Saint Joseph

Joseph appears in the New Testament infancy narratives as the husband of Mary and the legal father of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew presents him as a descendant of David who receives divine guidance in dreams, protects Mary and Jesus and takes the family to Egypt before returning to Nazareth. Luke places Joseph with Mary on the journey to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.

Very little can be established historically about Joseph beyond the traditions preserved in early Christian texts. Later Christian devotion greatly expanded his role, presenting him as a carpenter, guardian of the Holy Family and model of paternal responsibility. Dates and details of his birth and death are not known securely and are therefore left unspecified here.

In Norah Lofts’s How Far to Bethlehem?, Joseph is developed as a fully imagined human participant in the Nativity journey. The novel expands the sparse scriptural account while keeping his relationship with Mary and the birth of Jesus at the centre of the story.