Was Joseph Jesus' father? Yes, says Mary, in Luke 2,48 («your father and I…»). But how are we to uphold this affirmation, if we believe with Luke and Matthew that Jesus is born of a virgin? Legal father? Putative father? We are invited to look beyond these expressions, for they insinuate that a father has only an engendering function. The relationship father-son encompasses the child's upbreeding up to his grown-up age. Joseph played this educational role towards Jesus and built up his individual personality. In other words: the Son of God has assumed a human nature in relation to which Joseph has fulfilled a genuinely fatherly function.
Was Joseph Jesus' father? Yes, says Mary, in Luke 2,48 («your father and I…»). But how are we to uphold this affirmation, if we believe with Luke and Matthew that Jesus is born of a virgin? Legal father? Putative father? We are invited to look beyond these expressions, for they insinuate that a father has only an engendering function. The relationship father-son encompasses the child's upbreeding up to his grown-up age. Joseph played this educational role towards Jesus and built up his individual personality. In other words: the Son of God has assumed a human nature in relation to which Joseph has fulfilled a genuinely fatherly function.