If there is one truth that Christians have always believed about Christmas it is that Jesus was conceived not by natural human means, but supernaturally in the womb of a virgin named Mary.

The Nicene Creed of AD 325 states, “For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” And yet, this same Jesus of Nazareth was known during His lifetime as the son of Joseph of Nazareth. Joseph was not the birth father of Jesus, but he was his father by adoption. Not only do Mary and other Nazareth locals call Joseph Jesus’ father, Scripture itself speaks this way: “The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him” (Luke 2:33, ESV).

In every culture, children are inevitably known through their parents. After Jesus baffled His hometown with His profound teaching, many asked, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55). In other words, “How did old Joseph’s boy learn to talk like this?”

We don’t always consider how central Joseph was to Jesus’ upbringing. Joseph would have been there for all of Jesus’ firsts. Because Jewish men at this time were more likely to be literate than the women, it was likely Joseph who lifted the boy Jesus on to his lap and read Him the Torah.[1] As a blue collar worker,[2] Joseph was the man working hard to provide for his family. What little we do know about Joseph is that he was willing to make sacrifices to care for his family (see Matthew 2:13-23). And given what we know about that culture, Jesus would have spent vast amounts of time alongside Joseph, learning the trade of carpentry from His father.

New Testament scholar Gary Burge writes:

“Like other boys in his village, from the age of six to ten Jesus became literate in Hebrew through the study of the Torah in the Nazareth synagogue, and he memorized vast quantities of Scripture.  From ages ten to twelve he became acquainted with the oral laws under the direction of the synagogue teacher and custodian, the hazzan.  At this point he ended his schooling and began working full time with his father.”[3]

Jesus would have called Joseph Abba (“Dad” or “Daddy”) from a young age. When Joseph had something to say, Jesus would listen. When Joseph needed Jesus to run an errand for him in town, Jesus gladly obeyed. The Bible says Jesus was obedient and submissive to both Mary and Joseph (Luke 2:51). As the One who fulfilled the Law of God, Jesus honored both parents perfectly.

In a first century Jewish culture that prized father-son relationships highly, the local townspeople couldn’t help thinking of Joseph every time they saw Jesus. He was His father’s son—not biologically, but in every other sense, humanly speaking.

Interestingly, we don’t have a recorded word from Joseph in Scripture. Joseph may have been the strong silent type, but we know he was a man of action. Scripture describes him as “a just man” who kept the law of God faithfully (Matthew 1:19). You can imagine the hurt Joseph felt when he learned that Mary, his betrothed, was pregnant. Yet even in his anguish, he was “unwilling to put her to shame,” one more clue that Joseph was a man of both integrity and compassion.

When God sent an angel to reveal the truth—Mary had conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit—Joseph stepped forward to fulfill his calling of taking Mary as his wife as God intended.

“When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” (Matthew 1:24-25a, ESV)

As the legal father, Joseph even had the privilege of naming his son “Jesus,” just as the angel had instructed (v. 25).

Despite the scandal of marrying a pregnant woman in that culture, Joseph stepped up to the challenge. He was willing to bear the shame along with Mary, and together they submitted to God’s glorious plan of raising His incarnate Son—a daunting task difficult to fathom.

Joseph’s role in the story of Christmas is not peripheral. Although he is a silent character in the narrative, his part is crucial to everything that unfolds. The angel calls him “Joseph, son of David” to remind him of his royal ancestry and to foreshadow the messianic claims that will be granted to Jesus, his legal heir. Joseph is a strong and faithful man—a true knight of his day who honors women, protects the vulnerable, loves his family, and courageously follows the orders of his King.

In a culture that often devalues the role of husbands and fathers, we need to see again the impact that Joseph had on the life of Jesus. Although he was put in his role by God’s grace alone, everything we know about Joseph tells us that Jesus was raised by a good man and was honored to call him “Dad.”

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[1] While New Testament skeptics have said things like “Jesus was an illiterate peasant,” these skeptics underestimate how essential it was for Jewish boys to go to synagogue from a young age and learn the Hebrew Scriptures, often from their fathers (see Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Do we really want to suppose that the same Jesus who often prefaced a quote from Scripture with the question, “Have you not read?” was Himself not reading that very Scripture? This is why blatant skepticism of Jesus cannot be taken seriously; it ignores the evidence and crafts a Jesus with which skeptics are more comfortable.

[2] The Greek word tekton can mean both carpenter and craftsman.

[3] Gary M. Burge. The New Testament in Antiquity (Zondervan, 2009).