Foreword
By Scott Hahn
In the second century, the Greek historian Plutarch wrote his Parallel Lives, a collection of biographical profiles organized in pairs. Each pair consisted of one eminent Greek and one eminent Roman. It was a convenient format, enabling its author to enhance each profile with implicit comparisons to its complement: Alexander the Great with Julius Caesar, Demosthenes with Cicero, and so on. Plutarch wrote forty-eight biographies, all told.
In writing these biographies, he had the distinct advantage of writing as a pagan historian for a pagan audience. And why should that be an advantage? Because no one was expecting Plutarch to write a biography of St. Joseph.
There are few subjects so challenging, especially for authors who respect historical method. St. Joseph seems to go out of his way to be uncooperative with history, even as he's faithful to Providence. In all the reliable records, he is as tight-lipped as an NSA agent, as unforthcoming as a Carthusian. Christian authors down through the ages have tended to make up for the dearth of information by supplying an excess of pious homiletics. At the end of such books, Joseph can seem more distant than he was on page one.
Faced with this challenge, Mike Aquilina succeeded by doubling the difficulty. Though he never shows his hand, he has, in the pages of St. Joseph and His World, pulled a Plutarch on us. He has composed "parallel lives" of the most improbable pair. He tells the story of the Holy Family's patriarch alongside the life of the man's arch-nemesis. He gives an account of Joseph's days as they were bound up with the career of one of history's vilest despots: King Herod the Great.
And this is a tremendous breakthrough, because we cannot begin to understand the life of either until we appreciate the life of the other.
In the pages of the book, you'll learn about Nazareth-and how it was created almost ex nihilo shortly before Joseph's birth. You'll learn about religious practice and education in that place and time. You'll travel to Egypt and encounter the fascinating settlements of the Jewish people in that land. You'll also find out-in literally nuts-and-bolts terms-how a carpenter worked in those days: what tools he used, what items he crafted, where he got his training, and how he got to and from his job sites. You'll learn how large construction jobs proceeded and what role carpenters played in the work crew.
Aquilina even weaves international affairs into the story. Who knew that Cleopatra had her part to play? Who cared about the political rivalries between Syria and Egypt, Persia and Rome? Joseph knew, and he cared, because all of these matters were contributing factors in his professional life.
Then there is the religious dimension, which in Joseph's culture was bound up with everything else. This book renders first-century Jewish life in vivid terms, with carefully chosen, telling details. The author has managed to convey its complexity without bogging down the narrative with academic minutiae.
What we discover between the lines is that there were, in the first century bc, two guiding hands in history: there was the providential hand of the Lord God working God's will, and there was the demonic hand of Satan manipulating the mad King Herod. As a result, there were two rival accounts of kingship, two rival ideas of temple-building, and two rival stories of salvation. Joseph was not the only Jew to recognize this dualism, but he was perhaps the most important one. Those who recognized it were forced to make difficult choices-and face terrifying consequences.
Scott Hahn, PhD, is author of many books, editor of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and founder of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.
