| Matthew 1:16
| And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
| The husband of Mary. The evangelist gives us rather the pedigree of St. Joseph, than that of the blessed Virgin, to conform to the custom of the Hebrews, who in their genealogies took no notice of women: but as they near akin, the pedigree of the one sheweth that of the other. (Challoner) --- Joseph the husband of Mary.{ Ver. 16. Joseph virum Mariae, ton andra Marias. And Ver. 19, vir ejus, aner autes. But Ver. 18, mnesteutheises, desponsata, mnesteuomai, is not properly the same as gamein.|} So he is again called, ver. 19: but in ver. 18, we read, when Mary his mother was espoused to Joseph. These different expressions of being husband, and being espoused, have occasioned different interpretations. Some think that Joseph and the blessed Virgin were truly married at the time of Christ's conception: others, that they were only then espoused, or engaged by a promise to marry afterwards. St. Jerome says, when you hear the name of husband, do not from thence imagine them to be married, but remember the custom of the Scriptures, according to which, they who are espoused only, are called husbands and wives. (Witham) --- That Jesus, who is called Christ, was of the seed of David, is also evident, as St. Augustine affirms from various texts of the holy Scriptures, as in the epistle to the Romans, where St. Paul, (chap. 1.) speaking of the Son of God, says, who was made to Him of the seed of David, according to the flesh. See also the promises made to David, 2 Kings 7.; Psalm 88.; Psalm 131. and spoken of Solomon, as a figure of Jesus Christ. (Estius)
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