A Christian hate site recently ripped into the pastor of a large and successful church for preaching that Joseph and Mary were an older couple. I listened to the clip and was amazed:
1) Nowhere does the Bible teach that Joseph and Mary were a young couple.
2) Mary had a cousin who was an old woman.
3) The penalty for fornication by a girl living in her father's house was stoning. Joseph, being a just man, was going to put her away privately, however.
4) How could a young woman, betrothed to a man, be put away privately?
5) Ancient apocryphal writings, which have no Scriptural authority, teach that Joseph was a very old man when he died.
6) In order to explain away that fact that Jesus had brothers, the Catholic Church used to teach that Joseph was a widower with children. This would help explain why Jesus's brothers did not believe in Him.
No, the Bible does not clearly teach this. But I was surprised at what a strong case he had.
Historically, back in Jesus time, women married shortly after they hit puberty; somewhere between the ages of 10 and 14 years old. Most scholors believe that Mary was about 12 or 13 when she was betrothed to Joseph. Now Joseph might very well have been an old man when he became betrothed to Mary: as it was not uncommon back then for old men to mary young women. (King david is an example of that! see 1 Kings 1:1-4) If Joseph was indeed old when he was betrothed to mary, it would explain why mary was an apparent widow by the time that Jesus was executed on the cross.
Now her cousin was an 'old' women who was in beyound child bearing years. (perhaps 40 years old.) but just because her cousin was 'old' did not mean that marry was. as it is possible that her aunt aunt gave bith to her cousin while she was still quit young, and it is possible that mary was born by her mother when she was much older. We are not told anything about how old the mothers were when they gave birth to mary and her cousin. But something like this must have happened because it is ovious that Mary was very young, and her cousin was old enough to be experiancing menopause! (both of my sisters hit menopause when they turned 40)
When a women became betrothed she was now officially married to the one that she was betrothed to. althogh there was no sex involved while they were going through the betrothal period. But the relationship could only be ended by death or the husband divorcing her. And the law sates that if a man caught his wife in the act of adultery with another man, then he was to kill both the man and the woman! BUT if the husband suspected that his wife had commited adultery, but had no idea who the man was, then he took his wife to a preist and the preist put her through a test, if she failed the test, it would be proof that she was committing adultery, at which point her husband could divorce her; but he could not kill her! (Lev 20:10, Numbers 5:12-31) Now Joseph was legally married to Mary, but they were not haviing intercourse with each other. She was still a virgen, Yet she was pregnant! This created a problem for Joseph. He did not have any evidence that she had had sex with another man, quit the opposite! (all someone had to do was check and see if her hymen was still intact!) So because he did not catch her in the act of committing adultery, he could not kill her. But Joseph was supposed to take her to the preist and have her cursed by him. (numb 5:12-31) This curse would have ruined marys reputation in Isreal. Thus she would have been made 'a public spectical.' But joseph, knowing that she was still a virgin and yet being pregnant knew that such a thing was not justified in this case. Yet the pregnancy made it very difficult for the people around then to accept the truth that she was still a virgen. So Josephs reputation was at stake as well. So he contemplated the idea of divorcing her, but as he did so an angel interveined and told him what was going on! So he kept mary.
The catholic church says that Joseph was a polygynyst. i.e. he had more than one wife! this is there explanation of how jesus had brothers, yet mary had only one child. The bible does not tell us that Jesus was an only child. We at this late a date and time have no idea what the truth is: all we can do is speculate. But I personally believe that mary had other children besides Jesus because the scripures say that he had brothers, not that his brothers were the result of a second wife that Joseph might have had, or previously had!
I hope that this helps.
Happy New Year!
