Katheryn Maddox Haddad: Joseph: The Other Father |

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father who raised him, had to be a lot of things: Spiritual, quick minded, strong physically, fearless.

Can you imagine taking on that assignment? I wonder if God chose Mary partly because of who she was betrothed to.

Jesus was born into a violent world. When He was probably about a year and a half old, the king of the land sent his soldiers out to kill him. Because I do not like to write the predictable, but to stretch the reader’s mind, I had them escape the shortest route, that being the Mediterranean Sea. Joseph leads Mary and the toddler across the desert in a run, and he does not stop until they arrive.

Of course, Herod’s soldiers are smart and would have spread out in all directions to find them. Just as Joseph gets them to the harbor and finds a ship bound for Egypt, here come Herod’s soldiers. He shoves payment into the ship officer’s hand, lifts his wife and child on board and personally pulls up the anchor so they can make a quick getaway.

The captain is dumbfounded at his brashness until they see Herod’s soldiers climb off their horses and lunge at the ship, trying to board it, just as it gets a hand-breadth too far for them to reach. Some fall into the water while others get out their bows and shoot arrows at the ship.

Once they are out of range, the ship captain just smiles and says, “Looks like that King Herod is after you. Well, any enemy of ole Herod is a friend of mine.”

Another surprise in my book is that I do not have them settle in Alexandria where everyone speculates they went because of the large Jewish population there. For crying out loud! There were large Jewish populations all over Egypt!

Joseph cashes in one of the gifts the magi had given them back in Bethlehem and they get on board a river boat to head down the Nile to find a place to settle. They go through many adventures, but eventually end up in southern Egypt at Thebes, the reason of which you will have to discover by reading the book. Thebes in the first century is almost a ghost town, but the palace and main temples still stand. That’s where Joseph settles them. They move into the old crumbling palace and more adventures follow.

Time passes and they eventually end up in Nazareth. Joseph could hardly have made a living there since archaeologists tell us it was a village of only about five hundred people. But never fear: Sepphoris is only three miles away—the capital city of the Galilee Province where one of Herod’s sons—Antipas—has his palace.

Young Antipas manages to get the Syrians and Arabians so mad at him (according to Josephus), they arrive with one hundred thousand soldiers to attack and burn the city. Remember, little Nazareth is only three miles away. These guys need a place to sleep at night while the trenches are dug and mounds of dirt piled up at the walls for their attack.

Joseph knows he has to protect his family against the soldiers who will put up tents in the valley between Nazareth and Sepphoris, but some will not bother with tents and crash into unwalled Nazareth, kill home owners, and move in. Mary runs to the market to get as much food as she can. Joseph uses his stockpile of wood to create a high wall on their roof so the soldiers cannot get to then that way. Once Mary is back, he nails their gate closed and puts his cart and other heavy things there so it cannot be crashed through.

These are just two situations of many in my book on what Joseph must have gone through in protecting the child Jesus as he grew up. I promise you many more tense moments throughout the book as now and then when things sometimes look hopeless, Joseph calls out, “Father God! Help me protect our Son!”

Katheryn Haddad was born in the cold north, but now lives in Arizona where she does not have to shovel sunshine. She enjoys hot weather, palm trees and cacti in her yard, and a computer with the letters worn off.
With a bachelor’s degree in English, Bible and social science from Harding University and part of a master’s degree in Bible, including Greek, from the Harding Graduate School of Theology, she also has a master’s degree in management and human relations from Abilene University.
Her newspaper column appeared for several years in newspapers in Texas and North Carolina ~ Little Known Facts About the Bible ~ and she has written for numerous Christian publications.
Currently she teaches English over the internet every morning, using the Bible as a text book. Most of her students are Muslims. She has taught some 6000 thus far, and has former students, now Christians, in hiding in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Palestine. “They are my heroes” she declares.
She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Christian Writers of the West, and is also an energetic public speaker who can touch the heart of audiences.