Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:... This is really out the limits of this forum, but because others have already taken backround information, I feel free...
Yes, it's background, and it's questionable whether we'll reach any consensus on the matter, but it's still the range of possible understandings of the Greek text as a Greek text that we're discussing, i.e. just
what is this evangelist trying to tell us about Joseph and his decision-making process? What does he mean by telling us that Joseph was δίκαιος and that he seeks to avoid publicity, whether in his deciding or in his ultimate action?
timothy_p_mcmahon wrote:]Is it also possible that δικαιος here has the sense that Joseph 'was a good egg' or 'was a decent guy' rather than that he was 'righteous' in a religious sense?
Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:Can you give an example from Jewish writings (or from anywhere else) where the word would have meant anything else than 'morally good'? And Jews didn't make any distinction between religously good or otherwise good person. Modern Christians may also confuse 'righteous' with 'justified'. Jews didn't have such distinction - morally good person was righteous in God's eyes.
Matthew's Greek phrasing provides us with not insignificant clues. The adjective δίκαιος is found 17x in Mt (1:19; 5:45; 9:13; 10:41; 13:17, 43, 49; 20:4; 23:28–29, 35; 25:37, 46; 27:19), the noun δικαιοσύνη 7x (3:15; 5:6, 10 -- twice in the Beatitudes --, 20; 6:1, 33; 21:32), and some of these are especially significant:
5:6 μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται.
5:10 μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.
5:20 Λέγω γὰρ ὑμῖν ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ὑμῶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη πλεῖον τῶν γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.
Thus, it would seem that the description of Joseph as δίκαιος marks him as more than an ordinary nice guy; rather he is, as Jesus in John's gospel says of Nathanael, ἀληθῶς Ἰσραηλίτης ἐν ᾧ δόλος οὐκ ἔστιν. Moreover, another of those Matthean dominical sayings about δικαιοσύνη is this:
Matt. 6:1 Προσέχετε [δὲ] τὴν δικαιοσύνην ὑμῶν μὴ ποιεῖν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρὸς τὸ θεαθῆναι αὐτοῖς
I think that these "background" factors concerning the δικαιοσύνη of Joseph do add some dimension to the use of the word λάθρᾳ in Mt 1:19.