I think #2 is so common because it is so natural. I was there for a long time, myself. But the more I realized that Joseph was confirmed in grace as well, and it is fitting that he would have upheld Mary and acted in humility, the more I shifted to #3.
I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it also puts me firmly in the camp of the younger Joseph tradition as well...
I will add I want #3 to be true too. It reminds me in Brideshead Revisited when Sebastian was talking about wanting the Nativity to be true & Charles was protesting that wasn’t reasonably. I can’t remember the dialogue anymore, I should reread it, but Sebastian was more or less “yeah, but it is…”
I’ve been #2, but that’s likely because that would be my own reaction “Um, what!?”
I have heard good, even biblical, arguments for #3.
I think #2 is so common because it is so natural. I was there for a long time, myself. But the more I realized that Joseph was confirmed in grace as well, and it is fitting that he would have upheld Mary and acted in humility, the more I shifted to #3.
I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it also puts me firmly in the camp of the younger Joseph tradition as well...
I will add I want #3 to be true too. It reminds me in Brideshead Revisited when Sebastian was talking about wanting the Nativity to be true & Charles was protesting that wasn’t reasonably. I can’t remember the dialogue anymore, I should reread it, but Sebastian was more or less “yeah, but it is…”
I whole heatedly agree. Praise be to God