Joseph was a carpenter who had once lived in Nazareth. Nathanael, one of the disciples, had once described that city this way: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Though Nazareth truly was not a "good land," at least it was not like Sodom, where before God decided to destroy it, He sent angels to tell the righteous man Abraham to leave the city with his family.
Rome's Twelve Tables contained this record: Deformed infants were to be killed immediately.
If a father created you, he had the right to destroy you.
Joseph was only Jesus's adoptive father. Everyone in the city knew that Maria had been pregnant when she married him.
There was little description of Joseph in the Bible, apart from the fact that he had originally intended to quietly break off the engagement.
Or rather, an adoptive father could not discipline his adopted son as a father with paternal authority could. If the mother had parental authority, she could also discipline a disobedient child. Without it, she could not beat or scold him either. They could only provide the child with food and shelter.
In ancient Rome, fathers theoretically kept their children by their side, teaching them by hand about human relations, handling public affairs, and so on. But if the father was busy feasting and one day his son was suddenly brought before him, he might not recognize who that youth was at first.
Now the child was nearly an adult and faced a career choice: joining the army or entering the Senate of the Directory. That required his father's consent.
Guardians could only offer the child advice, even if they were dissatisfied with his choice.
For the protection of minors, students above third year needed their guardians' signatures to visit Hogsmeade, "consenting" to the minor