you're probably familiar with the
Nativity story but the truth about Mary
and Joseph the two parents at the heart
of the story is often brushed aside when
talking about Christianity's main man
Jesus but Mary and Joseph are
interesting characters here's the untold
truth of Mary and Joseph and Mary and
Joseph time woman's purity was valued as
a currency something that would sweeten
the deal between marriage negotiations
and family there were no paternity tests
back then if you wanted kids that you
were sure were yours the best insurance
was marrying a virgin so imagine your
girlfriend shows up after visiting her
cousin for three months with a big old
baby bump
you can probably picture the reactions
pregnant everyone not just Joseph was
freaking out Mary would have been
considered damaged goods and not
marriage material it didn't help that
she was claiming this was God's baby
so Joseph planned to end their
engagement according to National
Geographic
Joseph was just trying not to make the
situation worse but don't think Joseph
was insensitive for wanting to dump Mary
because she was unexpectedly pregnant
breaking up was actually the classiest
move Joseph could have made at that time
think about the story of the Nativity as
if it happened today a teenage girl from
an extremely conservative society gets
engaged visits her cousin and comes back
visibly pregnant Mary was an OG and kept
to her story that the Holy Spirit had
gotten her pregnant but people were as
skeptical of the idea back then as they
would have been today I am the Virgin
Mary that's my story and I'm sticking to
it
Joseph's tried to be nice about it
Matthew 1:19 described how he planned to
separate from her quietly so the public
would shame her but Shamer is a nice way
of saying stone her to death
Deuteronomy 22 21 and the surrounding
verses lay down the law that ever girl
got intimate while unmarried she would
be stoned to death for bringing shame
upon her family but Joseph didn't want
this to happen to her later on the angel
Gabriel visited him in a dream and
reassured him that yes Mary actually was
going to have God's kid so Joseph
doubled down on his good guy stance and
took on Mary as his wife even though she
was pregnant
tablet describes how Joseph has taken on
a newfound popularity in modern times as
people have realized
how important he was to keeping Mary
safe people have realized that without
him the birth of Jesus definitely
wouldn't have happened
shocking sweet baby Jesus
once the angel visited Joseph and
confirmed that Mary was really going to
have God's kid Joseph got on board
immediately
but this also extended to after the
birth of Jesus God perhaps impressed by
how cool Joseph had been throughout this
whole ordeal sent another angel to
Joseph telling him that they had to pick
up and leave immediately he obeyed and
they fled what turned out to be a
massacre of all kids in Bethlehem
younger than two years old king herod
whose name you may remember is one of
the more popular Sunday school villains
had sent people out to kill any child
who might be the Messiah after running
into three kings on their way to visit
Jesus apparently he was worried about
another king trying to take his place
and you know how Kings are about being
Kings I am the king joseph has also been
shoved aside in favor of the Virgin Mary
in the eyes of a lot of believers since
she had to carry Jesus and bear the
social stigma of the pregnancy but
that's beginning to change in 2003 Pope
John Paul the second spoke about Joseph
setting an example as someone who
believed in the messages he received
from God but also stayed humble and
didn't seek attention as God stepped at
the National Catholic Register sang his
praises in 2011 recommending him as
someone Catholics could go to for divine
help and parenting it's explicitly
stated in the Bible that Joseph and Mary
didn't consummate their marriage until
after Jesus was born and they bailed to
Egypt which makes sense since Mary was
pregnant most of the time they were
initially together but even this
viewpoint is pretty revolutionary in
terms of how believers view Mary there's
a healthy group of people mostly
Catholic who believe that Mary never
lost her virginity ever the perpetual
virgin view of Mary is used as a way to
honor her alleged holiness and purity as
the mother of God National Catholic
Register points out that people who
believe this theory do so partly because
of the lexicon surrounding families at
the time whenever manner referred to as
Jesus's brothers in the Bible that
doesn't necessarily mean they're Jesus's
brothers by blood they could be as
cousins or other family members or maybe
even just as friends
there is another story about the life of
Jesus that may have been altered through
the lens of pop culture it's quaint to
picture Jesus learning how to build
things out of wood with his dad it's
like they're alluding to the imagery of
the stable of his birth and his future
death on a cross it also fits the idea
of Jesus's beginnings being humble the
Bible even tells the story of when Jesus
was roasted in his hometown of Nazareth
when he came back as an adult to perform
miracles they said thanks to the effect
of wait how does the son of a carpenter
know all these things in the ancient
Greek that the Bible was translated from
Joseph is referred to as a Tecton
according to a Greek English lexicon
Tecton can mean a carpenter or wood
jointer but is commonly used to describe
any craftsman or woodworker some
theories allege that this means Joseph
may actually have worked with stones or
large materials an author cited in The
Telegraph claimed that Joseph may have
been a master architect who provided
Jesus a comfortable upbringing sorry to
disturb anyone zhesan but Christ was not
white Jesus may have been played by
white actors and a lot of films but
that's definitely not how it went down
in real life a breakdown from live
science suggests that if Jesus took
after Mary at all he would have had
olive skin and was probably of average
height for the time Mary probably looked
like other Israeli Jews or maybe with a
slightly darker complexion she also
would have been pretty average looking
since the Bible goes out of its way to
specifically mention whenever someone is
particularly attractive and it didn't do
that with Mary I'm painting the birth of
Jesus as it was and as it always will be
no here's how you're gonna paint me all
right serene and gorgeous
James Martin wrote in Slate that we
can't forget that Mary was probably 14
years old at the time when she gave
birth to Jesus something that was common
for the time she probably would have
been arranged to be married around the
time of her first period just in case
you needed your nativity scene to be
even more awkward mary had it harder
than most women when it came to
childbirth even when you consider the
time period she presumably had Joseph to
help her but she had no experienced
midwives which were available to
expecting mothers back then according to
the Jewish woman Mary also thanks to
circumstances had to give birth in a
smelly place outside of her own town
away from her family now
been hard on anyone an ad on a difficult
labor and it becomes a whole other story
in the Koran mary has to give birth with
her back against the palm tree / support
she says out loud quotes oh I wish I had
died before this and was in Oblivion
forgotten congratulations Mary it's a
boy and you didn't die trying
during childbirth like most women doing
this time it's a miracle Mary has a
whole chapter about her in the Quran and
is the only woman mentioned by name
according to the BBC her chapter talks
about the birth of Jesus and the
immediate aftermath
according to PRI it also features a
story about baby Jesus speaking up in
his mother's defense when people said
she wasn't a virgin guess if you have
all the knowledge in the world you
really have all the knowledge in case
you haven't noticed there are a lots of
paintings of Mary the young mom of Jesus
has been featured and probably more
paintings than anyone who ever lived and
a lot of these paintings Mary's
portrayed wearing a light blue shawl or
her job it's a light airy color not
unlike the robe worn by her son in the
most expensive painting on earth
Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi
but as Mary's blue covering accurate to
history probably not the shap Hertzog
encyclopedia of religious knowledge
confirms that clothing for women
Israelites was lighter and more brightly
colored than men's clothing Assyrians of
the time wore blue tunics as
undergarments but that was relatively
far from Mary's hood palette AO
describes how Mary's blue covering is
really an allusion to her purity and
closeness to God she doesn't wear the
white of a saint or the red of a Jesus
killing Emperor blue is the color of
special woven tassels worn by Jews at
that time to remind them to follow the
commandments in short Mary wears blue
and paintings to symbolize that she is
just that much holier than anyone else
painted with her in Catholicism there
are a lot of books besides the Bible
that people debate over in terms of
authenticity some people dismiss them
outright other people take them in
consideration alongside the Bible some
of these extra text for Catholicism are
called the Apocrypha writings
Catholic culture describes them as
documents that didn't make it to the
Bible compiled by people who wanted to
know more about Jesus even if they're
not true they say a lot about what
people thought about Jesus and his place
in the culture not long after he was
alive if these writings can be believed
Joseph had a first wife named Mel Chuck
according to the Catholic Dictionary the
Apocrypha states that Joseph was a
widower with six children who asked to
marry Mary after his wife died this fits
the pop culture image of Mary being much
younger than him it also fits with the
idea of Mary being a perpetual virgin
but Jesus still having brothers and
sisters they could have been Step
Brothers & Sisters if it's true it
provides a very different image of
Joseph an older guy who's already done
the marriage and babies thing who has
this new wife who's pregnant somehow but
he still steps up to be stepped out of
the year
one of the most consistent parts of the
Nativity story is that Mary had to give
birth to Jesus and a stable full of
animals the town was full of people
coming to Bethlehem and apparently no
one was nice enough to let a heavily
pregnant woman take their adjoining
suite so they took the only space
available now people of that region at
this time didn't keep their animals and
stables the way we do today think of a
home in biblical times as the ultimate
open concept home people would sleep in
what was essentially the second floor
while doing chores and other everyday
work on the base floor the base floor
was also where the animals were brought
in at night Newsweek reported that this
was likely where Jesus was born
not in an entirely separate structure
built outside of a house what most
likely happened was that Joseph showed
up at his extended family's house was
told that there wasn't enough room in
the sleeping quarters for Mary to give
birth and so they had to make do with
the gross basement where the animals
hung out it wasn't so much people being
monsters to a pregnant woman as much as
Joseph's cousin Fred arrived early and
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