, such as Celsus and the works of Christian church-fathers. The Tombstone in question belonged to a soldier of the Roman first cohort Sagittariorum/archers. Like so many young soldiers of the time, he took the first two names of his emperor whom he served. The third name was an Aramaic name meaning the Servant of God. The fourth name was Panther. The name he chose was Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera.  He was from the Phoenician City of Sidon, a place that Jesus had travelled incognito to visit a particular house? Mark 7:24 

Pantera or Panthera was the name bandied around as the Paramour of Mary and the father of Jesus. And the reason for the story of Mary adultery conviction and eviction out of the house of Joseph. [Contra Celsum, BK I, ch.28] Christian, however, turned Mary’s adultery into Mary being a perpetual virgin having a divorce by Joseph. Then, Joseph abandons the divorce the morning after a visit by an angel in a dream. Matthew 1:19-20 The Celsus story of Jesus’ birth was the stock-in-trade of Jewish and Pagan objections to Christian dogmatic traditions 2,000 years ago.

Joseph, The Peasant Carpenter

According to the New Testament, we know more about the life and death of Saul/Paul of Tarsus than we do for Jesus and his dysfunctional family. However, Joseph the carpenter we know very little about, what we know comes from some biblical text, apocryphal gospels and Christian text.

Most Christian scholars reference the Infancy Gospel of Thomas for the life and death of Joseph. Out of the four gospels, only Matthew and Luke give a nativity scene, albeit a very different story from each other.

If we believe Christian sources, Joseph died when Jesus was a teenager. Dying at the age of 110 or 111, whichever source you pick, makes Joseph more than 90 years of age when Jesus was born. Mary was 12 years old when betrothed to Joseph, 13 when she gave birth to baby Jesus. The age of marriage of Jewish girl, is confirmed by Jewish traditions of the period. See [Joachim Jeremias (1962), JERUSALEM in the Time of Jesus, Chapter XVIII, Page 365, Fortress Press, Philadelphia]

On Joseph, Mary and Jesus flight to Egypt! The Gospel of Matthew also explains that Joseph has a dream where Herod attempt to kill baby Jesus. On account that the Magi/Magicians had told Herod, a child was born to be the king of the Jews. To escape Herod the Great grasp, all Joseph and his family needed to do was return to Nazareth. Nazareth was out of Herod the Great reach as his domain only encompassed Judaea.

What I find hard to believe is why Joseph travelled to Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah every year for the Passover.  When Jesus was twelve, Joseph, Mary and Jesus, travelled to the Passover. That would make Joseph in his 90s, then after the celebrations start for home and then later find that Jesus was not with them. The scriptures tell us that Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem, and after four days, they locate Jesus in the Temple. Then they started their journey for home once again.

Luke 2:1:3 gives the census ordered by Augustus Caesar (27BCE to 14CE) as the reason for Mary and Joseph travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah before the birth of Jesus. He explains that, as men had to register at their home town (so they could be taxed by the Romans), Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehemjudah. Because Joseph was a descendent of King David and his ancestral family came from the City of David. Luke states that the census took place when Quirinius was the Roman governor of Syria.

Scholars have debunked the Quirinius/tax/census order as a fable of the making of the author or Christian copyists, with no mention of it anywhere in the other gospels. https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/census.htm 

On the subjects of the census/Roman tax, Joseph and his kinship to King David, and Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah as Joseph family home. These are problem areas. The geography and demographics do not work for Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah/Bethlehemjudah for someone who lives in Galilee.  

You have to ask the question, why did Joseph, a Jew (?) move from Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah, 9 km away from the Jewish Holy Temple in Jerusalem. To go and live in the wilds of Galilee of the Gentiles Matthew 4:15-16  more than 110km as the crow flies away? The answer is a copyist either made a scribal error, or the scribe purposely made a forgery to attempt to authenticate the messiahship of Jesus. What is more, Joseph could have travelled the 10 km from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Galilee.  The biblical Bethlehem of Zebulon can be identified by archaeologists with Bethlehem of Galilee

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/cambridge/judges/12.htm  see Judges 12:8 in the link.

Conclusion: 

The Roman census, the slaughter of baby boys by Herod, the journey to the City of King David in Bethlehem, The kinship of Joseph to King David and many more including, the Matthew and Luke genealogy of Jesus, were all ploys by Christians to falsify Jesus as the Messiah? When Joseph died Mary begged Jesus to resurrect his father, Jesus did not or could not, what do you say?

Cofion

Jero Jones

Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/