The English translations of the Greek version of Matthew 1:16 refer to Joseph as the son of Jacob and the husband of Mary:
“And Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband (andra) of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” Matthew 1:16 Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
However, two Hebrew manuscripts (MSS) of Matthew were discovered in Italy, which contain an interesting variant. One of the MS is dated to the 13th century AD and is at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The other MS is from the 14th century and is at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
Both of these Hebrew MSS read Yoseph abi Miryam (“Joseph, the father of Mary”) in Matthew 1:16.
Here are links to the images of these two Hebrew MSS:
Some believe that this variant supports the notion that Matthew is recording Mary’s biological descent, whereas Luke in 3:23-38 is listing the genealogy of Joseph, the betrothed of Mary and Jesus’ adoptive father.
What this view entails is that there were actually two Josephs, one who was Mary’s father and the other one being the man who was betrothed to her.
Specific individuals believe that the Syriac version of the Bible known as the Peshitta supports the view that the Joseph of Matthew’s genealogy is actually Mary’s father. They base this off of the Syriac word employed in the Peshitta, specifically gabrah:
yaᶜqūḇ ᵓawleḏ ləyawsep gaḇrāh dəmaryam dəmennāh ᵓeṯīleḏ yešūᶜ dəmeṯqəre məšīḥā
Certain translations render this term either as guardian or kinsmen:
“Yaqob begot Yoseph the guardian of Maryam, her from whom was begotten Yeshua, who is called The Messiah.” Peshitta Holy Bible Translated (HPBT https://biblehub.com/hpbt/matthew/1.htm)
“Yaqub fatherd Yosip the kinsmen of Maryam from whom was born Yeshua who is called the Messiah.” (Paul Younan’s Interlinear Peshitta Translation (www.peshitta.org); https://dukhrana.com/peshitta/msviewer.php?ms=4&id=1)
In this post I will show that there are several major problems with these arguments.
First, the Hebrew versions of Matthew are too late and therefore do not provide any conclusive evidence for this being the original wording of Matthew.
Second, all of the evidence we have shows that the Greek of Matthew is not a translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic form of Matthew. Rather, the MS tradition confirms that canonical Matthew was indeed written originally in Koine Greek, and therefore confirms the position that the later Hebrew versions are translations from the Greek.
Third, the Syriac word gabrah functions similarly to the Greek term aner, both of which can mean a man in distinction from a woman, or a husband in distinction from a wife. This is why there are other English renderings of the Peshitta that translate gabrah as husband:
“Jakub begat Jauseph, husband of Mariam, of whom was born JESHU who is called the Meshicha [pronounced Meshee’ha].” Etheridge’s Peschito Syriac NT
“Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.” Murdock’s Syriac Peshitta NT
“Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” George Lamsa Bible (LAMSA https://biblehub.com/lamsa/matthew/1.htm)
Fourth, even the Hebrew word ab, which is typically translated as father, can and does refer to a guardian or protector, to someone who has been appointed to oversee and guard a specific individual, peoples, clans, families, households, etc.:
7 figurative of benevolence & protection Job 29:6 אָב אָֽנֹכִי לָֽאֶבְיוֺנִים, compare Job 31:18; of Eliakim Isaiah 22:21; perhaps also of gracious Messianic king אֲבִי עַד Isaiah 9:5 everlasting father (Ge Ew De Che Brd Di) — others divider of spoil (Abarb Hi Kn Kue BrMP). (Brown-Driver-Briggs, Strong’s Hebrew 1. ab)
Here’s an example of such a meaning:
“Then it will be in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will give your authority into his hand, And he will become a father (la’ab) to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.” Isaiah 22:20-22 LSB
In light of this, one can legitimately understand the Hebrew of Matthew 1:16 to mean that Joseph was Mary’s father in the sense of his having been appointed to oversee and protect her and her divine Child. It doesn’t necessarily prove that the translators of Hebrew Matthew meant to convey that Joseph actually fathered or begot Mary.
This is further supported from the fact that all throughout the genealogy Matthew speaks of individual X begetting individual Y, e.g., “Jacob begat Joseph.” Therefore, all Matthew had to do was to write that Joseph begot Mary, since this would leave absolutely no doubt that the Evangelist was referring to Mary’s father, and not to the man who was to later become her husband.
This leads me to my final point.
The immediate context of Matthew 1 itself shows that the Joseph mentioned in the genealogy is the same one who was betrothed to Mary:
“After the Babylonian exile Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, who was the father of Zerubbabel, who was the father of Abiud, who was the father of Eliakim, who was the father of Azor, who was the father of Sadoc, who was the father of Achim, who was the father of Eliud, who was the father of Eleazar, who was the father of Matthan, who was the father of Jacob, who was the father of Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The genealogy of Jesus Christ may thus be traced for fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen from the deportation to Christ himself.
“The birth of Jesus Christ happened like this. When Mary was engaged to Joseph, just before their marriage, she was discovered to be pregnant—by the Holy Spirit. Whereupon Joseph, her future husband, who was a good man and did not want to see her disgraced, planned to break off the engagement quietly. But while he was turning the matter over in his mind an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife! What she has conceived is conceived through the Holy Spirit, and she will give birth to a son, whom you will call Jesus (“the Saviour”) for it is he who will save his people from their sins.’
“All this happened to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet—‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’. (‘Immanuel’ means ‘God with us.’) When Joseph woke up he did what the angel had told him. He married Mary, but had no intercourse with her until she had given birth to a son. Then he gave him the name Jesus.” Matthew 1:16-25 J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
Therefore, there is simply no good reason to believe that the Hebrew versions of Matthew 1:16 are positing two different Josephs, a specific Joseph in the genealogy that fathered Mary, who was someone other than the Joseph that became the husband of Mary and the adoptive father of the Lord Jesus.
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