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gabe44
10 hours ago
There is no way for us to know the financial means of Joseph and Mary. But inferences can be drawn if you look at Luke 2:24 and Leviticus 12:8. The former: 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” The latter: 8 But if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.

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Laocoon gabe44
8 hours ago edited
I'm not sure that's any indication of anything.

By the 1st century Judiasm was dying. The people living in Judea and Galilee were mainly doing the min and calling it all good. The Pharisees created elaborate ways of avoiding as many of the religious obligations as possible. Jesus repeatedly criticized Jewish leaders for this nasty little habit. Not suggesting that either Joseph or Mary were as hypocritical as the Pharisees...but it's quite likely that they were doing the customary sacrifices that were found to be generally acceptable in their day. Luke actually says that when he refers to them "keeping what is said in the Law of the Lord". By the 1st century the whole doves/pigeons thing was pretty much the customary sacrifice and was in keeping with the conventional interpretation of the Leviticus passage.

As Streiff said...the term used for Joseph's profession is a Tekton. That term refers to a skilled craftsman..often in wood or stone. We get our word Architect from combining Archi (master, supervisor, leader, high skilled) and Tekton. During the youth of Jesus the Herodians were building Sepphoris only a short commute (6 kilometers) from Nazareth. They were snapping up all of the skilled workers they could lay their hands on and paying cash wages. Josephus records the scarcity of skilled craftsmen for the various projects the Herodians were working on. It was so bad that they were training Levite priests to be craftsmen to work on the more problamatic parts of Herod's Temple.

Can't prove it, but it's likely that a trained and skilled Tekton in Nazareth would be making a pretty good living from the work going on at Sepphoris. There weren't any US prevailing wage laws in 1st century Judea/Galilee...but from what we know about their building projects...the Herodians were quite willing to pay a premium to get quality work. We see that in Masada, in Caesarea, and in the remains of Sepphoris. And due to the craftsmen being absorbed in the near-by government bullding project at Sepphoris...prices for work on private sector projects would likely have risen as well. It was a good time to be a Tekton.