What would have happened if Mary got divorced

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It says in Matt 1:19 because Joseph was a righteous and was unwilling to disgrace her(Mary) he resolved to divorce her quietly this is according to the Catholic Bible? Isn’t it true that if Mary would have gotten a divorce she would have been stoned because she was pregnant without a husband and such woman (usually adultery) would have been stoned. So why would he have done that to her? Furthermore according to the American Standard Bible it says : planned to send her (Mary) away secretly. That is not much better but what a difference. What is the correct translation I wonder. If anybody can help me with these questions to answer I would be very happy to learn about your opinion. May God bless you
 
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I think the fact he was thinking of divorcing her “quietly” was his way of planning to protect her from being stoned. If he made it publicly known she was pregnant and not by him, she’d have been stoned. If he divorced her quietly, everyone would assume her child was his & conceived before the divorce… just as everyone assumed Jesus was his when ultimately he decided to remain married to her.
 
Wife.of.Gabriel said:
If he divorced her quietly, everyone would assume her child was his & conceived before the divorce…
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Yet they weren’t married at the time of conception:

In the genealogy, Joseph is called the “husband of Mary,” who gave birth to Jesus (Matthew 1:16). Describing the background of their relationship, Matthew 1:18 reads, “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.” Here Matthew uses the same Greek verb as Luke. However, after Joseph decides to divorce Mary because of her unexpected pregnancy, an angel warns him in a dream not to do so. The angel advises him to “take Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:20). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel commanded him: He took Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:24). Luke’s version seemingly contradicts Matthew’s, according to present English translations
 
JohnStrachan said:
Yet they weren’t married at the time of conception
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For all intent and purpose, they were. The marriage had not been (and in this case, would not be) consummated, and Mary hadn’t moved to live with Jospeh yet, but all the binding aspects of a Jewish marriage were already in place.
 
Yes, they were married. Marriage is a 2 step process. First the Betrothal or exchanging of the wedding rings & then later the Coronation. Typically, you’d wait until the full marriage was complete, but it was not a sin to conceive a child after Betrothal because the couple is already “Married”.
 
That is fine but why did he have to do it quietly. If Joseph would have divorced her openly that would have made sense.

If he would have send her away, as in The New American Bible, she would have been without any protection, It is a bid confusing these translations


DaveBj
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    March 26
JohnStrachan:
Yet they weren’t married at the time of conception:
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They were “betrothed”, which was a much stronger relationship than today’s “engaged”. It could be broken only by death or divorce.

D
 
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Thank you for the part I already know yet it does not give me the info why quietly, because it would have been better for her that everybody would know that it would have been his baby. Also the other translation in the new American Bible says: He would send her away, that might have been even worse because she would have nobody to watch over her and protect her and her baby. So did Joseph really love Mary? Or did he only do it because the angel told him?


JohnStrachan
Code: 
    March 26
Wife.of.Gabriel:
If he divorced her quietly, everyone would assume her child was his & conceived before the divorce…
Click to expand...
Yet they weren’t married at the time of conception:

In the genealogy, Joseph is called the “husband of Mary,” who gave birth to Jesus (Matthew 1:16). Describing the background of their relationship, Matthew 1:18 reads, “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.” Here Matthew uses the same Greek verb as Luke. However, after Joseph decides to divorce Mary because of her unexpected pregnancy, an angel warns him in a dream not to do so. The angel advises him to “take Mary as his wife” (Matthew 1:20). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel commanded him: He took Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:24). Luke’s version seemingly contradicts Matthew’s, according to present English translations
 
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This is not my question my question was why would he divorce her quietly because he would have said he would be the father he could just divorce her openly. If he would have divorced her quietly other people would have thought she committed adultery. the punishment for that would be be stoned. Also another translation says he would send her away. That would have been really bad for her. Did Joseph really love Mary or did he do it only because an angel told him so?


ProdglArchitect
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    March 26
JohnStrachan:
Yet they weren’t married at the time of conception
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For all intent and purpose, they were. The marriage had not been (and in this case, would not be) consummated, and Mary hadn’t moved to live with Jospeh yet, but all the binding aspects of a Jewish marriage were already in place.
 
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As said before why quietly it would have been better for openly. Then everybody would know it was his child as he assumed later on. But quietly nobody would have known and people would have thought of adultery.
 
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Sib7 said:
This is not my question my question was why would he divorce her quietly because he would have said he would be the father he could just divorce her openly. If he would have divorced her quietly other people would have thought she committed adultery. the punishment for that would be be stoned. Also another translation says he would send her away. That would have been really bad for her. Did Joseph really love Mary or did he do it only because an angel told him so?
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I know I wasn’t answering your question. I was responding to another poster, as indicated by the quote at the start of my post.

To answer your question, yes, he loved her. They were set to marry before the angel came.

He would divorce her quietly specifically because of his love for her and desire to avoid seeing her harmed despite the personal pains he must have been feeling at the thought that she was unfaithful to him.
 
Sib7 said:
So did Joseph really love Mary? Or did he only do it because the angel told him?
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Joseph really loves God and wanted to do God’s Will. Tradition tells us that Joseph was a widower and that Mary was younger than all of his children with the exception of his youngest son, James. I’m sure he loved her, but not a romantic love like we think of in marriages today.
 
Well the bible says that Joseph decided to do that because he was “unwilling to expose her to shame”, and the writers of the gospel knew more about laws and customs of the jewish people back then than we do, so I think you’re suggestion that divorcing her openly would be better doesn’t jive.
 
Thanks but if he would have divorced her quietly that is the point and that would mean nobody would have known it, so she would be sentenced to have committed adultery.


ProdglArchitect
Code: 
    March 26
Sib7:
This is not my question my question was why would he divorce her quietly because he would have said he would be the father he could just divorce her openly. If he would have divorced her quietly other people would have thought she committed adultery. the punishment for that would be be stoned. Also another translation says he would send her away. That would have been really bad for her. Did Joseph really love Mary or did he do it only because an angel told him so?
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I know I wasn’t answering your question. I was responding to another poster, as indicated by the quote at the start of my post.

To answer your question, yes, he loved her. They were set to marry before the angel came.

He would divorce her quietly specifically because of his love for her and desire to avoid seeing her harmed despite the personal pains he must have been feeling at the thought that she was unfaithful to him.
 
I believe that sometimes translations can be misunderstood. And if you ask historians they will give you the exact idea why women were stoned because if they committed adultery that was their sentence. My questions is why quietly if he would have loved her make it openly so there would have been any questions about their lives as husband and wife.
 
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Sib7 said:
Thanks but if he would have divorced her quietly that is the point and that would mean nobody would have known it, so she would be sentenced to have committed adultery.
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In this context, quietly means he would not have brought her before the priests in order to denounce her as an adulteress in order to get out of the marriage and thereby expose her to shame and execution.

See, Joseph had two options. He could either simply present her with a bill of divorce, and no one outside of the marriage would need to know why, or he could publicly divorce her, and give a public testimony against her. He was, per Jewish law and his understanding, completely within his right to do the latter, and receive “justice” for what he saw as Mary’s sin against him. Instead, he was going to very quietly, and pridelessly, send her on her way without getting any justice.

I believe it’s Scott Hahn’s book “Joy to the World” that goes into greater detail about this particular passage. I’ll try to remember to double check that when I get home.
 
Joseph didn’t divorce her so there is no “what if”. God’s plan went forward as planned.
 
He would have divorced her quietly to avoid scandal. Divorcing “openly” would mean lying and publicly stating the child was his, or publicly revealing suspected adultary.

With a discreet divorce, he’d say things didn’t work out, and Mary would move back in with her parents. Joseph would look like a jerk for abandonning his family, but he was willing to take that hit to his reputation to protect Mary.
 
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