Then Joseph her husband
To whom she had been betrothed, and who was her husband, and she
his wife according to the Jewish law, ( Deuteronomy
22:23 Deuteronomy
22:24 ) though not yet come together,
being a just man,
observant of the law of God, particularly that which respected
adultery, being wholly good and chaste, like the Patriarch of the
same name; a character just the reverse of that which the Jews
give him, in their scandalous F2 book of the life of Jesus;
where, in the most malicious manner, they represent him as an
unchaste and an unrighteous person:
and not willing to make her a public example,
or to deliver her, i.e. to the civil magistrate, according to
Munster's Hebrew edition. The Greek word signifies to punish by
way of example to others, to deter them from sinning; and with
the ancients it F3 denoted the greatest and severest
punishment. Here it means either bringing her before the civil
magistrate, in order to her being punished according to the law
in ( Deuteronomy
22:23 Deuteronomy
22:24 ) which requires the person to be brought out to the
gate of the city and stoned with stones, which was making a
public example indeed; or divorcing her in a very public manner,
and thereby expose her to open shame and disgrace. To prevent
which, he being tender and compassionate, though strictly just
and good,
was minded to put her away privily:
he deliberately consulted and determined within himself to
dismiss her, or put her away by giving her a bill of divorce, in
a very private manner; which was sometimes done by putting it
into the woman's hand or bosom, see ( Deuteronomy
24:1 ) . In Munster's Hebrew Gospel it is rendered, "it was
in his heart to forsake her privately."
F2 Teldos Jesu, p. 3.
F3 A. Gellii Noct. Attic. l. 6. c. 14.