According to the Protoevangelium, Joseph was required to regard
Marys vow of virginity with the utmost respect. The gravity of his
responsibility as the guardian of a virgin was indicated by the
fact that, when she was discovered to be with child, he had to
answer to the Temple authorities, who thought him guilty of
defiling a virgin of the Lord. Mary was also accused of having
forsaken the Lord by breaking her vow. Keeping this in mind, it is
an incredible insult to the Blessed Virgin to say that she broke
her vow by bearing children other than her Lord and God, who was
conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. I cannot
imagine Joseph hjaving intercourse with the Spuose of the Holy
Spirit and vessel of the Word. Such an act would have been
sacrilegous.
Here it is:
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by [St. Anne], saying,
Anne! Anne! The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive
and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the
world. And Anne said, As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either
male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God, and
it shall minister to him in the holy things all the days of its
life. . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the
temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there"
(Protoevangelium of James 4, 7 [A.D. 120]).
"And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of
priests, saying, Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years
in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest
perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord? And they said to
the high priest, You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in and
pray concerning her, and whatever the Lord shall manifest to you,
that also will we do. . . . [A]nd he prayed concerning her, and
behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him saying, Zechariah!
Zechariah! Go out and assemble the widowers of the people and let
them bring each his rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a
sign, his wife shall she be. . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . .
And the priest said to Joseph, You have been chosen by lot to take
into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord. But Joseph refused,
saying, I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young
girl" (ibid., 89).
"And Annas the scribe came to him [Joseph] . . . and saw that Mary
was with child. And he ran away to the priest and said to him,
Joseph, whom you did vouch for, has committed a grievous crime.
And the priest said, How so? And he said, He has defiled the
virgin whom he received out of the temple of the Lord and has
married her by stealth" (ibid., 15).
"And the priest said, Mary, why have you done this? And why have
you brought your soul low and forgotten the Lord your God? . . .
And she wept bitterly saying, As the Lord my God lives, I am pure
before him, and know not man" (ibid.).
Church Fathers:
And indeed it was a virgin, about to marry once for all after her
delivery, who gave birth to Christ, in order that each title of
sanctity might be fulfilled in Christ's parentage, by means of a
mother who was both virgin, and wife of one husband. Again, when He
is presented as an infant in the temple, who is it who receives Him
into his hands? Who is the first to recognize Him in spirit? A man
just and circumspect,' and of course no digamist, (which is plain)
even (from this consideration), lest (otherwise) Christ should
presently be more worthily preached by a woman, an aged widow, and
the wife of one man;' who, living devoted to the temple, was
(already) giving in her own person a sufficient token what sort of
persons ought to be the adherents to the spiritual temple,--that
is, the Church. Such eye-witnesses the Lord in infancy found; no
different ones had He in adult age." Tertullian, On Monogamy, 8
(A.D. 213).
"For if Mary, as those declare who with sound mind extol her, had
no other son but Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His mother, Woman,
behold thy son,' and not Behold you have this son also,' then He
virtually said to her, Lo, this is Jesus, whom thou didst bear.' Is
it not the case that every one who is perfect lives himself no
longer, but Christ lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, then
it is said of him to Mary, Behold thy son Christ.' What a mind,
then, must we have to enable us to interpret in a worthy manner
this work, though it be committed to the earthly treasure-house of
common speech, of writing which any passer-by can read, and which
can be heard when read aloud by any one who lends to it his bodily
ears?" Origen, Commentary on John, I:6 (A.D. 232).
"Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by
nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human
flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin; for in neither case had it been of
profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son
of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed." Athanasius,
Orations against the Arians, II:70 (A.D. 362).
