And we apostles, when we heard these things from our Saviour, rose up joyfully, and prostrated ourselves in honour of Him, and said: O our Saviour, show us Your grace. Now indeed we have heard the word of life: nevertheless we wonder, O our Saviour, at the fate of Enoch and Elias, inasmuch as they had not to undergo death. For truly they dwell in the habitation of the righteous even to the present day, nor have their bodies seen corruption. Yet that old man Joseph the carpenter was, nevertheless, Your father after the flesh. And You have ordered us to go into all the world and preach the holy Gospel; and You have said: Relate to them the death of my father Joseph, and celebrate to him with annual solemnity a festival and sacred day. And whosoever shall take anything away from this narrative, or add anything to it, commits sin. We wonder especially that Joseph, even from that day on which You were born in Bethlehem, called You his son after the flesh. Wherefore, then, did You not make him immortal as well as them, and You say that he was righteous and chosen?
Apocrypha · Chapter 30 of 32
History of Joseph the Carpenter 30
The Carpenter
Words in this chapter
What these words meant in the original — and where else they appear.
- GraceχάριςFavour given to someone who did nothing to earn it — and cannot pay it back.
- TsedaqahצְדָקָהRighteousness as right relationship — and, in later Judaism, as almsgiving.
- ChatatחַטָּאתSin as missing the mark — the arrow that lands wide of what it should have hit.
- QadoshקָדוֹשׁHoly is what has been set apart for one use only — not what is morally better.
About History of Joseph the Carpenter
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. English text: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886), History of Joseph the Carpenter, Alexander Walker, 1886 (public domain). Portuguese and Spanish: Lux Veritas translations from this edition.
Source: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886), History of Joseph the Carpenter, Alexander Walker (1886) · public domain