Friday, November 28, 2014
Mary and Joseph
A few classes ago, we had a discussion about Mary and Joseph. Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit to give birth to Jesus, the son of God. She became pregnant as she was engaged to Joseph. Joseph, who at first had no way of understanding Mary's pregnancy, was about to leave her because, to him, the situation strongly resembled a case of adultery. He was going to quietly leave her, which I found to be very interesting. Obviously, he probably wasn't too happy that his wife-to-be was pregnant with (what he thought) was someone else's child. From what I understand, adultery was treated with very harshly in the Bible. In the 10 Commandments, God even says "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and multiple times throughout the Bible different people are put to death because they have committed this crime. My question is why would Joseph want to quietly leave Mary? After a bit of online research, it seems that this was to show how noble and kind a man he was. Although (most likely) hurt by the fact his fiancee cheated on him, he was still willing to leave her and not have her punished publicly for her actions. Was Joseph really doing something good for the sake of Mary, by not putting her to death, or was he only trying to help himself? It's embarrassing to have a spouse cheat on you, so was he trying to save himself the shame he might receive from his neighbors and his community? In my opinion, it was a mixture of a) not wanting to have Mary killed even though she "cheated" and b) to save himself the embarrassment. Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I believe that Joseph covered her up because he was trying to avoid the embarrassment. The fact that he didn't publicly expose her does show that he is a good man, but why do that embarrassment for both of them. Exposing that will make him seem weak because he wasn't able to control his woman. Also, I think that he stayed with her after the angel told him that God gave her that miracle because he truly loved her. Any man would not believe that "ridiculousness" and would have walked away. Instead, Joseph stayed to at least pretend to be the actual father.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Melissa; although Joseph may have covered it up or attempted at quietly leaving her because he still held enough love for her to not want her killed, if this whole occurrence would've been exposed it would've not only brought shame onto her but shame on himself too. It seems as if back then the whole idea of honor was so strict that any event that occurs in one's life can be scrutinized to the grave. Joseph wanted to preserve his honor instead of ruining both his and Mary's life.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on how you want to view Joseph. Some people may think that Joseph was being loyal to Mary and wanted to remain with her because he believed that she was truly carrying the Son of God. This portrays Joseph in a positive light and shows his faith in God. On the other hand, if we think that Joseph was only concerned about himself and wanted to avoid the embarrassment, then we are viewing him in a negative way. I don't think that the New Testament makes this clear, as a Catholic I have always been taught that Joseph truly loved Mary and that is why he stayed with her.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Joseph wanted to leave Mary based on his own personal beliefs. I believe that at the time beliefs could have come before love, & that this is why because he could not understand how Mary was pregnant with a bay that he felt was not his, he probably though that the only choice he had, according to his beliefs, was to leave her. Then again, because he did not want her to be punished, love could have been present & made this one of his feeling regarding the matter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Raffaella. I don't think there is a correct answer, although I certainly think that bible would like to believe that Joseph left Mary quietly in order to protect her. In a non-religious context, yes, I would make sense for a man freak out if he his masculinity came under question because he couldn't control his woman/his property. I would also like to point out that if Joseph had made a scene about Mary's 'infidelity' it may have also also worked to restore his masculinity, because it could be seen as taking control of the situation. BUT this would be consistent with the OT concept of "an eye for an eye" which is contrary to Jesus's teachings. Perhaps Joseph's rejection of OT laws is foreshadowing the values of Christianity.
ReplyDelete