63. Who was Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, our Lord?

There are many traditions concerning Joseph, the foster-father of the Saviour. One that is generally accepted by early Christian writers is that he was quite old when espoused to Mary, and had by a previous mar­riage four sons and two daughters.

Epiphanius mentions this, and Theo­phylact and Eusebius give further detail, and state that Joseph's wife was the widow of his brother Cleophas, who died without issue, Joseph marrying her according to the old Jewish law.

Nicephorus gives Salome as the name of Joseph's first wife. The origin of all these assertions by the early fathers is found in the apocryphal gospels, and particularly in the Protevangelium of St. James, which is supposed to have been writ­ten by a Christian Jew in the second century, and which is referred to by Origen, Clement of Alexandria and Juslin Martyr in their writings.

The Bible gives nothing of them. It should be added that Jerome, and several other eminent authorities, hold that "our Lord's brethren" referred to in the Gospels were his cousins, and Joseph was not married before his espousal to Mary.