Father of Joseph

[mjg116]

Is there an official church teaching on the father of Joseph the accounts in Matthew and Luke seem to differ.

See - Matthew 1:6-16 and Luke 3:23-31

Thanks - Matt

 

[Fidelis]

Great question. I’ve never noticed that myself in theso it gave me a chance to look it up.

The Haydock Commentary on the Douay-Rhiems has a very informative note on geneologies in the gospels that may be found at the bottom of this link:

haydock1859.tripod.com/id67.html

The Ignatius Study Bible notes this difference in the geneologies, as well as others, and says that they may be a result of Matthew tracing Jesus line through Joseph, and Luke tracing it through Mary. One preserves the Davidic line while the other, the priestly line. Remember each gospel writer had in mind a specific audience and wanted to emphasize certain things.

Similarly, the Navarre Bible Commentary states another possibility that one of the gospels relate the geneology taking into account levirite marriages (where a man had to marry the widow of his deceased brother; cf Dt 25:5-6), while the other did not.

The Navarre also states that “no particular explanation is sponsored by the Church.”