Unwrapping Christmas in a Different Paradigm: Fear or Fear Not? (4 of 5)

Joseph was in a fix. He’d been excited about his upcoming marriage to Mary, but she just told him she was pregnant. As Matthew tells the story, Joseph was a man who lived righteously—in a good way. If he made a big deal about how Mary says she got pregnant, he might save face in the community for himself, but Mary would then bear all the social disgrace. She could even be stoned. Even if she was allowed to live, she had no economic viability, being unmarried, pregnant, and a peasant teenager. Joseph couldn’t resolve his dilemma, caught in fears of violating either social expectations or his own sense of what was right. What to do?

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