Thoughts on Joseph and the birth of Christ

Is it possible that Joseph was less affluent because of accepting Mary after she was found to be with child than he had been before that? Could people have withheld their business from him because they thought of him as sinful for accepting the apparently sinful Mary? (It seems likely that accepting her would have cast doubt upon his purity.)

Joseph lived in Nazareth but didn’t return there anytime soon after he reported to Bethlehem for the decreed taxation. He then went to Egypt when called and it seems he may have anticipated returning to Bethlehem rather than Nazareth when he came out of Egypt. Similar to when he went to Egypt at the instruction of an angel, Joseph follows angelic counsel again when he returned from Egypt and turned aside to settle again in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.


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