Den Jordiske Fadern. Bilden av Josef i barndomsberättelserna i Matteus och Lukas

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the authors of Matthew and Luke describe Joseph; The main aim is to see how the picture of him is drawn in the infancy narratives of their respective Gospels; what unites, and what distinguishes the pictures of the two evangelists' account of Joseph, as a character and as a father. With the help of both textual and grammatical criticism, this study investigates - pericope by pericope - different aspects of Joseph's participation in the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke; his relationship to the child and the mother, the terms used to describe him, and his overall modus operandi. This essay builds its structure upon the individual study of each pericope, with the aim of painting a general and summarized picture. From the outset of already formulated uniting characteristics of the two gospels, as stated in Raymond E Brown's The Birth of the Messiah this study proposes that more can be said about the common features of Matthew and Luke, especially concerning Joseph's both character and relation to the child. First, this study suggests that both Matthew and Luke describe Joseph as the legal father of Jesus; second, both evangelists seems to describe Joseph as observant of Jewish law and custom. The main impression of the two evangelists' birth narratives is however the differences concerning the description of Joseph. This study shows that there is one major common feature: the ambivalence evident in the evangelists' way of describing Joseph. On the one hand, both Matthew and Luke prescribe Joseph some importance; Matthew by describing Joseph and letting him act, Luke by calling him father and parent. On the other hand, both Matthew and Luke wishes to limit the importance of Joseph; Matthew by never calling Joseph father or parent, and by using ways of expression and word order that indicates the opposite of a close relationship; Luke by letting Joseph become an overall absent figure – especially when compared to other charachters in the narrative. All this combined indicates the already mentioned ambivalence, which in turn points towards a knowledge of Jesus' later speeches of his heavenly father already in the infancy narratives.