A dangerous book

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 21 December 2005 12:47:44

Daughter has been reading SnapShots this quarter, with a little help from her parents. Last night's reading was, shall we say, challenging. Unfortunately, I can't (from here) quote from either the translation we were using (but it is intended for children), or the notes themselves, but here is the passage:

Matthew 1:19-21 (The Message):

Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God's angel spoke in the dream: "Joseph, son of David, don't hesitate to get married. Mary's pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God's Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus--"God saves'--because he will save his people from their sins."

In the translation we were reading, it was written that Joseph was intending to divorce Mary. So there ensued a discussion about what divorce means, and why people might want to divorce, and whether, perhaps, there may be children in daughter's class whose parents were divorced (son, who was listening in, didn't think that anyone in his class fell into this category). Then we had to consider just why Joseph might have been a little upset to learn that his bride-to-be was pregnant. I briefly explained that in order for a woman to have a baby, she first had to 'have sex' with a man, and since Joseph hadn't yet 'had sex' with Mary, he would have assumed that she had 'had sex' with another man.

Daughter commented later that it was strange that of all the enactments of the Nativity she'd seen, none showed the actual process of Jesus being born.

Note, by the way: daughter is 8, and son is 5.