Joseph leaves Mary because he is 'greatly afraid' after what she has just told him.
He's arguing to himself, "If I conceal her sin, I shall be found rebelling against the law of the Lord. But if I expose her to the children of Israel, I am afraid; perhaps what is in her is angelic, and I shall be found betraying innocent blood to the judgment of death. What then shall I do? I will send her away from me secretly." Having decided this, Joseph falls asleep.
He dreams, and an angel appears to him in his dream, telling Joseph that Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit and that they will name the child Jesus because he would save the people from their sins.
Waking, Joseph rises and glorifies God who has given him this grace, and then he returns home to protect 'the girl'.
The leaving Mary reminded me of..Anna's husband. It doesn't seem like he actually left left, since he was still planning out what to do and was going to send her away, not leave. So does it read like a similar situation, where he just ran off to do a lot of thinking? I just get this image of a village full of wives running their houses and sort of vaguely wondering where their husbands are off to this time. :D
ReplyDeleteIt seems the husbands of those days used to like going off to think. Remember Muhammad was prone to visit caves for this purpose, wasn't he? or a favorite cave anway. Not that Muhammad was a contemporary of Joseph, but maybe it's a Middle Eastern trait. :)
ReplyDeletesanil,
ReplyDeleteHah! Now I have this image of an entire town of men who just up and run off into a cave or something when they need to make a decision. And they wives are all, 'yeah, jonah's in the cave again. come on over for tea.'
The way I read it it seems to be maybe he just walked away from her. Maybe went for a walk around the block or up onto the roof to think and then sleep? Not that he ran off but that he needed some space to think.
Susanne,
ReplyDeleteGiven that the homes were small and crowded, I can't really blame the men for heading outside to think! It must have been hard to get a thought in edgewise!