Saint Joseph was of royal lineage, a descendant of David and Solomon, the grandson of Matthan and great-grandson of Eleazar. Joseph was the son of Jacob after the flesh, and of Heli according to the law of the levirate. (The law of the levirate commanded that if a man died, not having children, his brother should accept his widow as his own wife. [Deuteronomy, Ch. 25]). After Jacob was born, his father Matthan died. Jacob’s mother then married Melchi, the scion of David through his son Nathan. She bore Heli, who took a wife but died childless. Thereafter, Jacob, Heli’s half-brother, took to himself Heli’s wife, and to raise up seed for the deceased, went in to his sister-in-law and begot Saint Joseph the Betrothed. This is why Joseph is called both the son of Jacob, and the son of Heli: of Jacob after the flesh, and of Heli according to the Law. In Luke’s genealogy of Christ, it is written: “Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the “son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,” but Saint Matthew says that Jacob was Joseph’s father.
Some Western teachers hold that Joseph was a virgin till the day of his death, but the Eastern Holy Fathers do not agree with this, maintaining that he was married and had children. The Greek historian Nicephorus, basing himself on Saint Hyppolytus, tells us that Joseph’s wife was named Salome. This Salome was not the same as the one who lived in Bethlehem, the so-called midwife at Christ’s Nativity, but another. The midwife Salome was kinswoman to Elizabeth and the Theotokos, while Joseph’s wife was the daughter of Aggeas, brother of Zachrias, the Forerunner’s father. Aggeas and Zacharias were sons of the priest Barachias.
Salome, Aggeas’ daughter, living with Saint Joseph in honorable wedlock, bore him four sons: James, Simon, Jude, and Joses. In addition, she gave birth to two daughters, Esther and Thamar, also known as Martha. According to the Synaxarion for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women, Joseph and Salome had a third daughter, also called Salome, like her mother. Unquestionably St. Joseph was married and had children.
After his wife’s death, Saint Joseph remained a widower for many years. The Holy Gospel praises his purity, attesting that he was a just man (Matthew, Ch. 1). What evidence could be more convincing than this? Beyond a doubt, his righteousness surpassed that of any of the forefathers or patriarchs of the Old Testament, none of whom was deemed worthy to be called the father of the Messiah, or the bridegroom and supposed husband of His Mother. Truly the Lord found in Joseph a man after His own heart, made him a servant of the mystery of our redemption, and revealed to him a servant of the mystery of our redemption, and revealed to him “the secret and hidden things of His wisdom” (Psalm 50 [51]). And Joseph was worthy of such honor, having attained perfection in virtue.
Saint Joseph was eighty years (80) old when the immaculate Virgin was betrothed to him, not so that he might enjoy the pleasures of marriage with her, but in order to serve as a guardian of her virginity. With all reverence and fear, he ministered to the Mother of God, his Lady and the Mistress of the whole world. In obedience to the command given by the Angel who appeared to him in a dream, he also served the Divine Infant she bore, during the flight into Egypt, while they were returning from that land, and during the years they lived in Nazareth. Saint Joseph earned money by hard labor, since he was a poor carpenter, though of royal blood. It pleased the Lord to be born in poverty because He wished to provide us an example of humility. Although springing from a royal line, He was a stranger to glory, wealth, and power, and was not ashamed to have a poor Mother and a poor supposed father.
In accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, in Adam, all mankind tasted the forbidden fruit. Only the God-man Christ begins with Himself the new mankind, freed by Him from the sin of Adam. Therefore, He is called the “firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29, that is: the First in the new human race; He is the ‘new Adam.”) The Most Holy Virgin was born as subject to the sin of Adam together with all mankind, and with him she shared the need for redemption (the Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs, Par. 6).
Saint Joseph lived 110 years and died peacefully, joining his ancestors in Hades. He brought them the glad tidings that the long-awaited Messiah, Christ the Lord, had come to save the race of man. Unto our God be glory forever. Amen.
The Holy Church commemorates the feast of Saint Joseph on the Sunday following the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (The Collection of the Lives of the Saints)
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“Glory Be To GOD For All Things!” — Saint John Chrysostom+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry), The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George

St Andrew Greek Orthodox Church. South Bend, Indiana, USA