|
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When
His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together
she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband,
being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example,
was minded to put her away privily. But when he thought on these
things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream,
saying, ‘Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’ And
she shall bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for it
is He that shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:18-21).
The traditionalist will claim that Joseph and Mary were
married. Therefore, since Joseph sought to "put her away" rather than
"divorce" her, they state the terms "put away" and "divorce" are the
same. On the surface it might appear that the text supports this,
because they are referred to as "husband" and "wife". Since they are
called husband and wife, the traditionalist says that settles it. Put
away means divorced! But does this passage really support their
position?
There is another term in play here, too, and that is the
word translated "betrothed". It is from the Greek word "mnesteuo" and
means "espouse" or "betroth".
We need to understand that the Jewish marriage consisted
of three stages. The first stage was the engagement. This was set up
and arranged by the parents of the couple to be wed, and the
prospective couple was not even involved.
The second stage was the betrothal. During this time the
young couples agreed to the marriage, signed a legal document accepting
to be married, and were considered "husband and wife." During this
period, should the husband pass away, the woman would be called a
widow. However, they did not live together yet. They did not engage in
sexual activity. They were not officially and "completely" married,
although there was a "legality" surrounding it. It was a time of
courtship, a time of building a relationship, a time of getting to know
one another. It was a time of planning and dreaming and happy
expectations. This time of betrothal usually lasted about a year, and
this is the step we find Joseph and Mary in from the above passage.
The final stage was the marriage ceremony and this could
last up to a week.
Since we see the word betrothed used, we know this
couple was not formally married yet. They were in the second
stage of the Jewish marriage. The fact that the text refers to Joseph
as her "husband" and Mary as his "wife" does not contradict the
statement that they were espoused or engaged.
This is what Barnes says regarding husband in this
passage: "Her husband. The word in the original does not imply that
they were married. It means here the man to whom she was espoused."
Also, for the word "wife", note Strong’s definition: "a woman;
specially, a wife:--wife, woman." Therefore, the claim by some that
Joseph and Mary were married is not proven by the original language.
There are several reasons we should not conclude that
Joseph and Mary were married. We have already discussed the three-step
Jewish marriage process, in which they were merely betrothed. If they
were married, then they could have engaged in sex as a married couple.
They had not. Joseph had not "known" Mary; therefore, he knew he was
not the father of her unborn child. He intended to end the betrothal
quietly and privately, to spare Mary the shame of a public spectacle.
There is no biblical evidence that Joseph sought to
divorce (biblion apostasion) Mary. He only sought to repudiate, put
away, to separate from her (apoluo). One only divorces when one is
married. If one is NOT married, and wants to end the relationship, then
one simply separates. In addition, had they been married the penalty
for adultery would have been death by stoning under the Law of Moses in
which they lived.
The case of Joseph and Mary gives credence to and
actually supports the position that "put away" is NOT the same thing as
divorce, and is something that is performed without any legal papers.
|
