Jesus' father: The quest for the historical Joseph

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Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria

Abstract

This article aims at demonstrating the historical probability that Joseph, the father of Jesus, should be regarded as a legendary figure. It seems that the Joseph figure is modelled after the patriarch in the First Testament. Here Joseph was exalted despite of slander. He married an 'impure' virgin. He became the adversary of Judah. His sons, born in Egypt, were seen as the forefathers of the illegitimate Samaritans. He was regarded as an ethical paradigm. He served as the ideal type for God's beloved child. The search for the historical Joseph leads to the conclusion that Jesus grew up fatherless . . This conclusion has enormous consequences for the quest for the historical Jesus.

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Spine cut of Journal binding and pages scanned on flatbed EPSON Expression 10000 XL; 400dpi; text/lineart - black and white - stored to Tiff Derivation: Abbyy Fine Reader v.9 work with PNG-format (black and white); Photoshop CS3; Adobe Acrobat v.9 Web display format PDF
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the New Testament Society of South Africa, Pretoria,April 14~17, 1998. The paper is based on a reworked edition of a chapter (entitled 'The Joseph trajecory') in the author's coming book Fatherless in Galilee: The search for Jesus child of God. The article is dedicated to Eddie Engelbrecht, Professor Emeritus, Hervormde Teologiese Opleiding, Klipdrif, South Africa

Keywords

Historical Jesus, Joseph

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Van Aarde, AG 1998. 'Jesus' father : The quest for the historical Joseph', HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies, vol. 54, no. 1&2, pp. 315-333