In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. In my misspent life, I have seen a book at least three inches thick called the life of Saint Joseph. You talk about fiction, that didn't come in with the twentieth century. What you have heard read today, and much of it has is not about Joseph.
It's about all we know about Joseph. So let's keep that in mind. He's not a well known character. He's not very well researched and you can't put a lot of footnotes on the three inch life of Joseph. I want to talk about one word.
Joseph let's get get let's get something straight. You're talking here about adultery. Of course, we don't use that word now. It's extra marital intercourse, one of the indoor sports. In those days, adultery was considered a most severe crime against the community.
Therefore, a woman who was married, who had intercourse with a man other than her husband was guilty of adultery. Therefore, Exodus and Deuteronomy, the old law, exacted that the community should stone her to death. Everybody pick up a stone so that they would all so that the community would be the executioner because they saw very clearly in their poor primitive blind way that adultery was a very serious crime, not only against the husband or the or the wife, but against the community in general. It was a terrible threat to the welfare of the state. Of course, they you understand they were very benighted and didn't understand the things the way we do today.
Everybody knows that. Now, the whole thing is this, what what you heard me read is not the word of God. By that I mean, there's nothing infallible, there's nothing revealed about a thing about a translation of a revealed text. It's only the original text that stands as the revealed word of God. That is the Greek.
I looked the Greek up and the word here for the what they translate as an upright man is. Now, you don't have to know a lot of Greek, but the thing is comes from a word, the Greek word, DK, and DK means justice. Justice. Justice. And the word justice has the word and the word means law.
Law. So the translated as an upright man is a is a very poor translation. You don't have to be a genius to know that. What this what the text is saying in Greek very clearly is that Joseph was a law abiding citizen. And, as a law abiding citizen, he was supposed to impose the law.
And to impose the law meant that Mary should be brought before the Sanhedrin and be declared guilty and then stoned to death by the community. How much of that actually was being done in our Lord's time? Nobody knows for sure, but apparently, it was being done. But you see, everything I have said so far stands verifiable. You're gonna verify it.
But you see, people talk this way. They stop here, And that's where you get the big lie of the incomplete truth. Could you just remember when they bring the woman take the woman taken in adultery to Christ? You all remember that scene. Now, notice she was taken in adultery.
In In other words, she was caught red handed, not by hearsay, not by people who said she did it, but the people who accuse her half had to see her. You remember the story where they bring the adulterous woman to Christ. She was taken in adultery. There were two witnesses who brought her. So they were testing Christ to see what he would say.
If he said, let the law be carried out, then where was his great mercifulness and his forgiveness and his kindness, you know, and all that profit? Because in many instances, that's what it is. Or if he if he said no, after all, she didn't mean to do it, she was in love, she was being fulfilled, you know, this stuff we have, then he would be found guilty of breaking the law. So his enemies had him on a dilemma. They thought they really had him stuck on the bull's horn.
That's what the word dilemma means, between the horns. See, that's what's forgotten. When they say that how could Joseph be a just man, and that's what it means, law abiding. It's very clear. If he was just, how could he go against the law?
Well, the point is he wasn't going against the law. He didn't see Mary taken in the act of adultery. There were no witnesses who saw her in an act of adultery. Therefore, legally, was couldn't be accused of adultery even though she was pregnant. If you're gonna be notice, if you're gonna follow the law, you've got to follow the law in its completeness.
You can't stop at semicolons. So, the one thing of the three inch book that we can be sure of that Joseph was a descendant of Jacob, and secondly, that he was a dichios, that he was a just man, that he was law abiding. Whose law? Whose law? See, that's another little point.
Are all laws equal? Was the prohibition law equal to a law based upon the constitution of The United States? Is the law about the portion of which make which legalizes notice legalizes simply means to make law of. Is that a law comparable, let us say, to a law guaranteeing the life, guaranteeing of your protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Whatever that is.
See, words are frightfully important. And in important matters, you've got to get a hold of words, but the word isn't enough. You've got to get behind the word. And in many instances, that means a lot of anthropology. It means a lot of background history.
It means a lot of work, blood, sweat, and tears. It's not easy. And, of course, in most distance when people use words, they're using them for their own advantage. So, one thing we can say about dear old Joseph is this, besides being, I'm told a very helpful man if you wanna sell real estate, is that he was a just man. He did not break the law because he did not see Mary in the act of adultery.
She she was not caught red handed. All he know knew was she was pregnant. And now he's told why she's pregnant in a dream. These dreams always puzzle me. What what what what what were they?
But anyway, he's whatever happens, something happened to him is called a dream. And that dream said, look, don't have any anxiety. Take this maiden, this girl as your wife because what? Her baby? And notice it says son.
They didn't have x rays and a lot of stuff in those days. They were very primitive people. You understand that. So, notice that word. Remember this, partheogenesis, a woman cannot have a male son.
There's such a thing as partheogenesis, but if a female has a male, there has to be a male contribution even in Parthiogenesis. Just a little point to remember. So, we are told that Joseph was a just man, and he was a law abiding me. He was a dekhius, and he was obeying the law. He didn't violate the law.
And above all, he gets a message from God Almighty. You're on the right track, Joseph. Take that woman as your wife. And he did it. And therefore, he became the foster father of the son of God.
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.