€66 JOS 
employed in felling and cutting trees, and in building 
houfes; but that he alio handled the utenfils belonging to 
a fmith. It is probable, that, in thofe early times, fome 
men praflifed more trades than one. Libanius alking a 
Chriftian in raillery what Jefus Chrift was doing, he re¬ 
plied, that he was making a coffin for the emperor Julian. 
Julian died at the very time. That Jofeph however was a 
carpenter is the current opinion. They who maintain 
that Jofeph was a fmith or farrier, cite Hilary, Chryfo- 
logus, venerable Bede, and the Hebrew Gofpel of St. Mat¬ 
thew, publiffied by Tilerius. Cardinal Hugo makes him 
a goldfmith; but does not difapprove of the opinion that 
lie was a mai’on. Theophilus of Antioch, and St. Am- 
broie, are not againft his being a fmith, fince he worked 
(lay they) with fire and bellows. 
The Son of God’s incarnation was not at firft difco- 
vered to Jofeph ; but, being informed that Mary, his ef- 
poufed wife, was with child, not knowing to what to at¬ 
tribute it, he inclined to difmifs her privately, by giving 
her a bill of divorce inftead of publicly difhonouring her; 
but, wdiile he was in this uncertainty, an angel of the 
Lord appeared to him in a dream, encouraging him to 
take home Mary. About fix months after, Jofeph went 
to Bethlehem, there to be regiftered with Mary his wife, 
in purfuance of an edift from Auguftus. While in this 
place, the time of Mary’s delivery came, and the Saviour 
was born. Forty days after the child’s birth, Mary and 
Jofeph carried him to Jerufalem, and performed what the 
law appointed. While here, the angel of the Lord di¬ 
rected Jofeph, in a dream, to carry the child into Egypt, 
becaufe king Herod fought to kill him. How long they 
continued in Egypt is not precifely known : probably 
not long, fince Herod difed about the paffover, fome few 
months after the maffacre of the innocents. The angel 
again informed Jofeph that he might return to Judea ; but, 
learning that Archelaus had fucceeded Herod, he retired 
to Nazareth in Galilee, which did not belong to Arche- 
laus’s kingdom, but to Herod Antipas. He took Jefus at 
the^geof twelve, with Mary, to the paffover at Jerufalem, 
where they loft him for three days ; but found him at 
Jaft, in the temple. Luke ii. 42. 51. 
It is believed with great probability, that Jofeph died 
before Jefus began his public miniltry. Jofeph does not 
appear at the marriage <of Cana, nor in any other inftance; 
and Jefus on the crols recommends his mother to St. John, 
which he would not have done had her hufband been 
living. His name is in very ancient martyrologies, 
March 19 ; but his feftival is of late introduction. 
JO'SEPH, or Joses, fon of Mary-Cleophas, was brother 
to James the Lefs, and nearly related to our Lord Jefus, 
being fpn of Mary, the bleffed virgin’s ■ filter, and of 
Cleophas, Jofeph’s brother; or of Jofeph himfelf, as thofe 
ancients fuppofe who affert that Jofeph was married to 
Mary-Cleophas, or Efcha, before he was married to the 
virgin. Some believe this Jofeph, fon of Mary and Cleo¬ 
phas, to be Jofeph Barfabas, the Juft, who was propofed 
to fill up the traitor Judas’s place, A£ls i. 23. but there 
is no certainty in this. We learn nothing particular in 
Scripture concerning Jofeph the brother of our Lord. If 
he was one of thofe kinfmen who dicj not believe on him, 
(John vii. 5.) he was afterwards converted; for it is in¬ 
timated in Scripture, that at laft all our Saviour’s brethren 
believed on him ; and, St. Chrvfoftom fays, they were fig- 
nalized for eminent faith and virtue. 
JO'SEPH BAR'SABAS, furnamed JuJlus, one of Jefus 
Chrilt’s firft difciples. He was one of the feventy-tvvo 
dilciples ; Peter propofed him, with Matthias, to fill the 
traitor Judas’s place : Matthias was preferred. Jofeph 
continued in the apoftolic miniftry to the end. Papias in¬ 
forms us, (Apud Eufeb. lib. 3. cap. 39. Hilt. Ecclef.) that, 
having drunk poilbn, he was by the grace of Jefus Chrift 
Secured from death. The martyrologies of Ufuardus and 
Ado place his feftival on July 20, and fay he luffered 
much from the Jews, and at laft died in Judea glorioully. 
JO'SEPH OF ARIMATHE'A, or of Ramatha, a 
E P H. 
Jewilh fenator, and privately a difciple of Jefus Chrift, 
John xiv. 38. He was not confenting /to the a£ts of the 
Sanhedrim, who condemned Jefus Chrift; and, when our 
Saviour was dead, he went boldly to Pilate, and defired 
the body of Jefus, to bury it. Mark xv. 43. John xix. 38. 
He buried it in an honourable manner, in a fepulchre 
newly made, in a garden, on the fame mount Calvary 
where Jefus was crucified ; and he clofed the entrance of 
it with a great ftone. Mattk. xxvii. 60. John xix. 40, 41. 
The Greek church keeps his feftival July 31. His name 
is not in the old Latin martyrologies, nor was it in thofe 
of Rome till A. D. 1585. 
JO'SEPH ben GO'RION, is fuppofed to have been a 
Jew of Languedoc, who lived about the end of the ninth 
or beginning of the tenth century. There is extant in 
his name a Hiftory of the Jewilh War, written in He¬ 
brew, which the rabbins choole to pafs as a work of the 
true Jofephus, or of a contemporary author, but which 
betrays a much later origin by its many anachronifins. 
It appears to have been compiled out of the Rufiman ver- 
fion of Jofephus, and to have been fet up in oppofition to 
that hiftorian, who is, on many accounts, difapproved by 
the modern Jews, and whofe narrative is frequently con¬ 
tradicted in the work of Ben Gorion. Several editions 
have been given of this work, the fecond of which, at Ba- 
fil (1541), has a Latin tranflation by Munfter, but is 
mutilated. Gagnier gave a complete Latin tranflation in 
1706, 4to. Oxford ; and there is a Hebrew and Latin edi¬ 
tion of Gotha, 1707, 4to. Voflii Hijl. Grac. 
Rabbi Than, who publiffied the hiftory of this fpurious 
Jofephus, affirms, “ that all words of this writer are truth 
and juftice; that there is not one falfehood in his writings; 
that he comes nearer to the old prophets than any writer 
that has appeared; that the hand of the Lord refted upon 
him, while he compofed his work; and that his words 
may be faid almoft to be the words of a God incarnate.” 
A few fpecimens of this kind of truth we fhall prefent to 
the reader. Ben Gorion fays of himfelf, that he was bom 
134 years after the Csefareat, which the Greeks call Im- 
periolo, was inftituted among the Romans; and that he 
was one-and-fifty years old when Julius Casfar came into 
the world ; he fays he had feen Julius Casfar, who was 
the firft king called by the Latins Imperius, or the firft 
Casfar who re-fettled the Ctelareat a third time among 
the Romans. He fays, iikewife, that he was contempo¬ 
rary with Jefus the fon of Sirach, a prince among the 
Jews. We need fcarcely alk how all this chronology is 
to be reconciled ? Here we have a man contemporary 
with Jefus the fon of Sirach, fifty-one years old at the 
birth of Julius Ctefar, and born 134 years after the efta- 
blilliment of the Roman empire! He tells us moreover, 
that his father, Gorion, furvived the taking of Jerufalem; 
for he departed out of the city when Titus had made him¬ 
felf mafter of it. Gorion therefore tnuft have been at 
leaft 240 years old. He foretold what was to befall the 
great city of Rome, till its total deftruCtion. Neverthe- 
lefs he did not fet up for a-prophet; but “ reported what 
he had learned from the fages who had lived with the 
prophets,” who are true and fincere. He does not tell 
us who thefe fages were whom he had feen, and who lived 
with the prophets; and it muft be noted befides, that there 
is no finall interval between the time of the old Hebrew 
prophets to that of Julius Casfar. We may therefore con¬ 
clude, with Calmet, that this Jofephus did not live till 
the eleventh century, when he might very well defcribe 
the revolutions of the city of Rome, and give an ac¬ 
count of what had been tranfacled many years before. 
As for his famous Hiftory, no one had any knowledge of 
it till the twelfth century, no ancient author having taken 
notice of it. Solomon Jarchi, a French Jew, who lived 
about the year 1144, is tire firft that fpoke exprefsly of it. 
After him we find it cited by Aben Ezra, Abraham Ben 
Dior, and David Kimchi, who lived about this time. 
This very ancient work, as it is called, often Ipeaks of 
Brittany, mentions Normandy, the Loire, Amboife, Chi 
1 rion s 
