St. Joseph…

St. Joseph and the Hebrew Scripture^c

            Hi. My name is Jude. I’m an intruder into this story. James, the author, didn’t include me in the first version of the story. But after conversations with a couple of friends who noted the conflation of James with the narrator, he knew something needed a touchup, though he still wasn’t persuaded to let me in. Eventually, he reluctantly agreed.

            Yeah, I know Joseph didn’t grow up in a Christian community.  He couldn’t have, since there weren’t any in the first century Before the Common Era.  But we have to pretend here.  If we don’t pretend, if we realize he grew up in a Jewish community, then he would have heard the Hebrew read each Sabbath. He would already have known and he wouldn’t have cared.  If he didn’t care, who would?  Some eleventh century Pope?  Big deal, he’s a thousand years after the fact.  So if nobody cares, no story.  But this is a short story, so St. Joseph grows up in a Christian community, a late second century Common Era Christian community.  Now that’s settled. 

            Well, St. Joseph was a rather poor carpenter in a real backwoods hick town in one of those real boring places like North Dakota or southern Utah.  I mean nobody came from Nazareth, and nobody who could avoid it went to Nazareth.  Nobody. 

            Like I said, Nazareth was a quiet village.  The workmen there, baker, carpenter, butchers and others, did routine work throughout the cycle of the years.  It would be real boring.  Anyway, the feasts of the religious year marked the passage of time, not only through the year but over the years.  The Passover following a boy’s thirteenth birthday marked his becoming a man.  On those years the family especially tried to go to Jerusalem for Passover.

            So for the Passover following the twelfth birthday of Joshua bar Joseph, the parents and oldest son of the family joined a caravan of travelers to Jerusalem. The younger ones, James, Joses, Simon and some of the sisters, they left behind in the care of Joseph’s sister. They carried with them bread and wine and some dried fish for their meals and a few coins for emergency supplies.

            It was after their discovery during their return trip when they realized Joshua was not with the caravan, and they returned to Jerusalem, that the trauma began. As they searched for the young man, Joseph bar Jacob listened to the scribes explicating the passages in Isaiah concerning the expected coming of Messiah to rescue the people from the Greeks, or from the Romans, or from whoever came afterwards.

            A sign the Lord would give to the people Israel: a woman should conceive and bare a child, a son, and before he was old enough to know good from evil, he would eat butter and honey. What does the child’s eating butter and honey have to do with the coming of the Messiah? Joseph wondered. And he put the remembrance of the scribe’s words away and returned to his searching for the young man.

            Years later, Joseph visited a monastery where brother monks collected written versions of the history of the Christian sect as well as writings from the ancient times, the Greek writings of the Seventy Elders in Alexandria and scrolls written in Hebrew. In the scriptorium, Joseph bar Jacob saw the scroll open to the book of Isaiah from which one of the brothers had been transcribing. This brother had stopped his work for a brief respite and was leaving the room.

            “Levi,” Joseph bar Jacob called out, somewhat louder than one would expect in a room of scholarly study.  “Levi,” he repeated more urgently.  “Come here please.”

            Levi, the brother who had been writing on the scroll, quickly returned.

            “Explain this to me,” he spoke, to the man who coming back from the door to the scriptorium. “Explain this to me,” he pled, emphasizing the pronoun and pointing with his finger at the text. 

            Levi walked toward Joseph bar Jacob who stood by the writing desk where he had been working. “What is the problem, Joseph bar Jacob?  Why are you so perplexed?” 

            As he approached, he saw more clearly the Joseph’s eyes.  “Dear sir, are you not well?  What has pained you so?”

            “Read this,” Joseph bar Jacob answered, and Levi read the passage indicated aloud. 

            “Why it’s from the Prophet Isaiah, the passage promising the coming of Emannuel.  What upsets you so?” 

            “Read it again, aloud; carefully,” Joseph ordered.  Confused, Levi read again the text, “. . . Behold a woman shall conceive and bare a son and shall. . . .  Oh, God.  What is…  Where did you find this?  What is this?” 

                        “Don’t you know?”  Joseph questioned.  “Didn’t you read this?  Did you rely only upon the version of the Seventy Elders?”  Joseph’s voice trembled.  He turned and, stumbling, started to walk away. 

            Levi reached out his arm, steadying the older man.  “Forgive me, Sir.  I did not know.  I did not read this source.  I am sorry to have caused this pain.  Sit here,” he added directing Joseph toward a cushioned bench.  “I will get you some wine.”

            “Please do.  But with or without wine, I wish you to sit with me and talk about this.” 

            “Yes, Sir.  I understand.  I will return immediately.” 

            But Levi was detained by the head monk and did not return soon. When he again returned to the scriptorium, Joseph bar Jacob had left the monastery to return to his work in the carpenter shop. In the days following, Joseph bar Jacob became busy in his carpenter shop; he forgot the passage which had so upset him, or so he thought.

            One day Coyote Man, the Navajo trickster, came to Nazareth.  He looked so old, he might even have been a straggler on the return from the Exile.  When he arrived at St. Joseph’s carpenter shop, he paused, then turned in.  Joseph invited him to rest and offered some wine and cheese.  The old man thanked Joseph for his hospitality and rested.  After a silence he told Joseph that on the following Sabbath, he would share with Joseph some valuable information at the synagogue.  Shortly afterward, the old man stood up and left, walking further on into Nazareth.  As Joseph was quite busy with work, he thought little of the stranger until late in the day when he remembered the promise concerning the coming Sabbath.  Periodically during the days between that day and the Sabbath, the memory of the promise would inexplicably cross his mind and promptly leave. 

            Early on the day before Sabbath began at sundown, Joseph wondered what the old man had to say or show him, or even when or how he would share with Joseph his information.  Then he forgot about the situation.  Later, walking to the synagogue, Joseph greeted his neighbors as they gathered.  Joseph forgot about the stranger.  When the time came for the reading, however, there was the old traveler standing in the congregation, expectant of receiving the scroll from the rabbi.  The old man read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, read the Hebrew version of course, not the Septuagint. 

            Joseph listened to the words, then thought over them again in his mind.  “Behold, a woman shall conceive and. . . .” 

            The light broke in upon him like a glaring spotlight upon a solo performer on a stage.  Alone, darkness welled upward from his chest into his whole being.  Sorrow filled his eyes. Within he became just as the Medieval carol describes him, “Joseph was an old man, an old man was he. . . .” 

Originally dated 28 Jan. 1995; earlier draft, April 1994. Further revised, March 2017. Last sentence added, 17 Jan 2022. Further revised just prior to publication on my website, 9 May 2022 and finally in September 2024 for a public reading at Faith and the Arts celebration, Lutheran Church of Honolulu..

Footnotes

1. The Origins of “The Cherry Tree Carol” [back]
2. Ibid. and The Cherry Tree Carol, 15th or possible 16th century English carol, sung by Joan Baez and many others. [back]