Revelations of the mystery of Incarnation to the betrothed Joseph.

(Mat. 1:18-25).

        Saint Matthew informs that soon after the Blessed Virgin’s betrothal with 80-year-old Joseph, “before they came together,” ie. before the consummation of their marriage, Mary’s condition of being with child became clear to Joseph. Being righteous (and this means just and merciful), Joseph did not wish to expose Her seeming transgression before the public, so as not to subject Her to the shameful and agonising death called for by the law of Moses (Deuter. 22:23-24), and intended to release Her without announcing the reason. As soon as he thought this, the Lord’s Angel appeared to him and explained “that which is conceived in Her is of the Holy Spirit” and not the fruit of a clandestine sin. The Angel further announces: “And She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”; the name Jesus, in Jewish is Jehovah, meaning — Saviour. So the Joseph has no doubts about the veracity of what was said, the Angel quotes Isaiah’s prophecy that witnesses the great miracle of the seedless conception and birth of the Saviour of the world by the Blessed Virgin, and which was preordained in the Gods interminable deliberation: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son…” (Isaiah 7:14). There is no need to imagine that the prophecy had not been fulfilled because the Prophet declared: “and shall call His name Immanuel,” whereas the Newborn was named Jesus. Immanuel, is not a personalised name, but a symbolic one, meaning “God is with us,” ie. when this miraculous birth from a Virgin takes place, people will say “God is with us”; because it is in this identity God came down to earth and lived among the people. This is only a prophetic indication of Christ’s Divinity — indication that this extraordinary Infant will not be an ordinary person, but God. Convinced by the Angel’s words, Joseph “took to him his wife,” that is, rejected his intention to send Her away and left Her to live in his house as a wife, and did not know Her till She had brought forth Her Firstborn Son.” This doesn’t mean as if he “knew” Her after the birth of Jesus, and began living with Her as a wife. The Goldentongue rightly notes, it is simply improbable to submit that such a righteous individual as Joseph, would decide to “know” the Blessed Virgin after She had so miraculously became a Mother. While in Greek, the word “zos” and in Church Slavonic — “dondezhe`” mean “while,” “until” “to,” this cannot be interpreted in the way as those who do not honour the Blessed Virgin — Protestants and sectarians — as though Joseph did not “know” Her before Christ’s birth, and then he did. He absolutely never “knew” Her. As an example, in the Holy Scriptures the word “zos” is used in the narration on the concluding stages of the Flood: “And he sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until (“zos”) the waters were dried up” (Genesis 8:6) — but the raven never did return afterwards. Or again, in the words of our Lord: “I am with you always, even to (“zos”) the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). As the Blessed Theophilacus rightly observed that this doesn’t mean that Christ would not be with us after the end of the age. Definitely not, as it is especially then that He would be with us!

        Jesus is named “Firstborn” not because the Blessed Virgin had other children after Him, but because He was born first, and with that, only one. As an example, in the Old Testament, God decrees that “all the firstborn” to be consecrated to Him, irrespective as to whether the family will have further additions or not. And if the Gospel mentions “brothers of Jesus Christ” (Matt. 13:55; John 2:12 and others), it certainly doesn’t mean that they were His brothers by birth. As tradition witnesses, Joseph’s children were from his first marriage.