Annotation V, Joseph in doubt (Matthew 1:20)

Annotation V

”Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife.” — Matthew 1:20

Joseph in doubt.

Hilary, in the first canon on Matthew, says: “But most depraved men presume from this [passage] that our Lord is recorded to have had several brothers — who, if they had been Mary’s, and not rather begotten of Joseph by a former marriage, [she] would never at the time of the Passion have been assigned as mother to John the Apostle.” See what we remark on these things below, at Annotation 64.