Caesar Augustus and The Gospel of Mary Chapter 15

First, for the record, I have developed an insane history-crush on Octavian Caesar Augustus. I blame Rome. He was always this awesome brilliant kid and then he went and grew up and uh, conquered shit. All the shit. But really, visually, for the show, the scene where Octavian, having been named Consul by Cicero (who thought he'd gotten a kid into power that he could control) stomps on the Senate's collective ass and tells them what they will do is just insane and is the point at which my uterus exploded.

Okay. On to the next chapter!

It's the next day, presumably, from Joseph's return home and the revelation that Mary is pregnant. The scribe Annas comes, wondering why Joseph did not go to worship as soon as he'd returned home from his journey.

Joseph tries to play it off, claiming weariness from his journey, but Annas turns and sees Mary and all bets are off.

Annas runs to the priest and tells him, "Joseph, whom you vouched for, has sinned grievously....He has defiled the virgin whom he received from the temple of the Lord, and secretly taken her as his wife, without revealing it to the children of Israel."

The priest sends officers to Joseph's home and they find that Mary is, indeed, pregnant and they bring her and Joseph before the court. The priest questions why Mary has done this, why she has humiliated herself and forgotten God. She weeps, proclaiming her innocence once again.

The priest then turns to Joseph, asking him why he has done this. Joseph replies that he is faultless concerning Mary. But the priest insists: "Now do not lie, but tell the truth. You have married her by stealth, and did not reveal it to the children of Israel. You did not bow your head beneath the mighty hand of God, so that your offspring would be blessed." But Joseph remains silent to this.

I think it's interesting that the problem is not that Mary is pregnant, but that Joseph did not marry her 'properly'. She was already handed over to Joseph as his wife, but it was clearly not the complete marriage that we're thinking of, with conjugal rights, or the priest wouldn't have a problem with Mary being pregnant. I think it's more like an engagement, even though she'd been living in his home for at least three years. They were half-wed! But until the official marriage ceremony, Joseph had no right to Mary in certain ways.