Joseph ben Heli met a girl at church.

They became betrothed.

He realized that his fiancé was pregnant by someone else during an intimate moment on their wedding day.

At that moment, they were on the cusp between engagement and marriage.

She was probably between 15 and 17 years old at this time.

If she had been raped, then she had chosen not to report the crime, and could be considerable as guilty of adultery.

If the pregnancy were consensual, then there are very few possibilities remaining that would allow for her to become betrothed to Joe without committing adultery.

Some possibilities are that her previous partner had:

  • become unfit for marriage in general (kicked by a mule, e.g.)

  • become unfit for marriage to an Israelite in general (banished, e.g.)

  • been unfit for marriage to an Israelite (one of those rare Girgashites, e.g.)

  • realized that he was innocently in an ineligible couple (accidental incest, e.g.)

  • died.

“Joseph now the husband of her righteous being and not willing her to expose publicly resolved secretly to send away her.”

Deciding secretly to “send away her” could mean a few things:

  • Joseph would hide Mary and her condition from the public, and delay the announcement of the child.

  • Joseph would hide Mary and her condition from the public, and the baby would be secretly aborted. The value of a fetus - if any - was to be appraised by the father, but if he were absent, the assessment would reasonably fall to the pregnant woman or her new partner.

  • Joseph would report Mary and her condition to the High Priest, perhaps resulting in an ordeal of bitter water. Through this, YHWH would be expected to intervene from the Mercy Seat if Mary were honourable.

  • Joseph would defer surrogate husbandry to another man.

It seems that Joltin’ Joe chose to take Mary on an extensive pseudo-honeymoon tour to obfuscate the term and messianic nature of her pregnancy.

Mary was from Nazareth, but was constantly found at Temple in Jerusalem around the time that she and Joseph became a thing.

Joseph was from Bethlehem, near Jerusalem.

According to only The Gospel Of Matthew, Jesus was born in Nazareth.

Mary was a 15 year old troubled teen in labour in her own hometown, but was forced to give birth in a barn.

Her parents were still living.

There must have been a significant reason not to birth the child at her parent’s house. They, of course, would know the term of her pregnancy wasn’t apparently kosher, but evidently couldn’t be assuaged with a “divine insemination theory”.

. . .

spoiler

Luke and The Protoevangelium Of James are in perfect agreement; Jesus was born in desperate conditions in Bethlehem.

. . .

Next stops:

Jerusalem (taxes, taxes, and taxes) —>

Bethlehem —>

Egypt —>

Nazareth.

Jesus was not 80 years old when they finally settled in Nazareth, despite having taken a round trip ticket to Egypt.