“When did Joseph, the father of Jesus, die?” someone asked. Scripture does not indicate when Joseph the father of Jesus died. Yet, Scripture implies the death of Joseph through his absence in the life, the ministry and at the time of our Lord’s death. “It is not easy to determine when Joseph died. That event may have taken place before Jesus entered on his public ministry. This has been argued from the fact that his mother only appeared at the feast at Cana in Galilee” (McClintock and Strong). The final reference to Joseph alive was when Jesus was 12-years-old as He accompanied His parents to Jerusalem for worship (Luke 2:41-51). Joseph may have died during the interim between that event and the commencement of Jesus’ public ministry, a period compressed into a single verse of Scripture (Luke 2:52). The absence of Joseph at the crucifixion of our Lord and Jesus’ assignment of His mother’s care to His disciple John (John 19:25-27) strongly implies that at least by then Joseph was no longer available to assume that care, and that he most likely had passed away previously. Unlike today when other scenarios might commonly absent a father from his family, first century Jewish culture and customs would have obligated the husband to provide for his wife if he were alive. If Joseph were much older than Mary, as often was the case among peoples anciently, it would not be unusual for the mother of Jesus to be a widow during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Works Cited
McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
