Well, my dear friend, I do not believe that Scripture gives us much insight into this question and there is no scriptural evidence that Joseph was married before he married Mary. I believe we must remember that the Bible is not an exhaustive account of world history, but rather it is a record of God’s grace and His loving plans for the redemption of sinners like you and like me, through the dying love of our Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. But having said all of this, I’ll tell you what I do know about Joseph from the Scriptures. Matthew 1 gives the lineage of Joseph. And why would this be important? Although Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, we read here that He was in the direct royal line of King David. Israel traced all legal rights, including the right to succession to the throne of Israel, through the father or adoptive father in such cases. The OT prophesies clearly state that the Christ would be of the royal line of King David, and in fact would one day sit on his throne in the latter day (see Psalms 2; Psalms 24; Isaiah 11:1-5; Micah 5:2, and many other Scriptures). Thus, this lineage is one more piece of evidence that the Lord Jesus was in fact the Messiah of God. William MacDonald in his commentary on this chapter said: “Unless it can be shown that Jesus is a legal descendant of David through the royal line, it is impossible to prove that He is the Messiah-King of Israel. Matthew begins his account where he must—with the documentary evidence that Jesus inherited the legal right to the throne of David through His stepfather, Joseph.” Thus, in Matthew 1:16 we read: “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”

Now, I do not see any reference to Joseph being the husband of anyone but Mary, the mother of Jesus, and this is likely because the Lord Jesus’ claim to the throne of David, and not Joseph himself, is the focus of this particular Scripture. Neither Joseph nor Mary are ever to be our special focus, and certainly they are not to be worshipped because they were both mere humans and therefore sinners in need of salvation like you and like me. But Joseph and Mary do, by their obedience to God’s direction, have their honored place in the fulfillment of God’s perfect will regarding His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to be permitted to play a part in the unfolding of God’s plan!

Now, I do believe that Joseph was a just, or righteous, man as we see in Matthew 1:19, “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.” He listened to and obeyed the will of God (Matthew 1:20-21; 24,25). See also Matthew 2:13,14 and 19-23. I find this all to be very significant because it was the obedience of Joseph to the Word of God which allowed God to use Joseph in the fulfillment of prophesy (consider Matthew 2:16-18). Additionally, we see that Joseph had his part in the fulfillment of many OT prophesies regarding the Christ. Herod’s plot to dispose of the Christ was revealed to Joseph in a dream, causing him to follow God’s direction to move to Egypt to protect the Christ child (Matthew 2:8-15; 19-23). This last was covered in the prophesy that the Messiah would come up to Nazareth in Judea from Egypt, so that one day the Lord Jesus would be termed “the Nazarene” as we see in Matthew 2:23, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”

The honor that Joseph receives is, to my mind, that his obedience to God’s will in taking Mary for his wife, even though she was with child of the Holy Spirit while they were yet engaged, and his moving his family around to protect the Messiah in obedience to the will of God allowed his name and deeds to be recorded for all time in the Scriptures. None of this would have been safe or easy for Joseph, but he must have had true faith in God in order to act in full accordance with the Lord’s expressed will, despite the difficulties and dangers that would be involved. In all, I find this to be quite honorable that Joseph was obedient to God’s Word no matter the effort required or the potential dangers that might be involved. May it be so for each of us who love the Lord!  (SF)  (699.4)