The carpenter of Nazareth, betrothed and then married to Mary, and Jesus' legal (not biological) father — a 'son of David' (Matthew 1:20), which is how the royal line passes to Jesus by adoption when Joseph NAMES the child (1:25). ⚠ He never speaks a single word in any Gospel; he is drawn entirely in obedient acts, and always in a dream: an angel tells him to take Mary (1:20), to flee to Egypt (2:13), to return (2:19), and where to settle (2:22) — a second Joseph the dreamer, as the first Joseph of Genesis was led by dreams into and out of Egypt. Matthew's infancy narrative is told from HIS side (the annunciation comes to him), where Luke's is told from Mary's. He is presumed to have died before the ministry, since he vanishes from the record after the boy Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2), and Jesus on the cross entrusts Mary to another. This entry is kept distinct from the patriarch Joseph, with whom he shares only a name.