Joseph Bar-Jacob (38 BC?-22 AD?) was the husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus.
Biography[]
Joseph was the son of Jacob, and he was descended from several prophets and kings; he was a distant relative of Matthew and as they all traced his ancestry through Solomon, son of King David. Joseph the carpenter was engaged to marry the much younger Mary when she conceived Jesus, said to be the Christ (son of God), in 6 BC, and she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, where Joseph was ordered to register for a Roman census. The new family was forced to flee to Egypt after Joseph had a dream of King Herod the Great ordering Jesus' death, and they remained there until Herod's death in 4 B.C. After Herod's death in 4 B.C, it is highly possible that Joseph and Mary started their family adding four other sons, (James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, and at least two sisters. *)When Jesus was twelve, he was separated from his parents during the return trip from Passover celebrations in Jerusalem, as Jesus was teaching at the Temple. Joseph possibly died when Jesus was 26 years old in 22 AD. Jesus began His ministry in His early thirties between A.D 27-29.
(*According to Roman Catholic tradition that Mary forever remained a virgin, the Catholic Church conclude that the additional children possibly born to Joseph and Mary were actually cousins or children by Joseph from a previous marriage. But this seems more like speculation and leaves more questions than answers.)