6 Things You Didn't Know About Joseph, Father of Jesus

joseph he's a man of incredible importance in the gospels but also one who receives very little attention aside from two birth narratives and a few passing mentions so much of this man is a mystery what do we really know about this man who adopted jesus as his son well the answer is more than you think and this week i'll be sharing with you six things you didn't know about joseph the first thing you might not know about joseph is that joseph was actually expecting jesus one of the things that the gospels tell us about joseph is that he was from bethlehem bethlehem is a small town not far from jerusalem the name comes from the hebrew words bait which means house and lechem which means bread and so bethlehem is often referred to as the house of bread at the time of jesus bethlehem only had around 500 to a thousand residents and yet it was still a very significant city bethlehem was where rachel jacob's wife died in childbirth jacob is the man from whom the israelite people get their name bethlehem is also the setting of the book of ruth who was the grandmother of king david and perhaps most importantly bethlehem is the subject of prophecy in micah 5 2 it says but you bethlehem ephrathah though you are small among the clans of judah out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over israel whose origins are from old from ancient times people understood this prophecy to mean that the messiah would come from bethlehem this was a verse that many if not most jewish people would have known but joseph especially would have known this verse joseph would have grown up hearing this verse reciting this verse he'd awaited an expectation for the messiah wondering if he would come during his lifetime in his hometown he may have even dreamed of joining the messiah and his mission to free the israelite people but here's what joseph perhaps never knew as we said earlier bethlehem means the house of bread but throughout scripture the word bread is often used to describe god's word little could joseph have known while growing up while dreaming of the messiah that one day his wife would give birth to the word made flesh that god's word the bread of life would be born in joseph's hometown the house of bread another thing you might not know about joseph is that joseph had family in bethlehem have you ever thought that it was weird that joseph went to his hometown of bethlehem for the census but had to stay at an inn i mean when you think about it there's really only two explanations for this one is that we can assume that joseph was born in bethlehem but all of his family left for some reason which if we think about it is a really big leap i mean there would have had to have been some monumental reason for an entire family to leave their land their community and migrate to another area i mean sure it's possible that some left obviously joseph left but everyone that seems unlikely so the other possibility then is that joseph still did have family in bethlehem and there's some other reason that luke tells us that there was no room in the inn and when we look closely at the text we realize that the latter is more likely the case you see in luke's gospel many of our translations say and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn but look at how the niv translates it and she gave birth to her firstborn a son she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them now that's interesting isn't it those seem like very different things and that's because of the word that's translated both in and guest room it's the greek word catalooma and cataluma is actually not the word for a hotel cataluma is the word for a room in a house you see in jesus day the cataluma was an upstairs guest room this is where relatives would have slept when they came into town but another important thing to know about first century houses is that there was also an important area downstairs a place where people generally didn't sleep and i'm talking about the place where the household animals were kept goats and things like that these animals that provided milk and other resources were kept in the home for protection at night in a specified area downstairs and what luke is telling us is that there was no room in the cataluma so joseph and mary had to give birth to jesus in this other area among the animals on the bottom floor of the house where there would have been a manger you see if everyone had to return to bethlehem for the census at least all of these males that means that joseph's extended family would have needed to return those family members of his who lived in bethlehem would have seen their homes overflowing with relatives who needed a place to stay while they were in town and since the house was so full and since mary was about to become ritually unclean by giving birth they placed her and joseph in the place that wouldn't impact everyone else the downstairs room that held all of the animals but here's what makes all of this so hard to accept we have always been told the opposite right one time when i shared this insight i had someone ask me how can you change scripture scripture says that they went from into in because there was no room for them but it doesn't the reality is that is the change to scripture scripture never says that but we've heard it so many times that we believe that it does and this is a powerful lesson for when we read the bible we always have to begin with and go back to scripture especially when it comes to stories like this these stories that we are most familiar with scripture never says that adam and eve ate an apple or that jonah was swallowed by a whale or that three wise men visited jesus or that mary and joseph went from door to door scripture actually says something different but we've heard the variation so much that we have come to accept them as scripture and that is a dangerous trap the next thing you might not know about joseph is that he had a significant influence on jesus you know a lot of times people are tempted to write joseph off as a minor character in the life of jesus since he isn't mentioned much in the bible they might assume that he maybe is insignificant but when you look closely you realize that this couldn't possibly have been the case for one thing matthew's gospel tells us that joseph was a carpenter and mark says that jesus was a carpenter this means that jesus learned joseph's trade and in order for that to happen jesus would have had to work closely with joseph he would have apprenticed under joseph followed in joseph's footsteps before he began his own ministry these aren't the actions of a young man who writes off this father as irrelevant this is a way that sons would typically honor their fathers and on the other side of things we can see that joseph didn't really take his role in jesus's life lightly either when an angel comes to joseph before jesus is born the angel commands joseph to name him jesus now this is a big deal fathers were the ones who named their children they did it at the time of circumcision eight days after the child was born i mean think about that moment when john the baptist is born and the people are just waiting for his father zechariah to name him this was an incredibly significant moment and so when joseph names his new child jesus he's doing two important things he's claiming jesus as his son by being the one who gives him this name and he's accepting the responsibility that god has given him by selecting the name that was told to him by the angel from this point on this won't be just some boy who lives in his house this won't just be his stepson jesus will be his son and to a significant degree jesus will see joseph as his father this doesn't diminish god's role as his father it only affirms this role that god has given joseph and joseph has assumed in the life of jesus when you adopted someone in the first century that person was totally and completely a part of your family this is why matthew includes jesus in joseph's genealogy because he was completely accepted as joseph's son it's why paul uses adoption language when talking about our relationship with god this isn't some facsimile of a relationship we aren't sort of welcomed into the family of god this relationship is complete true and whole and for some of you i hope that this comes as good news that when you are adopted into god's family this isn't partial this isn't pretend this is real you are a child of god you are a complete heir god's love for you is whole and complete and true and you are now part of a family with brothers and sisters in christ you are no longer alone but loved and accepted just as jesus would have been by joseph now before we move on i want to invite you to take a second if you're liking this video to click the thumbs up and subscribe buttons down below little things like these help us to reach even more people with these videos and so thank you for taking the time to do it okay now let's jump right back in now as we've already mentioned jesus and joseph were both carpenters but what you might not be familiar with is what that word really means the word used for carpenter is the greek word tecton and a tecton is a bit different than our typical understanding of a carpenter a tecton is a woodworker but he's also a craftsman maybe even a stone mason and there was also another type of tecton an arc tecton this is where we get the word architect an arc tecton was a master builder this was a prestigious position people admired and respected arch tectons but tectons well they were just simple craftsmen jesus's father joseph was just a simple craftsman and yet while joseph may have been only a simple craftsman he was likely involved in some major events you see around the time of jesus's birth there was an uprising in sephoras a wealthy city near nazareth judas the gallonite captured the citadel and its weapons and in response the roman general varus destroyed the city shipping thousands off to be slaves or crucified at the very least joseph mary and all the others in that region would have been witness to this atrocity but it's also likely that joseph would have found work in its wake joseph would very likely have had opportunities to rebuild this city after its destruction either way though he would have been exposed to the carnage that had unfolded in this city he would have seen what rome was doing and this would have impacted how he understood the angel's command that he named his child jesus you see jesus which would have been pronounced yeshua or yahushua in hebrew means salvation or to rescue jesus was to be the hope for god's people the one to save them from tragedies like this and as joseph looked out upon the smoldering remains of sephoras he also would have been able to look ahead with hope that this child entrusted to him would free his people from such evil for all time something you might not know about joseph is that joseph was already mary's husband when she found out she was pregnant and and here's what i mean mary and joseph were engaged when mary became pregnant this is something we know from scripture but engagement at the time of jesus and in the jewish community didn't mean what most of us understand it to mean today right joseph and mary weren't picking out police settings or hiring their dj or trying to figure out if they could wait until on elizabeth had her baby so that she could fit into her bridesmaid dress when a jewish couple became engaged at the time of jesus they were considered for all intents and purposes to be husband and wife they were in a binding relationship they were combining their lives together the only things keeping them from being fully married were the wedding ceremony and the consummation of the marriage and much of the reason for this stems from how people viewed marriage throughout most of the world at that time i mean at the time of jesus marriage was a transaction the woman was considered property this is why the man's family would pay a dowry for the woman there was to be an exchange of quote-unquote goods in fact there were two forms of dowries provided to the woman and her family the first was called a mojar this would have been paid by joseph's father to mary's father mary's family was losing a daughter and joseph's family was gaining her and so the mohar was meant to compensate them for their loss but this money didn't solely go to mary's family a significant portion was set aside for mary just in case joseph died or divorced her the other dowry was called a matan this was given by joseph personally and it was also intended for mary in many ways the matan was intended for mary's protection if joseph died or divorced mary she would have been very vulnerable she might have had no one to provide for her and been unable to remarry but the mohar and the matan they ensured that she had something and once these sums had been determined a legal document called a ketubah was signed this was essentially a marriage contract joseph and mary were legally bound together as husband and wife from this moment on now i realize that this all doesn't really sound very romantic right and this is probably a much different perspective on the marriage of mary and joseph than many of you have ever had before but it is an important perspective because it gives us insight into joseph's feelings upon learning of mary's pregnancy and his subsequent role in jesus's life for joseph the news that mary is pregnant is devastating to him this is not just his girlfriend or fiance who he believes is cheated on him this is his wife as far as he's concerned they've been building a life together commitments have been made transactions have occurred the relationship between joseph and mary was so serious that matthew even tells us that joseph considered divorcing her i mean notice how different this is than the end of an engagement in western culture today these days the relationship just ends the people seek refunds for wedding expenses but at the time of jesus joseph and mary were legally betrothed they were considered to be a husband and a wife and that deep commitment also explains the final thing that you might not know about joseph and that's that joseph chose to be shamed when mary found out that she was pregnant even though she had done nothing wrong she knew that she was about to suffer severe consequences you see deuteronomy 22 23 says if a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death mary lives in a small village she's assumed to be pregnant by a man who wasn't her husband in the eyes of her community this verse applies to her now whether there was any real likelihood that mary would have actually been stoned is difficult to answer because while this is part of jewish law at that time rome reserved control over capital punishment nevertheless mary would have potentially undergone an unbelievable amount of shaming but here's where things get really interesting in matthew's gospel it says that joseph's original plan after finding out that mary is pregnant is to divorce her quietly this most likely means that he was planning to dissolve the marriage contract say that he changed his mind but think about it if he does this people will still learn that mary's pregnant and they will assume that the baby belongs to joseph i mean this is even worse than if joseph and mary get married and people assume that joseph got her pregnant before marrying her this leads the community to think that joseph got her pregnant and then abandoned her all of the shame will be his he will forfeit the dowries that he paid to marry and her family and what that shows us is that joseph was willing to incur terrible shame in order to protect mary he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to spare her sound familiar you see in joseph we get a glimpse of jesus they might not be related by blood but they are quite similar and quite connected jesus is a reflection both of his heavenly father and his adopted father in each we see what true love is sacrifice humility laying one's life down for others and this is exactly what jesus has done for you i mean christmas reminds us that god is with us god didn't come to earth to conquer and control us god came to love us to die for us this is how much god loves you you did nothing to earn it nothing to deserve it but god was willing to take on human flesh for you to live in poverty for you to go through puberty for you and ultimately to die for you you matter that much to god but there's more because christmas also reminds us that this is how we are to love others rather than buying so much for those who already have so much we're to give to those who have nothing we're to sacrifice for others like joseph was willing to sacrifice for mary like jesus sacrificed for us to lay down our lives for one another to love one another and to bless one another with the true gift of not just hearing the good news of the gospel but experiencing it as it's lived out through one another and so to end i want to pray for you for all of us that this might be how we honor jesus and how we remember the man that god chose to raise him let's pray god we thank you so much for the lessons that you teach us through your word for the people who reveal your heart to us who embody the gospel we thank you for joseph for this man who accepted the incredible responsibility of raising jesus who was willing to sacrifice his honor and suffer shame to protect mary for the ways that he embodied the teachings of the son that he had yet to even meet help us to love one another with such love to lay down our lives for one another to see one another as brothers and sisters in christ adopted fully and completely into your family bound by our love for you that the whole world might see you through us and that your gospel might spread through us so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that you are lord it's in your name we pray amen well that's it for this week thank you so much for watching i put a link to my newsletter down in the description where i share with you things like this every single month so make sure to go subscribe to that and then right here you should see a link to some other videos like this one that will reveal to you things that you might not know about jesus's disciples and even jesus's mother mary so click that button and check that out and until next time have a great week and god bless

Channel: Brandon Robbins

Views: 469,105

Keywords: brandon robbins the chosen, chosen season 2, father of Jesus, jesus mary and joseph, joseph father of jesus, joseph of bethlehem, joseph the bible, joseph the carpenter, the chosen, the chosen christmas special, the chosen christmas special 2021, the chosen explained, the chosen reaction, the chosen tv series, things you didn't know, things you didn't know about Jesus' father, things you didn't know about Joseph, things you didnt know, things you didnt know about peter

Id: 68n3tJFTYVg

Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 17 2021